The Townships of The Cape Flats

Cape Town, South Africa

Overview:

The Cape Flats, referred to as "The Flats" by locals, is an expansive, low-lying, flat area situated to the southeast of the central business district of Cape Town.

It has been accurately described as the "dumping ground of apartheid" and it is here that both black and coloured South Africans were relocated and forced into informal settlements after the infamous Group Areas Act of 1950.

The Flats have since been home to roughly 4 million people, much of the population of Greater Cape Town.

These Numbers Have Faces works exclusively with young people from the Cape Flats area, in the townships of Gugulethu, Nyanga, Langa, Khayelitsha, Crossroads, and Philippi. 

History of the Cape Flats:

Established in the late 1950’s, the Cape Flats are a direct result of the South African racial segregation system known as apartheid. Apartheid (literally “apartness” in Afrikaans) was a system of racial segregation that was violently enforced in South Africa from 1948 to 1994.

Photos of apartheid in South Africa:

Life in the Cape Flats:

Poverty, oppression and overcrowding characterized life in the Cape Flats under the apartheid rule. Schools were unequipped and under funded. The housing lacked both electricity and proper plumbing up until the 1980’s.

Currently, in the Cape Flats:

30% of the community is infected with HIV/AIDS, 40% live in informal shacks, and 50% are unemployed.

These Numbers Have Faces:

Home to much of the population of Greater Cape Town, the Cape Flats is generally poor with the averaged monthly income being R1100 (Approximately $110 US Dollars). The unemployment rate for individuals between the ages of 15-60 is 50%.

Living conditions in the townships are insufficient. 35-40% of houses in the Cape Flats are considered informal “tin shacks”, actually made of corrugated iron.

HIV/AIDS in the Cape Flats:

The current HIV prevalence rate in the Cape Flats community is 29%. This translates into approximately ±95,000 HIV/AIDS infected people in the Cape Flats today.

The pandemic predominantly claims the lives of adults aged 19 to 40 leaving behind children and the elderly to fend for themselves.

A University of Cape Town study revealed that almost 3.3-million children in South Africa were living with the loss of either one or both parents in July 2004.

Growing up in the Cape Flats:

In the Cape Flats, the pressures to join a gang or participate in crime are overwhelming. For many youth in the Cape Flats, life holds two choices – becoming a tsotsi (gangster) or going to school.

It is our hope that with local projects like JL Zwane FC and the Iintombi Zilapha Traditional Dancers, Cape Flats youth will have the ability to avoid lives of gansterism and crime.

Read more about the daily lives of Anda Sozawe and JL Zwane FC Striker Michael Mfengu from TNHF’s photographer and blogger John Vicory. Read the story here.

Hope:

Despite its misgivings, the Cape Flats is home to vibrant culture and is one of the most diverse areas in South Africa. Gugulethu became the first black township to have an information technology center. Ikhwezi (the Star) Community center provides multimedia classes and youth development programs.

The Cape Flats also have sports fields, community centers, and schools. Sivuyile (”we are happy”) is the tourism information center in Gugulethu. The Cape Flats also features the Khayelitsha Craft Market, home to some of the best local artist and vendors in the Western Cape. Young artists in the community produce sculptures, ceramics, bead work, traditional clothing and textiles.

Visitors praise the Cape Flats for it’s remarkable sense of community and support.

References:

Bekker 2003, “History of South Africa in the Apartheid Era.”
January, 2007. Wikipedia.com
Naidoo, October, 2006. www.iolhivaids.co.za