The concern of low visitor numbers is endemic to the Northern Cape. While the challenges of Wildebeest Kuil are multi-fold, three significant reasons can be identified as to why potential visitors, perhaps on their way to or from the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park further north-west, do not stop at Wildebeest Kuil. These include: a possible sense of wariness or fear of the surrounding settlements due to perceptions of crime and risk; an aversion to the rubbish- littered surrounds; and a lack of signage.
Crime and perceptions of risk
While South Africa has capitalised on an image of ‘exotic Africa’ it must contend with fear- inducing remnants of the Dark Continent manifest today as crime, poverty, disease and instability. Political uprisings and neighbouring conflicts have spilled over into South Africa’s borders and the country itself struggles with growing political unrest and economic conflicts. South Africa’s proximity to countries in conflict and its own moments of unrest increase the risk factor and the perception of risk in the eyes of both the international and domestic tourist (Cornelissen, 2005). Certainly, political tensions, Western foreign policy and media partiality have added credence to the iniquitous reputation. Crime within the country and crimes against tourists are often highly publicised and South Africa is not alone in suffering from skewed perceptions of public safety that emanate from such reports. Indeed,
“crime in significant international tourism destinations can get extensive coverage by the news industries worldwide” (Allen & Brennan, 2004:155); and tourism “as a discretionary activity is incredibly vulnerable to crime, violence and political instability” (Richter 1984, cited in Allen & Brennan, 2004:156).
South Africa has one of the highest homicide rates in Africa and the world (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime study cited in Institute for Security Studies (ISS) Factsheet, 2012). There is thus empirical evidence to support tourists’ perceptions of risk. While official crime statistics of 2011/12 show a decrease in overall crime rates in the country, and that perceptions of sections of the population correlate with this decrease (ibid), the news media
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showcase growing trends of violence and unrest in many sectors of the country. Perceptions of crime, risk and the personal need for safety are three interrelated elements which work directly on the tourism industry. Judgements of a place, regardless of first-hand experience, are intricately woven into our ideological frameworks—the significance of which should not be underestimated. Experience of place is filtered through a complex system of engagements, attitudes and estimations, including travel books, novels, film and other media, and accounts of others who may or may not have visited those places, (Cornelissen, 2005).
There are two roads from Kimberley to Wildebeest Kuil. The first is via the R31; whereby road users must pass a prison, the city’s landfill site, household rubbish littered on the outskirts of the Galeshewe Township85 and a military shooting range. The second road runs through Galeshewe. Driving on the R31 to Platfontein on a research trip, I asked a fellow researcher if he felt safe in the settlement. He affirmed that he did. In the ensuing discussion we concluded that the ‘protection’ of our status as researchers, our links with SASI Platfontein, community leaders, and others in the community were factors influencing this sense of safety. Were we to visit the settlement as domestic tourists we would perhaps not feel the same sense of security afforded to us as researchers. My colleague went on to describe the settlement in his own home town; he believed that if he entered it he would be in danger of losing his life. I speculated whether domestic tourists might feel the same way about Platfontein and Galeshewe (Fieldnotes, June 2011). Thereafter, longstanding Kimberley tour guide, Veronica Bruce, noted that locals are hesitant to visit Wildebeest Kuil because it is too isolated (Interview, September 2012). After the attempted hijacking I experienced while driving in Platfontein, I too became more conscious about safety when visiting Platfontein and Wildebeest Kuil.
The attempted hijacking may have been an unusual incident in the area; however, the fact that it took place demonstrates the possibility of its reoccurrence. When asked if Wildebeest Kuil considered crime (in the area/region) in its development strategy, Morris replied that crime was “not a specific consideration beyond addressing basic security issues (locking up, burglar alarm, etc.)” (Email, 9 April 2013). The young attacker was adamant that I was a local government official (which perhaps translated into my being wealthy). Attempts to clarify
85 Galeshewe, the largest township in Kimberley, has a township tour route. Tour guide Veronica Bruce frequents the place with international tourists (Interview, September 2012).
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that I was indeed a student were not accepted. He believed the car I drove was a government vehicle and he did not understand when I disclosed that it was a rental. Later I wondered if he would have attempted the crime had he believed I was a tourist. Would I have been left unharmed or considered an easy target? In retrospect, I realise that taking this line of thought, I had fallen into viewing the tourist as protected in some mystical way by the act of touring.
The encounter I had with a Platfontein woman who would not allow me to take a photograph of a printed cloth in her yard (cf. Chapter Two) disrupts this notion as does the comment of a community leader that, once built, the settlement at Platfontein should have been fully walled (cf. Chapter Four). Such examples call attention to the question of whether this community is ready and/or willing to play host to tourists.
