A guiding light of township tourism
Tourists are flocking to Wandu @ Ekasi, once a tiny RDP house
While five-star hotels roll out the red carpet for soccer dignitaries and stars, Mawande Kondlo is welcoming them into his bedroom - which has been converted into a township bar and restaurant.
Kondlo lives in the impoverished township of Khayalethu, which overlooks Knysna where the national soccer teams from Denmark and France will be staying at luxury resorts.
The 35-year-old tour guide's home, once a tiny cement block RDP house, but now proudly known as Wandu @ Ekasi, is fast becoming a tourist magnet on the Garden Route.
Among the guests to have dined under the cane ceiling are a Danish 2010 Fifa World Cup delegation, including the country's ambassador Dan Frederiksen, Steen Dahrup, manager of the Danish national team, and Knysna mayor Eleanore Bouw-Spies.
"Dahrup ate a beef roosterkoek (bread dough roasted over the coals) and asked for another one immediately. He will never forget it," said Kondlo.
The restaurant serves South African favourites such as liver, and umphokoqo namasi (pap and sour milk). Steel plates filled with nuts and Karoo biltong welcome guests.
Next week the father of two will take 20 Japanese tourists staying in George - where their national soccer team is based - on a tour to Oudtshoorn.
Although the restaurant, which is still his family home, is part of a township peppered with informal wooden homes and shacks, it commands a prime piece of real estate because of its location - on a hill-top with majestic views of the Knysna Heads.
Kondlo last year hosted an "intimate wedding" for a German couple who requested samp and beans and pap en vleis for their menu.
The business is thriving and Kondlo hopes to develop the property into a guest house. He said he was inundated with calls from clients who wanted to sleep in the township. Tourists eager to experience township life had even spent the night, sleeping in his son's bedroom, he said.
Kondlo guides tourists around the township, to taste umqombothi (traditional beer) and to consult a local sangoma. But, he said, only about 5% of his clients were locals.
"I'm doing this to try to show visitors that things are changing in the township. When they drive along the N2 all they see is shacks. They don't realise that there are people here and that there is development. Some even ask if it's safe to come in here," Kondlo said.
"Most importantly I want to preserve our culture. I want this township to develop its own brand and identity - just like Soweto."
Kondlo grew up in Oudtshoorn and moved to Knysna hoping to find a job there in 1995. He first worked as a petrol attendant and later a porter at one of the town's hotels.
"I developed a love for tourism while working as a porter ... and was later promoted to night receptionist. I used to admire tour guides and tour operators at the hotel. I asked them how I could get into the industry and they said I could study. I then quit my job and opened my own tour company, taking tourists to the Cango Caves in Oudtshoorn and the Crags in Plettenberg Bay.
"I used my small Toyota Tazz but when I got more clients I had to hire a bigger vehicle," he said.
Three teams playing in the World Cup will be based in the southern Cape.
Denmark is staying at the Simola Hotel & Country Club and Spa, while France is booked into the Pezula Hotel in Knysna.
Japan has elected to stay at the Fancourt Hotel & Country Club in George.
Bouw-Spies said that despite Knysna hosting two World Cup teams, it was not expecting many French and Danish visitors during the tournament.
"The teams told us not to expect thousands of their supporters to come to town. But we are not worried because the benefits will be post-2010 - as well as the exposure," she said.
- nombembepsundaytimes.co.za
- Get the latest updates on Go 2010 right here