 During the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, Parow was largely transforming into a commercial area, with many shopping centres opening around Voortrekker road, one of the longest roads in Cape Town.With the extreme political struggle of apartheid in the 1980s and the advent of democracy in the 1990s, Parow's popularity started to decline and many of its higher income population moved further north.In 2005 Parow became the headquarters for the South African division of the International Alliance of Guardian Angels, the world's oldest and largest volunteer public safety patrol organisation.