Are Langa Township Tours Ethical? Honest 2024 Review

Before taking a tour of Langa Township, one of the biggest doubts I had was whether or not it was ethical.

I’ve unfortunately visited some places in the world which have felt like human zoos – where poverty is used as a tourist attraction, and I was worried Langa was going to be the same.

After reading some reviews and doing some proper research, I decided to book the tour and I’m so glad I did.

My girlfriend and I took a 3-hour tour of Langa in July 2024, and it is 3 hours we will never forget. It was eye-opening, moving and in my opinion, a must-do in Cape Town.

Are Langa Township Tours Ethical?

If you are like me, you might not have even heard the phrase “township” before coming to South Africa. What it essentially means, is an informal settlement/town outside a major city.

It’s the type of place people would insensitively describe as “shanty towns” or anything along those lines. People living in small shacks made out of metal scraps, although this isn’t actually the case after the first few streets you see from the outside.

Langa is the oldest township in South Africa, as it was established in 1927 – whereas most other townships came to be thanks to the Apartheid Government which displaced thousands of black people from their homes.

It’s just 15 minutes outside of Cape Town and it’s extraordinary (not in a good way) how different the living situations are in such a short distance.

As I said in the introduction, I was wondering whether it was ethical to take a Langa Township Tour, and this was something a lot of the reviews had touched on.

We booked a tour with a local guide called Chippa, who actually lives in Langa himself. One of the first things he brought up when picking us up from Cape Town was this topic – whether it was right to visit Langa or not.

The answer is yes. It is right to visit Langa.

There are a good few reasons for this, but the main one is based on the creation of jobs in Langa itself.

In short, people living in Langa typically work in Cape Town in low paying jobs like security, cleaners, etc. and earn 3000-4000 South African rand per month. They spend around 25% of this each month on transport to and from the city.

To put that into perspective, that’s earning $167-$223 a month and spending $42-$56 of that on transport.

By visiting Langa, you are helping create jobs in Langa, meaning people don’t need to travel, meaning they can make more money. You create jobs for tour guides, people selling souvenirs, restaurant owners, coffee shop workers and there are even some guest houses in Langa now too.

Other reasons that it is right to visit Langa include education – it was really eye-opening and put things into perspective for us.

Chippa (our tour guide) also mentioned how friendly the people in Langa are and it could not have been more true. Everyone will treat you so well and welcome you with open arms, quite literally – every single child we saw in the street always ran up to us and gave us a hug.

Chippa said this is because, in Langa, kids are taught to welcome everyone as if they are family because they are grateful for people visiting Langa.

One more point I will mention is photographs. Before visiting the township, I had no intention of taking any photos. I didn’t want to take photos of people’s houses and use it as a tourist attraction – as I said, I have visited places that felt like a human zoo before (notably in Thailand) and I wanted to stop this from feeling anything remotely similar.

But once we were on the tour, Chippa encouraged us to take photos, especially when visiting people’s homes. The reason for this is he said it is important to show the world how people in Langa live – he wanted us to share the photos on social media.

And that is the reason I am writing this blog post – to show the world how people in Langa live, to tell you that it is ethical as it really helps the township and to encourage anyone visiting Cape Town to take a tour of Langa because it is an experience never to be forgotten.

Best Langa Township Tour

We took a tour of Langa with Chippa, who runs the company Township Tours Imivuyo and I genuinely can’t recommend him enough.

He offers a few different tours and we opted for the walking tour of Langa. He also answers some questions about Langa on his website to help reassure you before booking.

From the minute he picked us up to the minute he dropped us off, we had an amazing time and we completely and wholeheartedly fell in love with Langa.

It’s such a beautiful community and every single person we met was so friendly – it was fascinating to hear people’s stories and show us their way of life.

Chippa took us to the Langa museum, some galleries and art shops, a local school, an orphanage and 4 or 5 different people’s houses. It was a really moving day, and while it was sad to see, I am incredibly grateful to everyone I met for giving me a glimpse into their everyday lives.

A key point to make is that Chippa does not run the tours to make you feel sorry for the people of Langa. He runs them to educate you.

Most people in Langa are actually very happy and an example he gave us is someone who was given a “proper” house by the government turned it down to stay in Langa amongst the shacks.

We met about 100 kids throughout the day and only once did one of them ask for money. Chippa took the child aside and explained that it is not in their culture to beg and ask for money and to instead be grateful that we are visiting Langa, which again reiterates the education factor.

That being said, we did give donations to everyone who welcomed us into their home, the school and the orphanage. There was no pressure to do this, but it felt like the right thing to do.

We also felt completely safe throughout the tour. I feel like most people visiting Cape Town would have a prejudice that the townships you see driving from the airport are dangerous, but this couldn’t be further from the truth.

Having a local show you around helps, but as the owner of the coffee shop told us, there is no one in the world who doesn’t look South African. No matter if you’re white, black, Asian or any other ethnicity, the diversity in South Africa’s population means no one will assume you aren’t from South Africa.

But back to the point of having Chippa, he was so grateful for us taking the tour, and we were so grateful for him showing us around. Having someone who was born in Langa and lives there to this day means the experience is really authentic and he told us things which most people wouldn’t be able to.

For example, a census in 2019 reported there were around 62,000 people living in Langa, whereas in reality, it’s closer to 110,000 people.

I have no doubt we will be back to Langa one day, whether it’s to volunteer or simply spend some more time there, who knows?

So if you are wondering whether you should take a Langa township tour while visiting Cape Town, you absolutely should. And the person you should take it with should be Chippa – you will fall in love with the place, just like we did.

Conclusion

Hopefully, this post has reassured you that visiting Langa as part of a township tour from Cape Town isn’t unethical, it isn’t poverty tourism, and instead, it actually helps the people of Langa.

Plus, you get to experience the strong sense of community in Langa and meet lots of extraordinary people who are trying to improve the situation in Langa – the woman running the orphanage of nearly 40 kids by herself is a true inspiration for example.

Remember, if you want to book a Langa township tour, get in touch with Chippa from TOWNSHIP TOURS IMIVUYO.