This apartment, in our opinion, is NOT SAFE to stay in.
My girl and I were excited to explore Cape Town from Shameel and Momeena's competitively priced and well-maintained spot, and delighted when they let us check in early and greeted us warmly. In spite of my girl's misgivings—the neighborhood is picturesque, but still quite poor—we settled in and thought nothing of it when Momeena told us to keep the window, which is exposed to the street, closed so "little kids didn't reach in and steal books." A little odd, sure, but I use Airbnb for almost all of my trips and prefer to travel to and stay in real places, so I thought little of it.
When we went out the next day, making sure to close the window, a passerby told us a man had been watching us from the flat up the hill and wondered why we'd booked in a place that was "not safe." This made even me uneasy, and though we stopped by Shameel and Momeena's restaurant just down the hill for reassurance, I tossed and turned a bit before passing out that night. Three hours later, I awakened to my girl screaming: the window had been opened a crack and the blinds raised, and the same man was reaching in to our space with a long stick, attempting to hook our valuables. Though we were able to scare him away before he got anything, we were shaken enough to leave immediately, and felt in retrospect that our hosts had been dishonest about the reality of staying in an exposed apartment in the area.
I hate to write this—as Shameel and Momeena strike me as warm people and gracious hosts, and their property's interior is stylish and spacious—but between the leaky shower (which spilled onto the hard floor and caused my girl to slip and slam her ankle against the bed), the elderly beggar who banged on our door not once but twice, and the fear of theft or burglary, I'd STRONGLY recommend spending an extra $5-$10 a night on safer accommodations.
Who knows—maybe this was an isolated incident—but the way the man watched us, the frightening possibility others were in on it, and the vibe of the neighborhood, suggest differently. My girl is from SA (she's Black, I'm White), grew up in a township, knows the country, and felt unsafe as soon as she saw the place. The police agreed, telling us that the neighborhood was only safe if you were local or Coloured; "If you're not one of them," they said, "they'll break in, no problem." Based on our experience, we'd trust them over all the five-star reviews.