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• Document Page Count: 30
• Document Creation Date: January 12, 2017
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• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: December 1, 1986
• Content Type: REPORT

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Directorate of Confidential..
The South African Townships:
Crucibles of Violence
A Reference Aid
Confidential.
GI 86-10077
December 1986
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Directorate of Confidential
Intelligence
The South African Townships:
Crucibles of Violence
Geography Division, OGI,
Office of Global Issues. Comments and queries are
welcome and may be directed to the Chief,
This paper was prepared by
Confidential
GI 86-10077
December 1986
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The South African Townships:
Crucibles of Violence
Summary South Africa's racially segregated townships have become a major battle-
Information available ground in the continuing struggle by blacks to end apartheid and wrest full
as of 1 October 1986 political rights from the white government. Since the current wave of
was used in this report.
unrest began, few nonwhite townships, urban or rural, have escaped the
violence that has swept across South Africa over the past two years. Most
of the 2,000 or more deaths caused by the political turmoil have occurred
in black urban townships. The significance of the townships, however, goes
far beyond their role as sites of civil disturbances. Created originally as a
mechanism for the government to exert tight control over the nonwhite
population, the township system remains a cornerstone of police strategy to
contain civil unrest and a device for managing the pressure for urbaniza-
tion that South Africa shares with the rest of the Third World. At the same
time, the townships serve as a reminder to blacks of their politically and le-
gally inferior status.
Although nonwhite townships vary in physical makeup and quality of life,
most share a number of characteristics. They are usually located in distant
sites that require long, time-consuming travel to and from work in white
urban centers or industrial areas, usually via inadequate public transporta-
tion. The townships have few paved streets-unpaved roads and dusty
tracks are typical. Overcrowded barracks-like men's hostels and four-room
matchbox houses, frequently surrounded by shacks, lean-tos, and other
makeshift accommodations, house most township residents. Public utilities,
sewerage, water, and electrical services are minimal. Schools are under-
funded and there are scant recreational facilities or other urban amenities.
Crime rates are high. Local nonwhite township officials are regarded at
best as powerless figureheads, at worst as collaborators with the white
regime.
The township system represents a critical dilemma for the South African
Government. Its very existence generates unrest and violence, but it is a
key mechanism for government control over nonwhites. The townships
serve as focuses for nonwhite frustration and antiregime agitation, but they
can be sealed off from otherwise vulnerable white areas by security forces.
Having accepted urban blacks as permanent residents of South Africa, the
government is unlikely to abandon the township concept at any time in the
near future. Indeed, government adoption of a strategy of "orderly
urbanization" calls explicitly for the creation of new black townships, and
we expect them to remain at the core of the apartheid system.
Confidential
Confidential
GI 86-10077
December 1986
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Huge backlogs in government-provided housing and natural population
increases within townships have caused the rampant growth of squatter
camps around existing townships and especially in black homelands
adjacent to white urban areas. Informal settlements are expected to
increase tremendously in the future in response to migration to cities and
the housing shortage. Attempts by the government to control the prolifera-
tion of squatter camps have often resulted in violence and domestic and in-
ternational political pressure.
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The South African Townships:
Crucibles of Violence
What Are The "Townships" and
How Did They Come About?
In South Africa, a township is any division of land
that the government has legally proclaimed for resi-
dential, commercial, or industrial purposes. Since the
Group Areas Act of 1950, South Africa has officially
set aside discrete residential townships for black,
Colored, and Indian occupation.' Even before that
time, urban blacks generally occupied separate resi-
dential areas. Separation of blacks from whites as well
as segregation of Coloreds and Indians was accom-
plished by a pastiche of laws and social practices.
When the National Party came to power in 1948, it
concluded that these arrangements were too informal
to control the growing influx of blacks seeking work in
urban areas and enacted legislation to turn these ad
hoc arrangements into a more rigid and systematic
form of segregation.)
Out of economic necessity, the National Party estab-
lished the townships system to house "temporary
sojourners" in white South Africa until the fulfillment
of grand apartheid was realized. Over 30 years of
apartheid dogma meant no significant investment in
the permanent quality of townships. Resulting inade-
quacies translate into an enormous backlog of de-
mands for facilities and services. The government now
accepts the permanence of urban blacks, but under
the rubric of "orderly urbanization" it justifies re-
strictive measures it claims are to maintain standards
and avoid typical Third World urban squalor. South
African authorities, nevertheless, are increasingly
more willing to overlook certain characteristics associ-
ated with Third World cities, such as a growing
informal economy, to accommodate black aspirations.
Official nonwhite urban townships-as opposed to a
' White townships also exist, but are subject to quite different legal
regulations and usage patterns. In common South African parlance,
as well as for the purposes of this paper, the term township refers
exclusively to a land division for nonwhites. F_~
myriad of informal settlements or squatter communi-
ties that also house much of the nonwhite popula-
tion-now number only about 350, but together they
contain more than 9 million inhabitants, or about 30
percent of the nation's population and 35 percent of
its nonwhites, according to South African authorities.
