On our township tour, we met a lot of people with smiles on their face---pretty surprising as they lived in squalor. Most are unemployed. And stuck in horrific and cruel conditions. Set up by the ruling white minority government many decades ago. South Africa's post-apatheid challenge is massive: 35% unemployement, a 20% HIV infection rate and significant crime. But this little boy, like many of the kids we met in our tour, was friendly, engaging and seemed glad to have tourists visiting his "neighborhood." While many of the townships set up in the fifties, sixties and seventies begun with basic housing (concrete apartment blocks), the population quickly outstripped supply and many families built wooden shacks with tin roofs, minus electicity or water. So for miles and miles, all the eye can see are these little shacks built on top of each other. These townships are surrounded by fences with razor wire and are bordered by freeways. Millions upon millions of people live in the townships that populate the Cape Flats in this condition. And in post-apartheid South Africa, these townships are growing. With high unemployment, folks remain in townships, having families. For many, it's the only life they know. And while the governmement is moving families into more modern apartments, it's a slow, VERY SLOW, massive process. It will be decades, if ever, before these people are re-absorbed into the "white," western standard of living. I have hope, as they do too. In fact many who spoke to us wanted us to know that they don't want our pity, we shouldn't look at them as poor, but rather this is simply their life at the moment. Some had started small businesses in the townships, like salons, butchers, crafts sellers, and even a B&B. Seeing this side of South Africa, the legacy of apartheid, took some of the sheen of the visit. However, the current black ruling government's committment to reconcilliation and redevelopment seems genuine. And promising.
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