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Khayelitsha
Khayelitsha (/ˌkaɪ.əˈliːtʃə/) is a township in Western Cape, South Africa, on the Cape Flats in the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality. The name is Xhosa for New Home. It is reputed to be one of the largest and fastest-growing townships in South Africa.
Cape Town initially opposed implementing the Group Areas Act passed in 1950, and residential areas in the city remained unsegregated until the first Group Areas were declared in the city in 1957. When Cape Town finally started implementing the Group Areas Act, it did so more severely than any other major city; by the mid-1980s, it had become one of the most segregated cities in South Africa.
Plans to build Khayelitsha were first announced by Dr Piet Koornhof in 1983, then Minister of Co-operation and Development. By 1985, the suburb Site C had 30,000 people. Khayelitsha was one of the apartheid regime's final attempts to enforce the Group Areas Act and was seen as the solution to two problems: the rapidly-growing number of migrants from the Eastern Cape, and overcrowding in other Cape Town townships.
The discrimination and black population control by the apartheid government did not prevent black people from settling in the outskirts of Cape Town. After the scrapping of pass laws in 1987, many black people, mainly Xhosas, moved into areas around Cape Town in search of work. By then, many black people had already illegally settled in townships like Nyanga and Crossroads. In 1983 and 1984, conditions in squatter camps like Crossroads and KTC worsened, and were exacerbated by official policing policy, in which homes were destroyed, and also by the emergence of the Witdoeke, led by "Mayor" Johnson Ngxobongwana. The Witdoeke were actively supported by the apartheid government in its fight against the ANC-aligned UDF, which had actively opposed plans for people to be moved to the new township of Khayelitsha. As the black population grew, the apartheid regime sought to solve the "problem" by establishing new black neighbourhoods. Khayelitsha was established in 1985 and large numbers of people were forcefully relocated there, mostly peacefully but occasionally with violence.
The Western Cape was a preference area for the local coloured population, and a system called "influx control" was in place to restrict Xhosas from travelling from the Transkei by requiring a permit. After the historic 1994 elections, hundreds of thousands moved to urban areas in search of work, education or both. Many of them erected shacks made of tin, wood and cardboard.
According to the 2011 census, Khayelitsha has a population of 391,749. In 2018, according to Dr Gio Perez, Chief Director for Metro Health Services, it is estimated the population has grown to just under 500 000 people. There is a lot of controversy around Khayelitsha demographics data, with some inaccurate claims that it is inhabited by in-between 1M and 2.4M people. During a commission of inquiry in 2014, Prof. Charles Simkins, a leading South African demographer who served on the Statistics Council for a decade, defended the census data and its methodology which evaluated that the number of inhabitants was between 370 000 and 426 000 in 2011. With the support of Prof. Jeremy Seekings, and by corroborating this data with the numbers of paid social grants provided by the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA), they concluded that their figures should be accepted as “substantially accurate”.
The ethnic makeup of Khayelitsha is approximately 99.5% Black African, 0.47% Coloured and 0.03% White, with Xhosa being the predominant language of the residents. Khayelitsha has a very young population, with fewer than 7% of its residents being over 50 years old and over 40% of its residents being under 19. In 2011, around 62% of residents in Khayelitsha were rural to urban migrants, most coming from the Eastern Cape. In the communities of Enkanini and Endlovini, over 85% of the residents were born in the Eastern Cape.
About 75% of residents identify themselves as Christian, and about 20% follow traditional beliefs; a small minority of residents identify themselves as Muslim.
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Khayelitsha
Khayelitsha (/ˌkaɪ.əˈliːtʃə/) is a township in Western Cape, South Africa, on the Cape Flats in the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality. The name is Xhosa for New Home. It is reputed to be one of the largest and fastest-growing townships in South Africa.
Cape Town initially opposed implementing the Group Areas Act passed in 1950, and residential areas in the city remained unsegregated until the first Group Areas were declared in the city in 1957. When Cape Town finally started implementing the Group Areas Act, it did so more severely than any other major city; by the mid-1980s, it had become one of the most segregated cities in South Africa.
Plans to build Khayelitsha were first announced by Dr Piet Koornhof in 1983, then Minister of Co-operation and Development. By 1985, the suburb Site C had 30,000 people. Khayelitsha was one of the apartheid regime's final attempts to enforce the Group Areas Act and was seen as the solution to two problems: the rapidly-growing number of migrants from the Eastern Cape, and overcrowding in other Cape Town townships.
The discrimination and black population control by the apartheid government did not prevent black people from settling in the outskirts of Cape Town. After the scrapping of pass laws in 1987, many black people, mainly Xhosas, moved into areas around Cape Town in search of work. By then, many black people had already illegally settled in townships like Nyanga and Crossroads. In 1983 and 1984, conditions in squatter camps like Crossroads and KTC worsened, and were exacerbated by official policing policy, in which homes were destroyed, and also by the emergence of the Witdoeke, led by "Mayor" Johnson Ngxobongwana. The Witdoeke were actively supported by the apartheid government in its fight against the ANC-aligned UDF, which had actively opposed plans for people to be moved to the new township of Khayelitsha. As the black population grew, the apartheid regime sought to solve the "problem" by establishing new black neighbourhoods. Khayelitsha was established in 1985 and large numbers of people were forcefully relocated there, mostly peacefully but occasionally with violence.
The Western Cape was a preference area for the local coloured population, and a system called "influx control" was in place to restrict Xhosas from travelling from the Transkei by requiring a permit. After the historic 1994 elections, hundreds of thousands moved to urban areas in search of work, education or both. Many of them erected shacks made of tin, wood and cardboard.
According to the 2011 census, Khayelitsha has a population of 391,749. In 2018, according to Dr Gio Perez, Chief Director for Metro Health Services, it is estimated the population has grown to just under 500 000 people. There is a lot of controversy around Khayelitsha demographics data, with some inaccurate claims that it is inhabited by in-between 1M and 2.4M people. During a commission of inquiry in 2014, Prof. Charles Simkins, a leading South African demographer who served on the Statistics Council for a decade, defended the census data and its methodology which evaluated that the number of inhabitants was between 370 000 and 426 000 in 2011. With the support of Prof. Jeremy Seekings, and by corroborating this data with the numbers of paid social grants provided by the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA), they concluded that their figures should be accepted as “substantially accurate”.
The ethnic makeup of Khayelitsha is approximately 99.5% Black African, 0.47% Coloured and 0.03% White, with Xhosa being the predominant language of the residents. Khayelitsha has a very young population, with fewer than 7% of its residents being over 50 years old and over 40% of its residents being under 19. In 2011, around 62% of residents in Khayelitsha were rural to urban migrants, most coming from the Eastern Cape. In the communities of Enkanini and Endlovini, over 85% of the residents were born in the Eastern Cape.
About 75% of residents identify themselves as Christian, and about 20% follow traditional beliefs; a small minority of residents identify themselves as Muslim.