Just before I set up sounddelivery, I spent a month backpacking around South Africa. It was January 2006, I’d left my job as a BBC producer and wanted adventure.
When I missed my bus to Port Elizabeth, instead of waiting for the next one I hitched a lift with two wonderful women, Tillie and Fiki. ??They recounted stories about life under apartheid and told me about their hopes and aspirations for the new South Africa. They took me to their family home and to the grave of political activist Steve Biko, whose life was documented in the award-winning film Cry Freedom. “This is where I stood at his funeral,” Tillie pointed to me.
That was how I got a true picture of South Africa. A few days later I organised a personal tour of Gugulethu, a township on the outskirts of Cape Town. I met Flaudy, a social entrepreneur who was trying to create business opportunities for local people. I ended up checking out of my hotel in Cape Town and checking into a B & B in Gugulethu. In the evening I ate dinner hosted by a local family and went for a drink in a shebeen.


