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Published: December 28th 2008
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It was an early start today as we were heading for our township tour. We ordered room service breakfast, so we could eat while we got ready in the morning, which came on a cool trolley that turned into a table.
Our guide collected us at 8.15am - 15 minutes ahead of schedule! - and, after collecting another 3 groups of people, we set off for the area of Cape Town known as District 6 just before 9.
District 6 used to be a lively community of about 55,000 predominantly coloured people. However, in 1966, apartheid ideologues declared District 6 a white group area and the bulldozers moved in to demolish everything apart from about 5 mosques and churches. The coloured people were therefore driven out of the city (initially with the rumours raised that they were diseased) and forced to take up home in the outer suburbs in make shift houses, which were little better than shacks, in the townships.
We were supposed to stop at the District 6 museum here but, it being Saturday, it was closed. However, our guide explained that despite the forced removal of the coloured people from District 6, the government really failed in turning
this area in to a whites only zone. Indeed, with the exception of a few houses, the only real development that took place in District 6 during the apartheid years was the construction of a university. With the end of apartheid, the displaced coloured people are now either being offered the chance to relocate back to District 6 or are receiving compensation if the place of their former home has been built on.
Our next stop was Langa, Cape Town’s oldest township. This was initially set up as dormitories to provide labour for white cape town. Many of these used to be men-only hostels as the government set out a blue print in the 1950’s to turn the tide of African’s coming to Cape Town - no African was allowed to permanently settle in Cape Town closer to the city than Langa and men were prohibited from bringing their wife to join them, with the effect that in 1970, there was 10 men for every woman in Langa. In the end, apartheid failed to prevent the influx of workers desperate to come to Cape Town and when people couldn’t find legal accommodation they set up squatter camps of makeshift iron,
cardboard and plastic sheeting.
The government is making attempts to improve things in the townships at present, introducing running water, renovating the dormitories and building new concrete houses for individual families (interestingly all along the main road around the metal shacks), however a significant proportion of people still live in the old dormitory accommodation and iron shacks. In Langa, we went inside one of the dormitory style houses and in it was 2 rooms, each no bigger than our 3rd bedroom. Room I was the living area, where people cooked, did washing in buckets etc and the second room was the bedroom, with 3 beds, in which 13 people (3 families) all lived on top of each other, paying 20 rand a month in rent - no wonder the petrol attendant was so pleased with his 20 rand tip! The woman we spoke to in there had been living there for 15 years like that. We then moved on to one of the renovated houses (about the same size however, in which only one family lives). These were significantly nicer however 60 rand per month is too expensive for many to afford. Next stop was one of the iron shacks,
which was a pub (albeit many families actually live in these). G sampled the local beer - he said it tasted more like wine, although I am not sure he would be happy if he got a whole glass of it at dinner time!
Next stop was Khayelitsha, the largest township. This stretches from just beyond the airport right to the Indian Ocean and is the home to over 1.5 million people! Here we visited a community project where woman are making rugs etc for sale to make some money (we bought one for the bedroom) and a B&B where you can spend a night - no safe so it would be no good for G!
After we arrived back in Cape Town, we headed to pick up our tickets for High School Musical that evening (realising that the price was over 2 years rent in the township) and I went back to the pool for some rays while G changed some money.
We then sat down to watch the football - the least said about that the better! Before retiring back to the pool for a nap before dinner.
We had an early dinner at a Thai restaurant we
found the previous evening (although nowehere near as good without a Singha) and then headed to the show, which was excellent. The leads apparently were the winners of a SA talent contest on TV (like Oliver etc in the UK), so I will totally be graboiding that when I get back!
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