However, many residents of the historic Muslim district are increasingly fed up with tour buses snarling up traffic, people blocking streets as they pose for photos and the mushrooming of outsider-owned tourism businesses, as the spectre of gentrification looms over the central area.
My job really is to try to preserve the story of Bo-Kaap that underpins our identity and the identity, the national heritage, of this country,” said Zaki Harris, a tour guide from Bo-Kaap, who wants authorities to educate guides from outside the area about its history and to provide more opportunities for residents.
However, its designation as a Cape Malay-only area in 1957 meant other residents were evicted, most to the Cape Flats townships on the edge of the city.
After Table Mountain, the candy-coloured houses of Bo-Kaap have become one of Cape Town’s most iconic images, a key stop in any tourist’s visit to the South African city and a must-have for Instagram feeds.
Bo-Kaap: the candy-coloured corner of Cape Town facing tourism v heritage dilemma Some locals in picturesque district of Bo-Kaap are fed up with influx of visitors, and worry about impact of gentrification.
