Terrific chase sequence through Langa Township's tin-shack ghetto - NEW MOVIE: Safe House

Movie Review: Safe House

Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds deliver thrills in their new spy thriller

by Jenny Peters, AARP

Photo Courtesy Universal Pictures

Oscar winner Denzel Washington stars as a legendary CIA agent gone rogue in Daniel Espinosa's <i>Safe House</i>.

  
Director: Daniel Espinosa.
Rated: R. Running Time: 115 mins.
Stars: Denzel Washington, Ryan Reynolds.

Have you seen Safe House? What did you think? Agree with our review? Comment on the article or take your opinion to our Movies for Grownups message boards.

If nonstop car chases, bloody shootouts and aggressive hand-to-hand combat — think of the Bourne film franchise and you're on the right track — are your idea of a rollicking two hours at the movies, then Safe House is the flick for you. For this complicated tale of a rogue CIA agent’s capture in Cape Town starts off with a bang and never lets up.

Sign up for AARP's Travel Newsletter.

Denzel Washington is Tobin Frost, the legendary U.S. government operative who jumped ship 10 years before and began selling secrets to the highest bidder. He’s in South Africa to make a big score when all hell breaks loose. His only choice to survive is to head into the American embassy, where he is immediately arrested and taken to Cape Town’s secret CIA safe house for protection, to be held there momentarily before being returned to U.S. soil to face prosecution.

There he meets Matt Weston (Ryan Reynolds), a low-level newbie agent who's been waiting for his first safe-house guest for over a year, and has been bored out of his mind for months. Needless to say, all that changes the moment Frost enters his life, as he is brought to the house by a cadre of crack agents — who have somehow been followed there by a ruthless band of machine-gun wielding killers, who are out to end Frost’s life at all costs.

As the body count mounts, the blood flows freely and the mystery deepens, Weston and Frost escape the safe house and go on the run, bounding from one brutal, danger-fraught experience to the next. Their adventures are all shot in and around the beautiful streets of Cape Town, and beyond, which happily makes for an interesting travelogue unfolding in the midst of the action. There's a particularly terrific chase sequence through Langa Township's tin-shack ghetto; that, and the flick's outrageous, explosion-filled finale far out in the South African countryside are definitely worth the price of admission for adrenaline junkies.

Others who are less enamored of action for action's sake may find Safe House to be a bit predictable. For while the plot moves briskly along, there are some obvious tells throughout that make figuring out the twists and turns of the story almost child's play for anyone who loves the spy-thriller genre. But despite that, the performances are all believable, the action really is eye-poppingly good and overall this cinematic adventure is a breathless e-ticket ride at the movies.

LANGA-Airbnb R2.4 billion in revenue for hosts

South Africa’s township Airbnb stays a hit

Staff Writer 

 

24 September 2017

 

Women in Langa have established guest houses or are renting out guest rooms on Airbnb through a non-profit organisation called Ikhaya Le Langa.

The aim is to transform Langa, which is regarded as South Africa’s oldest informal settlement, into a tourist attraction, stated the Rapport.

Around 240,000 guests booked accommodation in Cape Town through Airbnb in 2016, and throughout the country, Airbnb has helped bring in about R2.4 billion in revenue for hosts.

One Langa host said Airbnb breaks down barriers and helps visitors feel safer, as it lets them see with whom they will be staying.

“So long as your host looks after you, safety won’t be a problem,” she said.

“The community welcomes guests that stay here. It is really just the fear of the unknown that people must overcome.”

Airbnb cofounder Brian Chesky has also visited guest houses in the area to offer advice on how to treat guests.

Cape Town rental crisis

Not all Cape Town residents are fans of the service, however, and have blamed the popularity of Airbnb for a rental crisis in the city.

According to reports, homeowners and investors now make more money from shorter stays than from long-term tenants.

Brett Herron, mayoral committee member for transport and urban development at the City of Cape Town, said efforts are underway to address the issue and that is not a problem unique to Cape Town.

Cape Town will need to provide an additional 650,000 housing opportunities across the city, at an estimated cost of R101 billion, over the next 20 years, he said.

 

 

SKOMLINE-KWALANGA ...... WOZA LA!

FUTURE CAPE TOWN l The day that Langa opened her streets

Future Cape Town on 04/05/2015

 ‘City streets as living rooms’

Thousands of residents across Cape Town recently flocked to Langa to walk its storied streets. Crime fears were allayed as visitors from the city’s more affluent suburbs walked the streets in safety. They form part of the Open Streets movement that fosters diverse community interaction in urban areas, designating the street as a positive social space.

