Tourists in Johannesburg flock to Soweto

CAPE TOWN, South Africa - Major Ndaba dons his wild cat skin hat, stands by his "lucky charm" baboon skeleton and poses for the cameras of visitors intent on experiencing a South Africa far removed from game reserves and glistening beaches.

Ndaba's dark herbalist store, crammed with tree bark, animal horns and dozens of different powders and potions which he claims will treat everything from AIDS to infertility to flu, is a regular attraction on tours into the sprawling settlements set up by the old apartheid government which are still home to the majority of the population.

Township tourism, which has increased hugely in popularity since South Africa's multiracial elections of 1994, is now a multimillion dollar business.

Soweto, the heart of the anti-apartheid struggle, is Johannesburg's top tourist attraction, according to local authorities. Tours pass by Nelson Mandela's first home, that of his former wife Winnie Madikezela Mandela and Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu, as well as monuments to fallen heroes of the struggle against racism.

Even in Cape Town, which lacks the historical significance of Soweto, about 25 percent of foreign visitors trawl the dusty streets of the wind-swept Cape Flats.

Cape Town's tourist office estimates that nearly 320,000 foreign visitors went on a township tour last year; more than 80 percent of its 250 licensed tour operators offer such "cultural experiences."

There are no reliable figures on the economic impact of the tours, which cost on average $40 for a half-day visit and more for overnight stays in basic but clean houses or shacks.

City officials are anxious to encourage the tours, especially in the run-up to the 2010 World Cup. The benefits trickle down to the poorest of the poor, with schools and child-care centers funded by some of the profits and donations.

"Township tours spread the tourism dividend to the townships. We are simply never going to unlock the huge potential of this city and province if we confine it to Table Mountain and the Waterfront," said the incoming head of Cape Town Routes Unlimited, Sheryl Ozinsky, in a recent newspaper editorial.

But there have been some bad incidents. In November, a group of Germans was robbed by armed thugs as they visited a school in Langa, and a Dutch group was attacked outside a restaurant there. A year ago, German tour operators on a fact-finding visit were robbed in the Khayelitsha township.

The negative headlines caused a dip in visitors but - officials insist - are the exception.

Many tour operators also now stick to one easily policed route rather than taking visitors through densely populated shack areas, and have stopped evening visits to shebeens, or taverns, according to Khanyiso Kenqa of Cape Capers.

Kenqa, who lives in Langa, insists that visitors are safe because the community wants the tours, and thieves who prey on visitors risk the wrath of "street committees."

Many tours begin in the District Six Museum - testimony of the brutal clearance of nonwhites from their vibrant, downtown multiracial community and their removal, according to color, to the Cape Flats townships.

Apartheid authorities used the "pencil test" to determine the color. If it stuck in a person's hair, he or she was classed as black. If it slipped through, they were mixed race and had more privileges, Kenqa tells a stunned German couple.

In Langa, visitors are invariably invited to see a vibrant local school and one of the hostels that housed men who worked in Cape Town and were separated from their families in rural areas by apartheid's policies.

A dorm where three men once lived is currently home to an extended family of 10 - an indication of contemporary housing shortages.

But Pumeza Cakasajo said she didn't mind the invasion of strangers into the tiny room. "It's a good experience for people to come here and we know the community benefits at the end of the day," said the 26-year-old as others in her family continued watching the small crackly television as if oblivious to the intrusion.

By CLARE NULLIS