01 March 2018
City Sightseeing South Africa acknowledges that a business depends on people, and the upliftment of its surrounding communities. We therefore aim to make a positive contribution to disadvantaged communities in Cape Town and Johannesburg through donations and enterprise development within the tourism industry.
Spend the day discovering Johannesburg’s most vibrant township, Soweto, with SoWeToo. Sightseeing in Johannesburg, through our partnership with local entrepreneur Kgomotso Pooe, who started SoWeToo, and the establishment of the Red City Tour and Soweto Combo, we’ve helped create jobs. SoWeToo is now a thriving South African business that offers walking and bicycle tours in Soweto, and works hand in hand with various restaurants in the township.
A wonderful offshoot from the success of our Soweto add-on tour was the launch of a Cape Town-based township tour, LaGuGu, which visits the townships of Langa and Gugulethu. The LaGuGu tour is another partnership initiative with the same entrepreneurial organisation that runs the Soweto tours.
When people hop on and off City Sightseeing’s red open-top buses in Johannesburg and Cape Town, they not only buy an amazing day out in two of Africa’s most fabulous cities, but they also contribute to the care of disadvantaged and marginalised children in Cape Town’s Hout Bay area.
A portion of all ticket sales goes to the IKhaya Le Themba aftercare facility for primary school children in the Imizamo Yethu informal settlement of Hout Bay.
Over the past few years, City Sightseeing’s contributions have completely refurbished one of the facility’s classrooms, and we subsidise a teacher’s salary every month.
“It is an honour for us to help the people of Hout Bay in this way,” says Claus Tworeck, CEO of City Sightseeing South Africa. “Of course, this assistance would be impossible without the support of the people of Cape Town and Johannesburg, and the thousands of tourists from lands afar who have taken a sightseeing trip on our buses. It’s all thanks to them that we are able to make a difference in the lives of these youngsters and their teachers.”
IKhaya Le Themba means "Home of Hope" in Zulu. It’s an NGO that was started in 2004 by Liesl Eliastam from Kenilworth Vineyard Church. It has stood as a beacon of hope for hundreds of children since its founding, and today offers after-school care to more than 90 vulnerable and orphaned youngsters in the area. This care includes visiting their homes and giving support to their families and primary caregivers.
The City Sightseeing Mini Peninsula Tour offers a guided Imizamo Yethu walking tour that gives people a chance to interact with IKhaya Le Themba children and their teachers.
Every time you buy a ticket and hop on a City Sightseeing tour, you are assisting one of our community partners.
If you’d like to do more, be sure to visit IKhaya Le Themba in Cape Town by going on our guided Township Walking Tour.
You can also donate to this initiative directly. You can also support local entrepreneurs by hopping on either the Soweto Combo tour in Joburg or the LaGuGu township tour.
