Cape Town is an oxymoronic city. At first glance, it looks majestic with beautiful beaches, an orgasmic nightlife, heritage sites, and a mountain that attracts thousands of tourists every year.
But after a long hard gaze, you realize that it is a Kafkaesque city. Its dark character shows itself through gangsterism and extreme levels of poverty. In 2018, the Mexican Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice ranked Cape Town 15th on the list of the world’s most violent cities, with a murder rate of 62.3 per 100,000 people. These are some of the facts that your travel agent and their whimsical brochures don’t tell you when you plan your holiday to Cape Town.
This essay was published in partnership with Xeno Zine in May 2019.
All images courtesy of Toka Hlongwane
