Khayelitsha and Gugulethu townships

From Langa, we went to Khayelitsha, meaning ‘new home’ in Xhosa. It is the largest and fastest-growing township in South Africa, covering an area of around 40 square kilometres and providing homes for more than half a million people. Some estimate that the actual population could be as many as a million or more. It was established in the 1980s. 70% of the 150,000 households live in self-built shacks made of corrugated metal, pallet wood, or cardboard, with a third of them having to walk more than 200 metres to access water. 99.5% of the residents are black African, the vast majority of them Xhosa. Khayelitsha has a very young population, with fewer than 7% of its residents being over 50 years old and over 40% being under 19.

We didn’t stop in Khayelitsha. Instead, we drove on to Gugulethu, established in the 1960s due to the overcrowding of Langa, which was the only black residential area for Cape Town at the time. Its name is a contraction of igugu lethu, which is Xhosa for ‘our pride’. The township covers an area of 6.5 square kilometres and has a population of around 120,000.

Gugulethu is the only township that has monuments to commemorate events. The first is the 'Gugulethu Seven Memorial', built to remember the lives of seven activists who were ambushed and killed by the South African security forces on March 3, 1986. The activists were members of the armed wing of the ANC. The monument was unveiled on Human Rights Day 2000.

The other memorial is for Amy Biehl, a Fulbright scholar from America studying at the University of Cape Town, who was pulled from a car and stabbed and stoned to death as she drove three friends home to Gugulethu on August 25th 1993. Four men were convicted of her murder. With the full support of Amy’s parents, all four were pardoned by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 1998.

We stopped at a restaurant in Gugulethu for lunch before returning to the waterfront in Capetown.Read more