The influx of people from rural areas means that townships are actually growing rather than shrinking, as ever more precarious shacks and lean-tos are jammed in between existing houses and roads. The history of these settlements is such that they were never constructed sustainably, the small houses had two rooms which were expected to house eight people, residents do not own the land where their houses were built, some of the buildings are now deemed illegal and basic services such as sewerage, electricity and water are still lacking.
Following the Population Registration Act of 1950, “blacks, coloureds and Indians” were allocated different settlements.Ĭonsequently, most towns and cities still have at least one township, often with thousands of people living there.
These became known as townships or ‘locations’ (coming from the Afrikaans word ‘lokasies’) and which were, in themselves, segregated. Langa, for example was founded in 1927, and named after Langalibalele – a Bantu chief who was incarcerated on Robben Island in 1873 for activism against the the Natal government.ĭuring the apartheid years non white people were evicted from their homes and displaced to suburban areas without basic amenities or infrastructure. They have history and heritage, family legacies and loving communities. This module provides township development practitioners with a framework to identify where physical investment should be located. Townships are not places to go sightseeing or people watching. A South African township can be defined as a suburb or city of predominantly black occupation, formerly officially designated for black occupation by apartheid.
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