Township Tour

Two weekends ago I also went on a visit to the townships here. It didn't seem right combining shark cage-diving with seeing the townships, and I really didn't know if I felt like writing about it. I can assure you that the tone of this post is definitely going to be different that the last. Although I am not keen to really talk about the stories or share the pictures that I felt weird even taking, I feel like it is just something I should do. I'm sharing this post to show how different Cape Town is outside of the city center, and the background that many of the patients seen in the hospital come from.

Khayelitsha- largest and fastest growing township

The townships were created during Apartheid as a way to separate whites from non-whites. They were mostly divided into black townships and townships for coloured people (people of mixed decent). During this time, many people were taken out of where they were living and were placed in what the will tell you are "concentration camps". The housing includes shared homes and and shared hostel-type family units. Due to overcrowding, residents took it upon themselves to build homes out of materials found behind these units which is why there are so many shacks. This is how the slums were created. Now, many people who are in need of government housing are placed here. Currently, there is a backlog of over 450,000 people that need homes from the government. The government only has the resources to build 16,000 houses a year, and realistically they don't even build half that many. If you do the math, that means that some people would have to wait half their lives to ever get a house. I met one man who had been waiting for 25 years.

Many people who were waiting for houses were placed in temporary government shacks made of metal. They are one room and very small, with one bathroom for every four houses. The people that were moved here were told they would get a house within the next year. They've been there for seven years now. Across the road from the ones we visited, many were infected with asbestos. The saddest part was seeing the kids. They knew nothing different, and were basically in an environment that is build for them to go nowhere. Their chances of becoming gang members, prostitutes, drug lords - or not even living to see their 20's - are probably astronomical. There are schools in the townships, but even the teachers who live in the townships themselves won't send their children there.

Supposed "temporary" government housing

Hostel-style living in Langa

I got the chance to meet a number of different people. The one I won't forget was a 21-year old high-school junior with a one-week old baby living in a dilapidated hostel. She was sharing one room with another family. Each family got one twin bed. Her family consisted of her, her baby, her mother, her brother, and her brother's child. Bugs scattered up the walls and the roof nearly blew off with each gust of wind. I couldn't imagine anyone living in these conditions, much less a helpless week-old baby. The image of the room will forever stick in my mind.

Mom and week-old baby in Langa

I don't really have much more to say about the experience, other than the fact that it was useful to get an idea of where the majority of Red Cross patients come from and understand the trauma they come into the hospital with due to their living situation in addition to their conditions. I hope for their sake that maybe they can beat the odds, but the way the system and the culture is now, it seems to be just a spiral trap with no light and no way out.

Kids living outside in make-shift tents on the outskirts of Mitchell's Plein