Major white urban areas have the greatest concentra-
tions of townships in their environs but practically all
sizable white communities have some black satellite
settlements. (See appendix for a listing of township
names and locations, compiled from unofficial
sources.) Most urban nonwhite townships are located
20 kilometers or more from "white only" central
business districts, although Cape Town, Port Eliza-
beth, and Durban-where many communities abut
and blend-are exceptions. Generally, townships are
surrounded by broad buffer zones with limited access.
There is often only a single access road and a
perimeter road and gridiron street patterns to facili-
tate control over the residents. In addition, so-called
homeland townships also exist within the black home-
lands but serve a slightly different function from
townships near white areas.)
The government developed some of these townships
just within the borders of the homelands to facilitate
commuting by black workers to white areas that
usually are over 30 kilometers away. At the same
time, the government provided other townships deep
within the homelands to house families whose princi-
pal wage earner is a nonresident and employed in
white areas as a migrant worker or individuals unable
to support themselves, like the aged, widows, and
single women with dependent children. F__1
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Figure 1
Cape Town and Vicinity
1B"
20'
18'1
40'
Crossroads Selected non-
white township
l` r -\
\
Built-up area
\,
Railroad
~
Freeway
y
-'~
-
Road
Airport
/~ _ - -
BELLVILLE
0 3 Kilometers
PAR
OW
Mil
Port facilities
railyard
0 3
es
nt
Elsiesr
vier
bu
s( as
di
' r
r
Ravensmead S uthe
ca
n
dstoc
a
Ira L,~
00 bloom outrivie Epping
/ Ka selsviei
South
St
lion
"~. Ob mafory Forest
Lange
Bather
Atlantic
ontheuwel Bisho
p
Able
HazendaiBridgetown Levi?
Ocean
M
untai
n Athlone Gleemoor Silve
Belgravia Heideveld
side Surry Estate
P E Sunn
y
Gtuguletu
D. F. Malan
Hanover r
Primrose
International Airport
Park r',} ark
~
i Nyan
a i
i
Crossroads Mfuleni
34'00'-
-34?00'
1
Houtbaai
Healthfi Id' j Grassy
r
Park
Hangber
Mitchells
Retreat
l
i
_
Plain
Vals aai
'Zirnbabwe
Ocean View
~
ISHOEK WINDHOEK Botswana
~
N S. At,. 't Mozambique
Namibia GABORONE _
PRETORIA
"
'
Johan esburgt PPyTO
NJBABAN
-34
20
5razilan
f MASERU~Les
gtko
SIMONSTOWN
f
South South
Atlantic Africa
Ocean
Indian
Cape Town Ocean
0 200 Kilometers
20
0 200 Miles
Names are not necessarily authoritative.
1 B
?
1840
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What Do They Look Like?
Residential townships may be fully developed areas
with hard-shell housing, paved streets, and accompa-
nying urban infrastructure or simply "site-and-
service" areas with concrete slabs on which tents are
erected to house people expected to build their own
shacks. Within a given urban area, the quality of
actual housing can vary considerably. According to
the US Consulate, for example, Cape Town's three
major black townships are characterized by fixed
housing ranging from the cramped and filthy condi-
tions of men's hostels to the relative comfort of
Guguletu's Majuba Hill, where homes comparable to
those of upper-class whites are not uncommon. Most
typically, however, township houses are built on plots
varying in size from 75 square meters to 200 square
meters that can accommodate only the most rudimen-
tary type of dwelling. Such close quarters notwith-
standing, over the years almost every housing plot
seems to have sprouted shacks, lean-tos, permanent
tents, huts, and other informal housing as population
pressure and lack of new housing have forced non-
whites to develop makeshift, illegal solutions. F__1
How Have They Grown?
Over the past 10 years urban growth has been
characterized by informal settlements that mush-
roomed close to urban areas of white South Africa.
Much of this growth is the result of huge backlogs in
government housing and natural population increases
within existing townships. According to The Star of
Johannesburg, more people now live in informal set-
tlements (squatter camps) than in the legally declared
townships. The US Embassy reports that in the Cape
Town area there are at least three burgeoning squat-
ter camps with in-migration at the 1,000-person-a-
month level, including one in which the population has
risen from about 10,000 inhabitants to nearly 80,000
in just over a year. The International Red Cross now
puts the number of squatters in the Durban area at
1.5 million. At various times, the South African
Government has attempted to control the proliferation
of squatter camps by slum clearance, strict enforce-
ment of laws prohibiting ethnic mingling, and forced
removals. Under the program of removals, the govern-
ment relocated some 3 million nonwhites between
1960 and 1985, but, in response to both domestic and
international political pressure, announced a morato-
rium on these activities in 1985. Some removals have,
nevertheless, continued. Although the South African
Government claims that such removals are not forced,
they appear to involve manipulation and pressure by
the government, according to US Embassy reporting.
