On January 4, 2016, our group took a bus tour around the city of Cape Town. While on the “On and Off” bus route, we were shown various different provinces–from downtown to Clifton. As we traveled through the Western Cape, the landscape changed with each passing mile, exposing social and economic inequality that is harming the progress of the country. Crammed between spacious homes with green lawns are tin roof shanty towns that house a majority black population that have moved to the area in search of employment. However, many do not receive a job and live in immense poverty that creates an extremely high crime rate the negatively impacts the people’s growth. Inversely, Clifton houses apartments and mansions of movie stars, high level businessmen and wealthy individuals visiting the country. Parked on the roads are BMWs and Mazzeratis and the unemployment rate is extremely low. Through this tour, it became very evident of the extreme disparity or income and education. Ultimately, to create change, money needs to flow to the more poor areas in order to bring prosperity to the area.
