As the Singapore Airlines flight came in for a landing in Cape Town Monday morning and I watched the beautiful vistas of the Western Cape unfold before my eyes, the first question that popped into my head was, “Why has it taken me so long?”
I first came to South Africa when I was still living in Hong Kong, in the early throes of my romance with travel. I went everywhere in the country – Kimberley, Johannesburg, Sandton, Sabi Sands Game Reserve, Durban – but not Cape Town.
You can listen to this article here:
This audio was generated with an AI tool
When I told a local the first place I had visited in his country was the diamond town of Kimberley, he looked at me aghast and said, “You are strange. You’d rather go to a hole in the ground than this beautiful corner of paradise.”
He’s probably right – about me being strange. As a traveller, I’ve always veered towards the less obvious, to find hidden gems beyond the surface so places that are obviously beautiful are less intriguing to me than the more obscure ones.
Kimberley’s claim to fame was its 19th-century diamond mines, and one of them is literally called Big Hole, one of the biggest hand-dug mines in the world. I remember looking down into it and thinking of all the blood, sweat and tears that had been spilled into removing what is claimed to have been about 20 million tons of soil and rock from the area.
I remember the flight there even more vividly. I was on a single engine Cessna aircraft and that little thing just literally bopped up and down like a yo-yo as we flew over the vast expanse of the Northern Cape. That’s when I literally understood the meaning of “hot air rises” and for the first time in my life, I was airsick.
Well, that wasn’t the feeling this time. This time, it was of anticipation, of butterflies in my stomach. I had clearly saved the best for last was my thought as the obvious attractions of Cape Town rolled out before me like a magic carpet of colours – a rolling coastline of beaches and waves pounding the shores, against a big blue sky with little swirling puffs of white clouds.
More such breath-taking vistas unfolded on the drive to Llandudno, where I am staying. Everywhere you look, there’s mountain, ocean and nature and you get the attractions of Cape Town right away and why so many people have moved, and are moving here, for the sweet and better life this region has to offer. It’s a little bit Australia, California and Mediterranean rolled into one.
Gideon, our driver, told me he was from Zimbabwe and left his country 20 years ago to flee a broken economy. Today, he’s built a better life for his wife and two children. At one of the road junctions, I saw groups of local men and women standing by the roadside and I asked Gideon what they were waiting for.
“Work,” he said. “I was one of them when I first came. I’d stand for hours and wait for someone to come by and offer me work.” He did that for a month and fortunately, found a full-time gig afrer that.
I am reminded of the divides that exist in every place in the world, between the haves and the have-nots – but perhaps here it is starker. You have the most beautiful homes built into the coastline, all vying for the most magnificent views up for grabs, and then you have those who are struggling to find a home.
Gideon though is proof you can find a home if you work hard enough and seize the right opportunities.
Capetonians, as I am told the locals are called, are fiercely proud of their land and they have every reason to be. You can’t help it when you live in a space where you’re reminded everyday of the bounties of nature – that unmistakable Table Mountain that just sits there, strong and silent; the rolling clouds that swirl over it and every now and then, settle to rest on it, creating the effect of a “tablecloth”; and coastal drives that, with every twist and turn, reveal “wow” moments of bays and beaches.
I asked Kieno Kammies, local media celebrity and co-founder of Innovation City, what makes a Capetonian and he said, “Friendly, proud and,” he laughed, “we are not as laidback as what the Johannesburg people say we are.”
Indeed, there’s nothing laidback about the community that has gathered at Innovation City, where we are holding our first WiT Africa this Thursday and Friday. A heritage building that now houses Cape Town’s most vibrant and diverse community of startups, investors and corporates, it’s brimming with ideas and buzzing with passion.
The humans gathered in this space all want to make an impact – from startups working on digital identity to AI services for education and businesses, fintech and health care. It’s interesting how no matter where you are, you have humans innovating and using tech to solve similar issues.
I was most taken by a Swedish startup called BitProp, which transforms home owners into property entrepreneurs. Its model is thus: “The homeowner provides the land, and Bitprop delivers the investment and operating model to develop rental units behind the homeowner’s house. By sharing the rental income over a fixed period, the homeowner earns an immediate, sustainable revenue stream and Bitprop’s investors earn a return on their investment.”
It has proven its concept in various townships here and when I asked one of the staff if they planned to expand beyond this region, she said, “We hope to but there’s so much to do here first.”
Tomorrow, we will kick off our first WiT Africa Bootcamp to share stories of startups in travel, from Asia to Africa, and we hope to unearth some hidden gems in the not-so-obvious stories of entrepreneurs wanting to make an impact.
Meantime, I’ve had time to unearth some hidden gems beneath the obvious attractions of Cape Town. I saw my first Dassie. It looks like a cross between a cat, rat and guinea pig and its formal name is the “rock hyrax”. It hides in rocks and ventures out to eat grass and plants, and one morning, while I was on the treadmill, it looked at me quizzically like it was asking me, “What on earth are you doing in the gym when you’ve got all that nature outside?”
I replied, “Well, I went on my first coastal walk yesterday and came across a lot of naked men. One, as naked as the day he was born, but clearly bigger, was walking along the path and I didn’t know where to look that I nearly tripped and could have plunged to my death.”
Some charms are best left hidden.
