We've driven past many townships/shanty towns/coloured districts - all these names seem to be contained in the one word - "location". People talk about MeKasi - my location, where I come from. The locations on the outskirts of Cape Town stretch for miles over the Cape Flats & Mitchell's Plain. We have briefly visited 3 of them - Langa, Khayelitsha & Grassy Park (not exactly well named!). Truly we have never seen anything like them & it's been quite a shock to see how many people have to live in this way in South Africa. The contrast between the comfortable wealth of the white population & the utter poverty of the vast majority of the remaining 90% of the population has left us feeling very uncomfortable. The segregation in society is still strikingly obvious. In most of the tourist areas there are rarely black or coloured customers in the shops & restaurants. (Of course, in black & coloured areas there are rarely white people to be seen. We are usually the only white people on the trains & minibus taxis!) We're told that it's a matter of where people feel at home, which we suppose makes sense & there is a 300 year history of racial separation which can't be corrected in a mere decade, but still................. The inequalities are striking. The one place that we've seen a complete cross section is on the beaches (but not in the surrounding cafes, of course). On a beach was also, sadly, the place where we heard the most blatantly racist remark yet from a flabby white man!
Having got to know the Beth Uriel family, we can't see any reason why they shouldn't merit a share of the lifestyle that is automatically ours for the asking because we are white & British.
Not all the homes in the locations are shacks - those who do make money usually choose to build in their home township rather than moving to white suburbs, but the mass of people live in what we have seen described as "informal housing"! i.e. made out of anything they can lay their hands on. Not all homes have electricity - fires frequently break out because of candle & propane gas use. Nor do all homes have internal plumbing - a communal standpipe & shared outside privies are common. It is almost medieval. The shacks are all built cheek-by-jowl. Everything seemed cramped & crowded, stinkingly hot in summer, damp & cold in winter. We have only been invited into one house & it was actually very neat & orderly, despite the dirt floor. There were 4 connected box rooms, separated by curtains, laid out as kitchen, lounge & 2 bedrooms. There was basic shelving for china, pots, pans, clothing, linen & even ornaments. As one cheerful man rightly said to us, "There's no shame in living in a shack", but it is amazing how unenvious most people are. It hardly seems surprising that there is rampant gang crime among the young men & high rates of domestic abuse - what's more surprising is the dignity with which so many accept the way life is.
Having got to know the Beth Uriel family, we can't see any reason why they shouldn't merit a share of the lifestyle that is automatically ours for the asking because we are white & British.
Not all the homes in the locations are shacks - those who do make money usually choose to build in their home township rather than moving to white suburbs, but the mass of people live in what we have seen described as "informal housing"! i.e. made out of anything they can lay their hands on. Not all homes have electricity - fires frequently break out because of candle & propane gas use. Nor do all homes have internal plumbing - a communal standpipe & shared outside privies are common. It is almost medieval. The shacks are all built cheek-by-jowl. Everything seemed cramped & crowded, stinkingly hot in summer, damp & cold in winter. We have only been invited into one house & it was actually very neat & orderly, despite the dirt floor. There were 4 connected box rooms, separated by curtains, laid out as kitchen, lounge & 2 bedrooms. There was basic shelving for china, pots, pans, clothing, linen & even ornaments. As one cheerful man rightly said to us, "There's no shame in living in a shack", but it is amazing how unenvious most people are. It hardly seems surprising that there is rampant gang crime among the young men & high rates of domestic abuse - what's more surprising is the dignity with which so many accept the way life is.