---

by Lisa Kane, Marco Geretto and Marcela Guerrero Casas

UPDATE: 

Open Streets Cape Town collaborates with Red Bull Amaphiko to create the Social Innovation Festival in Langa on Sunday 8 November 2015. http://openstreets.co.za/events/social-innovation-festival

 

 

 

Read more:

• South Africa’s hopes of planning better cities and communities
• Creating an open city one street at a time
• Bold City: A Bold Vision for Langa

Architect Louis Kahn once described city streets as ‘living rooms’ made by communities, dedicated to the city for everyone to use. Their walls are donated by the residents, their ceilings are the sky. Sadly for Cape Town our city street ‘living rooms’ are usually segregated and kept private for local use only. The possibilities for us to connect with each other are limited by the lack of space where streets are opened up to all.

 

 

Yesterday the community of Langa generously gave up some if its ‘living rooms’ to each other and to the people of Cape Town. About 1.5kms of Washington Street, Rubusana Street and Jungle Walk were closed to traffic for the afternoon and the result for those who came was a very rare experience in Cape Town – people from all walks of life coming together and enjoying an afternoon in each other’s company without the usual pressure to pay for tickets or buy stuff.

 

 

The exercise of preparing for Open Streets Langa was enriching and challenging for those involved. This was the first Open Streets day in a township and many concerns were raised in the build-up to the day. At times it looked as if these concerns could derail the event. Fears about crime – as a result of drinking on the street – and worries about security more generally were the most prominent anxieties expressed. The broader public perceptions of townships were difficult to address. There are many Capetonians who consider townships to be scary places, and struggle to imagine visiting one.

 

 

Support was put in place to allay the fears of visitors (accompanied train and taxi rides and a magnificent ‘bike bus’). Hundreds of visitors chose these options. There was also organised parking and a meet-and-greet service to drivers by our volunteer team. As far as behaviour on the street we were quietly confident that the fears would prove groundless.

 

 

After five Open Streets Days we have learnt something about human behaviour. Removing cars, slowing things down and adding plenty of children onto a street has a neutralising impact on aggression and anxiety, and generates a sense of possibility and playfulness, if only for a short time. Once again this has proved to be the case.

---

Read more here about making a donation.

EMALANGENI SKYWALK

Langa Train Station: A 100m long skywalk!

Future Cape Town on 22/07/2011

Langa Station is situated between the district of Langa to the south and the industrial area of Epping 1 to the north.  An existing undercapacity subway connecting the two areas is now being replaced by a 100 m long x 10 m wide “skywalk” bridge structure.

The length of this structure was not only determined by the spacing of the existing rail tracks, but provision had to be made for a possible future rail link between the airport and Cape Town CBD and a future Integrated Rapid Transport route on the northern side of the station.  At each end of the bridge commuters are able to approach or leave the structure via either staircases or ramps.  A high priority for PRASA is to accommodate special-needs passengers (SNPs), so ramps or lifts have been provided at each of the stations, wherever possible.

A 1 500 m² ticket purchase and circulation concourse area is being constructed over the two main platforms.  This area provides sufficient space for a minimum of grade C level of comfort (a Metrorail standard) for peak-hour commuters at all times while moving through the station complex.

As the station had to remain operational throughout the construction period, a large amount of off-site construction was done.  All track spanning beams and slabs were precast and all superstructures were prefabricated from structural steel.

During construction

 

LANGA AWARDS

21 Apr 2016

Langa revives community awards

Share

• 
• 
• 

After a 5-year lull, the Langa Community Activist Awards are back!

The campaign puts responsible citizenship in the spotlight, and will turn Langa on its head, as the search to find the township’s top activists begins.

Umbon’ Omhle is a non-profit youth organisation active for the past eight years.

It has taken on the hefty task of managing this socially significant campaign with the goal of celebrating those individuals and organisations that are adding value to their communities.

Umbon’ Omhle’s Thulani Nxumalo says that this campaign aims to promote community activism and participation, and will demonstrate how the work of activists go towards creating a ‘safer and more self-reliant society, that reflects the principles of humanity.’

“The Langa Community Activist Awards is an important initiative and ties-in well with our vision of creating new possibilities for the community through inter-disciplinary engagement, promoting knowledge of self, skills development and the use of art, culture, sport and technology.

Through this initiative, we will honour people who consider active participation in society a must. We also hope to encourage other members of the community to get involved and help bring this campaign to life.”

Nxumalo says that people are doing great things in Langa.

Umlibo Kantu, Vuka Nomtobhoyi, and the Brothers For Life, are just some of the many locally run organisations that are making a significant community

“By shedding light on the work of activists in the community, the campaign also has the power to motivate ordinary people from Langa and other communities to encourage community members to also become agents of change,” he continues.

Langa provides the perfect setting for the Community Activist Awards campaign, particularly since the township has a long history with positive social action.

In 1937, when authorities refused to provide for a secondary school in the area, a group of parents and clergy successfully put pressure on authorities to change their decision so that pupils could aspire to pursue tertiary education and careers.

