During the World Cup the Direct Action Centre for Peace and Memory (DACPM) organises tours through Cape Town’s townships. “This is for us the perfect opportunity to combine the fun of the World Cup with the more serious history of the host country."

By Serginho Roosblad, Cape Town

The majority of tourists are confronted with townships as soon as their airplane enters the Cape Town airspace. From the air the shantytowns stretch as far as they eye can see. And the drive from the airport to town is not much different. The highway cuts right trough the townships. “Black people live on the left side, coloured people on the right,” says Thabo, the tour guide for the day. Coloured is the apartheid-term for people of mixed raced and is still in use today.

Socio-historical excursion
The tours are guided by former soldiers of the ANC’s military wing Umkhonto we Sizwe, (Spear of the Nation). They take tourists to the township for a socio-historical excursion. Not only do the visitors catch a glimpse of how millions of people live, but they also get an opportunity to watch the games with the locals.

The tour starts in town where Thabo explains that the foundations of apartheid were laid in Cape Town. “It is here where the British started to divide people along the colour line with the Native Urban Areas Act in 1923, years before the institutionalisation of apartheid in 1948.”

The first stop of the tour takes the group of five tourists to the place where it all started: District Six. But as soon as the group jumps into the van, the topic of conversation changes to football. “Who is going to win the World Cup?”, “Do you think the Dutch can beat the Brazilians?” and “When are we going to witness the magic of Lionel Messi?” The group carries on discussing the World Cup issues as the van drives to District Six and eventually to the townships.

Black sport
All five tourists came to South Africa to witness the World Cup. “But we cannot only have fun, we have to be serious as well,” says Donald, an Irish tourist. “This is for us the perfect opportunity to combine the fun of the World Cup with the more serious history of the host country.”

But it does not seem that Donald can stop himself from thinking about the World Cup. So he asks Thabo what the support for the World Cup is like in Pinelands, one of the richest areas in the city, which is predominantly white.

“Many white people do not watch football here. It is regarded as a black sport. But nowadays you see many young white people supporting Bafana Bafana,” Thabo explains.

Athlone
This is a different situation for the townships, located not far from Pinelands, only cut off by a highway and railway.

"Athlone could have been the site of the World Cup stadium in Cape Town, but because it is to far from the touristy town, they decided to build the stadium where it is now," says Thabo to the group when they stop at the site of the Trojan Horse Massacre Memorial.

This was erected to commemorate a brutal shooting of three young people during apartheid. The group starts a conversation with a young woman who sits next to the memorial. From apartheid and Nelson Mandela they eventually start talking about the potential stadium in Athlone.

“Since the World Cup started people are not as disappointed as they were before,” the young woman explains. “We have a Fan Park where you can watch the game or residents watch the game together at home. You can see that a lot of people feel that they are part of an important historical event for South Africa again, but this time in a positive way.”