On the other hand, I have encountered many friendly people in Platfontein who stare only in a curious way and who, once greeted, kindly reciprocate. Further, I have never been refused an interview and community leaders have been willing to assist in my research. Nevertheless, the settlement remains on the geographical periphery and is equally on the periphery of cultural systems of space (Shields, 1991). Such a place may attain a marginal status through remote and isolated geographic locations, polarisation to the cultural centre, being the site of illicit or contemptuous activities, or all of the above. The stigma of marginality “becomes indistinguishable from any basic empirical identity” these places may once have had (1991:3). A dual sense of fascination and revulsion is evoked. The social Other who resides within the marginal space is both “despised and reviled in the official discourse of dominant culture and central power while at the same time being constitutive of the imaginary and emotional repertoires of that dominant culture” (1991:5). The marginal space is the antithesis of urban civilisation, constituted within society’s simplified “binaryism of high and low”
culture (Stallybrass & White 1986, cited in Shields, 1991:4).
As noted above, there is a link, either functional or perceived, between marginal places and socially marginal activities. The reputation of these places is socially maintained. Since tourism is inherently political, it stands to reason that “it is political instability which drives off tourists and foreign investment in the tourism industry” (Hall, 1994:83–84). Perceptions of political instability, crime and violence are equally harmful to the industry. When tourists are driven away consequential effects become manifest in the local economy, the most
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prominent of which include a decline of employment opportunities and the loss of jobs as has occurred at Wildebeest Kuil.
Unclean surroundings
Imagery of household waste and sewage-filled trenches is often associated with informal settlements and similar places on the margin lacking in resources and riddled with problems including crime and violence. Over time these themes become intricately woven such that a filthy place is perceived as dangerous. The R31 heading out of Kimberley to Wildebeest Kuil is littered with rubbish from the city’s landfill and informal rubbish heaps from the Galeshewe Township. On occasion, after meeting their end while crossing the busy road (possibly in search of food) dogs from the Galeshewe settlement are left to decompose on the side of the road. In the act of tourism, “[wh]en we ‘go away’”, says John Urry, “we look at the environment with interest and curiosity”; it is this environment that “speaks to us in ways we appreciate, or at least we anticipate that it will do so” (1990:1). After sighting the crowded settlement, decaying carcasses, rubbish and children rummaging through it on the stretch of road it is not likely families will choose to stop at Wildebeest Kuil for tourism or relaxation purposes. The 2012 landscaping project (cf. Chapter Four), which included facilities for braaing (barbequing) and picnicking, is thus defeated by these surrounds.
Morris described an occasion in which he transported a pair of Australian tourists (who had come specifically to see the site) to Wildebeest Kuil (Personal communication, 18 June 2011). One of the tourists commented that the area along the R31 was the filthiest he had ever seen. Thereafter the municipality was urged to erect sand barriers in order to obstruct the view of the landfill and prevent flying debris from spilling onto the road. The barriers have proven ineffective. The landfill is situated too close to the city and is poorly managed. On gusty days refuse is blown into town and onto surrounding roads. In an interview regarding the problem of litter strewn along the R31 the Sol Plaatje Chief of Cleansing, T.J.
Kwhweshiwe, noted that the municipality was working together with the national roads agency concerning this problem (Interview, September 2012). Some of the litter is due to people from the surrounding settlements using open fields as informal dumpsites while the bulk of the litter is due to a lack of proper fencing and bridges within the landfill that would otherwise work to contain the refuse (ibid).
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Because of a shortage of funds the municipality has not been able to buy new equipment. The main landfill compactor has been out of order for some time. To combat this, smaller vehicles, such as bulldozers, have been used. There is also a shortage of refuse trucks; of the approximately thirty refuse trucks, only eight are running (Anonymous municipal workers,86 personal communication, 27 September 2012). A private contractor from KwaZulu-Natal was hired by the municipality to provide refuse trucks. The landfill has been in use since before 1981; the municipality is now planning to fix the many problems of the site. In answer to the question of why this was such a lengthy process, Kwhweshiwe said that he had inherited these problems from those who had gone before him (Interview, September 2012). Residents of Kimberley complain that refuse collection is slow in the residential areas and that the city centre is frequently plagued with litter (Fieldnotes, September 2012). To this latter complaint, Kwhweshiwe responded that cleaning of the city centre takes place in the morning and that it is often sullied within the course of the day (Interview, September 2012).
The normalisation of filth in the Platfontein settlement—and certainly in the country as a whole—may be attested to inherited distortions arising from historic laws which demarcated social and geographic spaces for different race groups based on invidious apartheid segregationist policies (cf. Cronin, 2012). Apartheid and 500 years of colonisation before that forced non-white groups of people to live in states of squalor and filth. On the heels of this came South Africa’s “mining-based, industrial revolution in the last quarter of the 19th century” (Cronin, 2012:np). The large-scale, oligopolistic mining sector “once propelled spectacular growth [but] has shaped and distorted South Africa’s economy and our broader social, political and spatial realities ever since” (ibid). Settlements across the country still lack basic services and amenities. These spaces are fertile grounds for “problems of unemployment, overcrowding in schools and clinics, insufficient access to water and electricity, sewage and waste overflowing on the streets and HIV and Aids” (Mbongwa, 2005:np). Interestingly, the above concerns were voiced by residents of the Alexandra township, North of Johannesburg—indicative of the fact that Platfontein shares the problems of many other peri-urban settlements across the country.