But stories like these have been forgotten, and therefore highlight the importance of programs such as this one to allow for meaningful engagement with the active members of our community.

This year’s campaign rolls out a series of street events dubbed the Langa Home Cooked Streets and culminates in a final award event later this year.

People can look out for the posters that provide profiles of these members of our community. Nominations are welcome.

The first ‘Home Cooked’ event, happening on 1 May, serves as an information day and a dry-run to test the event as a voting platform, and will involve a number of individuals and organisations already active in the community, as well as giving locals the chance to get in on the action.

Inspired by the wildly successful and highly-inclusive ‘Open Streets’ initiative, the streets of Langa will come alive in an event that promises to be a feast for the senses.

Nominated activists will have the opportunity to share their projects and products, and potentially solicit investment into their causes.

Further ‘Home Cooked’ events are planned for later this year and will also include an International Activists Symposium to encourage activist movements from around the world to participate in this initiative somehow.

“People need to realise that they should be their biggest investment, and we should start nurturing that investment by taking better care of ourselves, our environments and of each other.

An activist is really someone who takes responsibility to make their world a better place.

Activists are progressive and think out of the box because they actively seek to gain the knowledge and skills needed to make a positive difference in our world,” says Nxumalo.

For example, if you are unhappy about something in your neighbourhood and want to see it changed for the better, and you actually do something about it , then you are an activist.

Maybe you realise that there is no wheelchair access at your local community centre, and you write a letter to your municipality to have them installed.

Or you form a scholar walking group, to help community kids get to and from school safely.

For more information on how you can participate, or support the Langa Community Activist Awards initiative, or to nominate a community activist, please contact Thulani Nxumalo on 076 971 9268 or thulznxm@email.com and Gracious Diko on 063 128 5431 or graciousdiko1980@gmail.com

R14-million facility first in the province to be built with a Child Play Therapy Room

16 Days of Activism: Department launches child-specialist Langa local office

 

 Photo By iStock

 

4 December 2017

The Western Cape Minister of Social Development, Albert Fritz, today launched the Department’s 37^th local office, in Langa Township.

This R14-million facility boasts world-class amenities for the public, and is completely accessible for people with disabilities. A key feature of the facility is its particular focus of providing services to children.

The facility is the first in the province to be built with a Child Play Therapy Room. This room enables specialist Child Protection social workers to assist children who have been physically, emotionally and/or sexually abused.

As we commemorate these 16 Days of Activism Against Women and Child Abuse, Minister Fritz stressed the importance of social worker services being accessible to the communities that need them most.

“We are building these facilities within communities so that you, our social workers, can be directly accessible to children and families. This is not only our pledge during these 16 Days, but throughout the year.” said Minister Fritz

“This is why we took the strategic decision to reconfigure this Department in 2011. We have transitioned from 1 head office and 16 district offices, to a head office and 6 regional offices, overseeing 37 local offices. That’s what service delivery is about - being rooted in communities”, said Minister Fritz.

The DSD Langa local office will render specialist services to the community, including;

• child care and protection services,
• probation services,
• substance abuse interventions,
• And family and parenting support services to the surrounding community.

We encourage the public to social work assistance by visiting any of our DSD local offices, or by contacting the DSD hotline on 0800 220 250.

Coach children in Langa, Cape Town

Creating global communities: East London to Langa

29 Mar 2017

The women and men of the University of East London’s (UEL) Hockey Club enjoyed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity last year to travel to South Africa to coach school children in the township of Langa, near Cape Town.

The UEL students ran youth hockey camps for up to 100 youngsters a day, offering equipment and support. The trip culminated in a tournament where the children received jerseys donated by hockey clubs in the UK, Ireland, Germany and Belgium.

It was a life-changing experience, said the trip’s coordinator, physiotherapy undergraduate Ciara Gormley. And it was made possible because of Going Global, a UEL scheme that provides bursaries for students to travel abroad for short study or research trips.

Ciara said, “It was a huge learning curve for me, and my trip undoubtedly enhanced my personal development and future employability. It was an absolute privilege to travel as ambassadors for the University.”

Going Global was founded in 2010 with an eye towards providing UEL’s diverse population of students, many of whom are older and have families and jobs, with an opportunity to enhance their studies with a short-term foreign travel experience.

For many, it is the first time they have travelled abroad. Most UEL students are eligible to apply, and trips are organised entirely by students. 

Students can go just about anywhere and do just about anything. In 2015-2016, students honed their photography skills in Finland, researched textile businesses in Bangladesh and practised sports therapy in Ohio. Altogether, 109 students travelled to 26 countries last year thanks to a Going Global bursary.

For Ciara, the trip allowed her to both better herself and make a difference in the lives of South African children.

She says, “There’s no comparison with the experience you get from going a trip like this. Academic work is great, but the personal development you get from going somewhere like South Africa is life-changing.”

MillionPlus