Full Day Township and Robben Island Tour

It provides visitors with a snapshot of the turbulent history of South Africa and takes a look at how far the country has come since the brutal apartheid rule.

Our township and Robben Island tour is highly educational and invaluable. It exposes the severe conditions that communities endured and showcases the strength and bravery of the people who fought for freedom and equality during one of the worst periods in South Africa’s history.

Places you will visit

District Six

The historic township of District Six was once an impoverished but lively community of some 60 000 predominantly-Coloured people. It was originally established to house freed slaves, merchants and laborers who worked to build the city center.

In the late 1960s, the community’s lives were torn apart when they were forcibly removed to live in the desolate Cape Flats during the apartheid era. The rich cultural life with its narrow alleys and crowded apartments are now nothing more than a memory and the land stands vacant and neglected.

Langa

Langa was formally established in 1927 in terms of the Urban Area Act and is one of the oldest townships in South Africa. The original settlement developed in 1919 after the first wave of the Spanish Flu in the Cape highlighted the appalling conditions in which Black people were living rough near the highway.

Langa was the epicenter of resistance during the turbulent apartheid years and many key political events in the Cape played out from the impoverished township. Today, Langa has a thriving business center, warm and welcoming community and a rich cultural heritage. The name Langa means ‘sun’.

Joe Slovo informal settlement

Joe Slovo is an informal settlement within Langa township. It was named after former anti-Apartheid activist, Joe Slovo. It’s home to over 20 000 residents and is one of the largest informal settlements in South Africa.

Bonteheuwel

Bonteheuwel was the first Coloured, state-rental township established in Cape Town. It was set up to house people being forcibly removed from District 6 and Claremont under the Group Areas Act. The community were housed in simple ‘matchbox’ houses with a tin roof.

The township is located in the Cape Flats which is a barren, sand-blown area located just inland of the coastline. Bonteheuwel has been upgraded since the fall of the apartheid regime but it remains a very poor community that’s bursting at the seams. Many of its residents still live in shacks made of corrugated iron and wood.

Gugulethu

Gugulethu is a vast township that’s home to a predominantly Black community. It was established in the 1960s to ease the overcrowding in Langa and Blacks who were forcibly removed from Windermere. The latter was re-classified a Coloured area. At the time, Black residents were not allowed to live in the city of Cape Town under apartheid ruling.

Gugulethu is a contraction of ‘igugu lethu’ which is the Xhosa word for ‘our pride’. It’s nicknamed ‘Gugs’ by the locals. Today, Gugulethu is still a deeply impoverished township but it’s community is lively, warm and welcoming.

Robben Island

Robben Island is a South African National Heritage Site and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The living museum serves as a reminder of the brutality, hostility, prejudice and injustices of the apartheid system that existed in South Africa in the 20th century, from 1948 until the early 1990s. It was famously the home of the great Nelson Mandela and fellow struggle veterans who were incarcerated on the island for crimes against the state.