86 This group of municipal workers frequents the landfill site and drives the refuse trucks so are best able to explain the state of equipment.
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Tourism is dependent on the smooth working of other sectors; unclean surrounds and lack of service delivery impede growth of the industry. Tourists desire a quality experience from start to finish; having to drive past decaying animal carcasses and rubbish strewn along the roadside may certainly colour the visitor’s experience of Wildebeest Kuil. The way in which we experience a place is “conditioned by the mediation and intervention of conceptual systems, normative conditioning and socialisation” (Shields, 1991:14). Visitors that have had a less than desirable experience of a place will often propagate negative attitudes and influence potential visitors accordingly. Perceptions of a place as unkempt and unsafe are thus upheld and further entrenched, possibly hampering further tourism to the site/area.
Site identification, signage and marketing
There are two road signs on the R31 to alert visitors to the presence of the tourism centre; due to legal restrictions (owing to the fact that Wildebeest Kuil is situated on a major regional road outside the city) these two signs are the maximum allowable, and are situated not more than 15 meters on either side of the turn-off onto the site grounds. The signage was approved once the site was gazetted as a provincial heritage site; prior to which “the roads authority refused to allow any signage whatsoever” (Morris, email, 9 April 2013). While results of the Wildebeest Kuil visitor questionnaire show that 10 percent of visitors said they were drawn to the site by signage (Morris et al. 2009); in the case of many incidental, causal or serendipitous cultural tourists, the positioning of these signs may not allow sufficient time between reading, processing, and making a decision to stop at the centre. Visitor comments in the questionnaire note the improvement of signage as a possible attraction to road users
“travelling along the R31 to or from Barkley West, Kuruman or Upington” (2009:23).
The development of maps and direction signs could be incorporated into this region as part of a greater heritage tourism route; the rich array of cultural sites could be integrated into a linked route/trail. A site of layered histories reaching back into the Stone Age, Wildebeest Kuil is situated on the peri-urban outskirts of a major city and is fairly easy to access. The
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non-profit organisation, Open Africa,87 has spearheaded a route specifically concentrated on the !Xun, Khwe and ≠Khomani San of the Northern Cape:
Footprints of the San is an eco-tourism route through the Northern Cape. It traces the migrations of early San tribes through the province offering guests the unique experience of lodging in traditional huts, eating ‘veld’ food, and learning the sacred art of tracking, guests will also be entertained by San story telling [sic], and dancing and learn [sic] the skill of hunting with bow and arrow. (SASI brochure, nd)
Francois Viljoen of Open Africa noted in an interview that since its launch in 2008 Footprints had achieved “mixed success” (Interview, June 2011). He expressed further that “routes with strong leadership are the ones that flourish” and that a large concern with Footprints was “in- fighting” (ibid). He noted, “this route has got the right ingredients [but] still has some way to go” (ibid). The unique context of the heritage trail lies in the inclusion of both urban and rural areas, sometimes combined in a single trail (Timothy & Boyd, 2003). While most large-scale trails “focus on pilgrimage and/or religious history, migration and trade routes, connected urban centres, or observation of the natural heritage of the region” small-scale trails, specifically local ones, are theme driven, “including industrial, cultural and literary heritage, to name a few” (Timothy & Boyd, 2003:52). In June 2011 Viljoen facilitated a workshop at Wildebeest Kuil (which he described as a ‘refresher course’) attended by community leadership and constituents of SASI (also members of the community). As part of the workshop a vision for the Footprints route was created. The vision stipulated that Footprints was to “promoted and protect San culture, heritage and traditions by providing an authentic San tourism experience to the entire world” (Viljoen, interview, June 2011).
Two cultural villages erected at Platfontein (cf. Chapter Four) are marketed on the Open Africa website and bookings can be made through the website. At the time of writing no tourists to Platfontein had made use of this route. Wildebeest Kuil does not feature on the web page dedicated to the Footprints route; a small mention is made to the site in a section offering further websites for additional browsing. According to the Wildebeest Kuil visitor’s questionnaire, approximately 45 percent of visitors learned about the site before arriving in
87 With 62 travel routes across six countries and 2161 participating businesses, Open Africa is “a non-profit organisation that uses tourism as an economic platform to create and sustain jobs for rural communities throughout Southern Africa” (openafrica.org). Open Africa had be invited by SASI to assist in the creation of a San route tourism trail.