From the passing of the Urban Areas act in 1923 to the elections of 1996, which saw Nelson Mandela, elected president, the state attempted to control where black and coloured people lived. This was an ongoing process over decades with periods of more activity on this front followed by lulls followed by more clearances.
The oldest current township in the Cape Town region is Langa that was created in the 1920s as an alternative to Ndembi, an earlier location which grew up at the turn of the 20th century, but which was cleared under pressure from the middle class white residents of neighbouring Pinelands.
Langa came to prominence in 1960 when large numbers of its residents, along with those of the Johannesburg township of Sharpeville against the hated pass laws. On March 20 police opened fire in both places: 69 people died in Sharpeville and 7 in Langa.
The most infamous clearance in the Cape Town area was District Six, which was decimated aer demo desonated d white area. Around 100,000 people were moved between 1967-82, mainly to the Cape Flats area. Apart from the racism of the apartheid state there was also an economic motivation for this particular attack as District Six was on prime real estate. It had been a really mixed area with a majority "coloured" population but with significant numbers of black, Indian and Jewish people. In fact the area was not really developed during the rest of apartheid rule and most of it still lies unused. another way to measure what the ANC have and have not achieved. The first of the displaced residents were able to move back to the area in February 2004 when 12 houses were built on the site and those over 80 allocated to them. Sadly one woman died the day she was due to move. protested who had been attempting to find an existence in the city for quite a while set up their shacks in District Six. to the consternation of those elderly residents who have gone back, not to mention of those still waiting to return home. ized their settlement and allowed them Indeed the story of District Six is
could be found. different This October thirty squatter families Despite this the City Council formalmately R30,000 per dwelling. Households with an income of below R3500 can receive a government subsidy that is scaled according to income with only the most impoverished being entitled to a full subsidy.
Those who are above the bottom line have to foot the bill for the difference with a bond-type arrangement.
The housing backlog stands at 261,000 units with a delivery capacity of 11,000 units per annum. This therefore means it would take over 23 years more to eliminate homelessness at this rate. 800, 000 people remain on the waiting list, some of whom have been waiting for up to 20 ycals.
In the metropolitan area of Cape Town, of a total population of 3.2 million, million black people live in the townships - the locations as were. The largest township Khayelitsha has a population of about 500,000 people.
In the smaller city centre, other essential public services instead. Far from it.
In the Western Cape the big project at the moment is the
of the N2 Gateway. This involves massive investment road improvement and the concomitant beautification of the access route from Cape Town International airport into the city.
The national housing minister Lindiwe Sisulu has explicitly stated that the intention to eradicate squatter housing by 2010 is directly related to the hosting of the soccer world Cup tournament in 2010.
It is difficult to see how this objective could be achieved given the scale of the need for housing and the fact that the townships of Cape Town are precisely situated puysical space
But it illustrates the relative priority given to the need to please tourists and to fulfill the basic needs of the people of South Africa.
page 21 of the scan
The Labour Party is 100 years old this month: John Lister looks back at the events a century ago to see what lessons they offer for us today. "The working class at the polls gave the House of Commons a refreshingly new look," says the official history of the TUC - about the general election of January 1906.
Exactly 100 years ago the first faltering steps were taken towards the establishment of
parliamentary political party that would stand independently of the dominant Conservatives and Liberals, and represent the interests, if not of the working class, then at least of the trade unions and their members.
54 "Labour" London dockers were among the manual workers mobilised in the building of new general unions at the end of the 19th century Keir Hardie, the