Langa

Even today, many townships remain marked by the brutal inequalities of that system, by overcrowding, by under-investment, and by poverty, of course, even as, of course, they also sustain strong networks of family and communal life.

As our guide that morning had walked us through the township called Langa, past desiccated rats, one-room tin shacks, and a preschool whose, quote-unquote, "library corner" consisted of a dozen dilapidated books and a photograph of an actual library.

I would call what I witnessed that morning many things, but I would not call it touristy.

I can't stop thinking about Langa and Le Guin's Omelas, but thinking is such an impotent act in the face of harm because the real question of Omelas is not whether we are horrified by that child in the dungeon.

Of course we are.

Also, we all know that that metaphorical child in the dungeon exists.

Yes, I know that communities and residents themselves also have a responsibility and role to play in, to ensure that they live in a safer, a cleaner, and, and, uh, an environment.

But the City of Cape Town cannot boast to be the best run metro in South Africa if that so-called title is not experienced in your Langa, Delft, Bishop Lavis, across the Cape Flats.

It is an injustice.

And the current chapter on the current governing and ruling party in the City of Cape Town, yes, they've proven to South Africa that Cape Town can work, and yes, there is some better sound administration, financial systems that are in place.