Take the N2 motorway east out of Cape Town and the sun-dappled villas nestled against Table Mountain give way to an unremarkable plain known locally as ‘The Flats’.

The term is certainly a literal one as this sprawling, arid and unloved expanse is home to millions of people who live in prefabs that rarely climb higher than a single storey.

Here, a patchwork quilt of corrugated iron and breezeblock stretches out towards the horizon. Taken individually, each shack looks like a rectangular piece of scrap found crushed at a demolition yard. Mangy dogs roam the litter-strewn streets and barefoot children beg, not for money surprisingly, but for their photo to be taken.

It is in every sense a world away from the whitewashed mansions and sandy beaches of the achingly-hip Atlantic seaboard just the other side of South Africa’s most iconic mountain range.

The Cape Flats became the Apartheid government’s dumping ground for non-Whites in the 1950s and still remains an eyesore despite valiant attempts in the last decade to alleviate the living conditions.

My visit to this area on an organised township tour in April coincided with the general election that gave a third landslide victory to the ruling ANC government.

In the Republic of Ireland where we take our freedoms somewhat for granted, it was humbling to see the unbounded enthusiasm of those who were prepared to queue for hours to exercise their democratic right.

I expected people living in such squalor to be angry and frustrated at their lot. Instead they spoke of their hopes for the future and, most significantly, the need for patience. This is why calls for a swift ‘solution’ to South Africa’s chronic housing problems are too much to ask of a country with a fledgling democracy.

The townships of Cape Town throw the housing difficulties of Dublin’s poor into sharp relief.

There is simply no point taking a wrecking ball to the thousands upon thousands of corrugated iron huts because there is currently nowhere else to ‘place’these people.

Instead, the authorities have concentrated on improving their quality of life. This has come in the simple form of electricity and running water. Millions of children now attend schools and scores of projects have been started to give the unemployed crucial life skills.

One such place I visited was in Kanga, South Africa’s oldest township. Guga S’Thebe is an arts and cultural centre which has been built to empower the people in the surrounding area.

Unemployment here runs at 60 per cent. Many children and adults support themselves by street vending or running Spaza shops (a convenience store selling everyday household items). Of the few that have acquired jobs, the majority work in low-grade tourism industry jobs in Cape Town itself. Guga S’Thebe, though, gives an outlet to as many disenfranchised people as it can.

Being guided around the centre by Mthobeli Kanzi, a 23-year-old outreach worker, was a heartwarming experience. He proudly showed off the ebony carvings, traditional African garments and pottery ware created by local artisans. Alongside the craft centre and theatre space were experts schooling young people in business studies and steelwork.

In the nearby township of Gugulethu, I was similarly struck by its denizens’ joie de vivre. People evidently make do with what they have got. One man at a market stall I walked past had fashioned a model airplane out of crushed Coke cans. He saw his prey and successfully persuaded me to part with some rand.

What surprised me was that these townships were fully-functioning towns and, in some cases, cities. If not self-sufficient, they boast shops, markets, and restaurants– many of which are safely visited in daytime in the company of a local or guide.

At a school I was besieged by children (again who wanted to have their picture taken). Their motto next to a South African flag ‘we shall build and brighten this nation’ even impressed an old cynic like myself.

Conditions were not all rosy. I was taken into one typical home to experience– in a very superficial way– the squalid and cramped conditions. Three couples were sleeping in separate beds in the same room. I shuffled around the 10 by 10 foot space like an interloper with a faint, westernised air of embarrassment.

Next year the eyes of the globe will turn on South Africa for the 2010 football World Cup. In Cape Town a 70,000-seater stadium is being built close to the Victoria and Albert Waterfront tourist quarter. Huge efforts are been made to build world-class stadia and improve infrastructure around the country.

But if the Boys in Green do make it to the finals and indeed to Cape Town, make sure you take a detour off the N2 if you travel there to cheer them on.

Be bold enough to venture away from the tourist-sanctioned districts of Cape Town. Change is always called for and not always seen through, but in the townships you will see how the real South Africa is beginning to throw off the shackles of its past.

Pictures by John Crowley: Poverty brings its own form of apartheid.