Redefining Community

Click Here for Photos of the Township

“The children are so clean,” said one “ugly American” shortly after we arrived at a township just outside Cape Town. Initially, I was horrified by her callous remark, but as I took another look at the kids I realized she wasn’t an ugly American after all. She was simply more observant and honest about these sort of things than I. These children were remarkably clean, especially considering the dirt and dust surrounding them. In fact, they were immaculate; their clothes were probably cleaner than mine were while growing up. (Sorry, mom…)

“Of course, they are clean,” a woman told us. “These are our children.”

But it wasn’t just the children. It was everyone. There is a certain pride –the locals prefer to call it dignity – that permeates the townships of South Africa.

There are some in the city of Cape Town who beg; those in the townships do not. The people living here are adamant that they do not want a hand out. The unemployment rate may be 40%, but the 60% of people who do work share what they have. It is, they say, what people do when they live in community.

There is tremendous care and pride taken in the family homes. Shacks or shanties we might call them, but to the people living there, they are homes. They are clearly not shacks and certainly not houses, we are told. A local man points out that houses are “merely structures.” Homes, he says, are a place of family. These are homes, regardless of the fact that they are remarkably overcrowded and most do not have running water. (Porta-potties have been erected and community water stations are provided by the government for cooking, drinking and laundry.)

As the townships grow – and they are continuing to grow rather than shrink –the infrastructure is increasingly taxed. The largest township in Cape Town has 1.2 million people, but the infrastructure is designed to support far fewer. I visited two townships: the first with 80,000 people supported by an infrastructure for about 30,000; the second township – the newest in Cape Town – has 20,000 people, but it is growing very rapidly and the government has frozen its infrastructure for only 8,000.

It was there, in that township of 20,000, that we met one woman who shares one water structure with eighty people.

The biggest fear in the townships is not crime; it is fire. Most of these structures are made with wood. If one catches fire an entire community could burn. It is a terrifying concept. No doubt this is why the government provides most of the homes with electricity, rather that encouraging people to resort to fires for heat and cooking.

Because the townships are located a distance from the city, the economy relies primarily on home-based businesses that sell within the community. We visited one home-based business where a woman bakes doughnuts that she sells for 1 Rand (or about 7 cents) each. We met two men who run a grocery store that sells fresh fruits and vegetables. They are particularly popular on Saturdays as families prepare for their Sunday meals, the main meal of the week.

One family fashions purses out of old somewhat scratched records. I’d have bought one were it not for the fact that I couldn’t figure out how I’d pack it for the rest of my journey. Surprisingly, a number of people operate cell phone businesses out of metal shipping containers.

It is not possible to leave the townships without being changed in some way. In three hours, not one person exhibited bitterness or anger about their living conditions. As one man said, “We do not complain about our lives here, for if we did, nobody would listen.” Easy to say; hard to do.

The government has declared that the townships will be gone by 2010, but they have made almost no progress toward that goal. Furthermore, the people in the townships are exerting no pressure to move. Unbelievably – or believably if you have been here – most of those who live here have no desire to leave.

I am not naïve. I did not come away convinced that people in the townships should continue living in these horrific conditions. But there are enviable aspects of the townships. The challenge for those living here now will be to balance a move into new communities in a manner that combines the values of the townships with infrastructure that most of us in America (and central Cape Town) have come to depend on.