"Don't give money to the tour guide " a Robben Island Travel Page by sebblit7

It's a great tour and a great place to see. But when the tour ends, the tour guide (who was imprisoned there himself) stands at the doorway with his hands out taking banknotes from tourists that feel sorry for the whole injustice of apartheid.

I've seen him stuffing R50, R100, R20 notes up his sleeve as people walking in single file through the narrow doorway just keep on passing money onto him.

This is just plain wrong. He alone did not suffer the entire burden of the apartheid system. 10 years into democracy this country suffers with a 40% unemployment rate. He's lucky to have a job at all.

If you want to donate money give it to a registered charity of your choice. Perhaps you'd like to assist the Treatment Action Campaign, who are responsible for succesfully campaigning the SA government to roll out Anti Retroviral Aids treatment in South Africa.

They still have a lot of work to do since the minister for health continues to state that ARV's are toxic and the president has excused himself from the AIDS debate following several blunders where he has questioned the link between HIV and AIDS. He refuses all media interviews on the subject of AIDS : This is the president of a country that has the highest AIDS prevalence in the world.

To this day neither the minister for health nor the president have taken a public HIV test, nor have they recognised that ARV's are an effective drug that helps to prolong the lives of those living with the disease. The president has denied knowing anyone that has died of AIDS even though his former spokesperson Mr. Parks Mankahlana died of the disease.

http://www.tac.org.za