6th February: Visiting a Township at Knysna

We wanted to get closer to understanding and if possible experiencing more of the life of black South Africans as our trip was largely going to be through "white South Africa", so we booked a township tour with a local agent.

Visits to the Knysna Township by an organised agent means that a proportion of your visit fee goes to support community ventures within the township itself.  Our tour organiser supports after school meal  provision for school children and a creche for the very young.

Our tour was a real eye opener.  The township has properties of all kinds, from shanty town huts of corrugated metal or wood to modern brick and tiled houses.  In many areas the oldest properties have been removed and the occupants now live in Mandella houses, government funded homes with basic minimum standards laid down by the Mandella government following the end of apartheid.  These have electricity, a plumbed water supply, indoor sanitation, a bathroom, two bedrooms and a living room.

As a former teacher I was particularly keen to visit a school and we were warmly welcomed in one of the large primary schools.  This was a modern building, where in classes of around forty-five teaching methods were reminiscent of the '40s and '50s - very formal.  However the school also had a large IT suite with over thirty workstations and a specialist teacher.

We were warmly welcomed wherever we went with each class singing their class song in each room we visited.  That on its own was fantastic.  The creche we visited clearly needed the support of the charity we had chosen to visit with.  I was the source of much amusement with the children using me as an obstacle course and laughing hysterically at their game!