According to the Group Areas Act, all nonwhite
South Africans must live in areas officially pro-
claimed for their respective racial groups, as defined
by the government's peculiar taxonomy. Within these
group areas, most housing-whether formal or infor-
mal-clusters in or around residential townships.
Population estimates for individual townships range
from several thousand for some of the smaller ones to
more than 100,000 for the larger ones. Soweto, South
Africa's largest black city, has almost 2 million
inhabitants. (Soweto, an acronym for Southwestern
Townships, is actually a complex of 30 individual, but
closely related, townships.) The urban black popula-
tion has settled mainly along tribal lines, except in the
Pretoria-Johannesburg area where they are more
mixed. More than 90 percent of urban blacks in the
western Cape Province and Port Elizabeth consist of
Xhosa, and more than 85 percent of urban blacks in
Durban of Zulu. In the, Pretoria-Johannesburg area
the Zulu represent the major ethnic group (20 per-
cent) followed by the Southern Sotho, Tswana, Xhosa,
Northern Sotho, Swazi, and Shangaan. Even here,
individual neighborhoods are often ethnically distinct.
Over 80 percent of the Indians live in Natal chiefly
around Durban. Some 85 percent of the Coloreds live
in the western Cape Province, mostly in and around
Cape Town.F_~
The educational level of most permanent township
residents in urban areas is reasonably high, especially
when compared with that of homeland residents. A
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Figure 2
Durban and Vicinity
------ Chatiy"h
U Louis Botha
International Airport
Reunion Selected non-
white township
Built-up area
Railroad
Freeway
Road
WINDHOEK[-
+
S. At,.
\ Port -
facilities
Indian
Ocean
'Ziirthabwe
0 200 Kilometers
200 0 2Milos
JRETORA
lohen nesh a ra* *UTO
f Me BAN * v
,,/ Sv(azilad
Indian
Ocean
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Figure 3
South Africa: Total Population
by Ethnic Group, 1984
Figure 4
South Africa: Urban Population
by Ethnic Group, 1984
study by the Center for Applied Social Sciences at the
University of Natal of black education in the Durban
area reports, for example, that the median education-
al attainment for township residents is 11.4 years.'
Squatter camp dwellers have a median education of 6
years, and contract workers living in barracks-like
structures called hostels have only 1.5 years. This
education profile probably applies to most urban
blacks in the larger metropolitan areas. Not surpris-
ingly, according to the study, unemployment is high-
est among squatter camp dwellers and, of those
employed, the majority are semiskilled. In contrast,
formal townships host nearly all of the white-collar
workers as well as approximately one-third of the
semiskilled workers.
' This figure is less impressive when the quality of that education is
taken into account. Black and Colored students in South Africa
enjoy facilities, instructional materials, and teachers that are
significantly inferior in quality and quantity to that offered white
students.F____1
Quality of Life
Nearly every aspect of township life is controlled by
national laws, most of which are aimed at controlling
the freedom of movement of nonwhite South Afri-
cans. Even though Pretoria has abolished the hated
pass laws, its replacement, which requires all South
Africans 16 or older to carry uniform identity docu-
ments, will serve a similar function when applied in
concert with the strictures of the Group Areas Act
that remains intact. In the past, the Black (Urban
Areas) Consolidation Act and Black Labor Act had
governed movement, residence, and employment in
the cities. The new system permits the white govern-
ment to exercise almost identical control.
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In terms of black spending power, the cost for essen-
tial services such as housing, transportation, and
utilities is very high:
? According to a 1984 race relations survey, the
average monthly income for blacks is less than one-
sixth that of whites. Compounding the problem of
low wages is the high rate of unemployment and
underemployment among blacks. Urban black un-
employment overall is approximately 25 percent,
but it may reach 60 percent in some areas such as
Port Elizabeth, according to the US Embassy. A
private South African survey found that 31 percent
of black urban men and 23 percent of black women
earned additional income from street vending, sew-
ing, and other odd jobs to supplement their regular
income.
? Fixed housing is in particularly short supply. An
official of the South African Urban Foundation
estimates a shortage of about 700,000 homes for all
races, including 540,000 for blacks. According to a
reliable press report, more than 2 million urban
blacks do not have homes, and many more are living
in substandard housing. Less than 1.25 percent of
the total black population own their own homes,
according to a private South African study. The
others must rent government-built family houses,
although individuals on work contracts are provided
space in government-maintained hostels. In recent
years the South African Government has liberalized
opportunities for homeownership by blacks, first by
allowing purchases of government-built homes un-
der 99-year leasehold and, more recently, under
freehold. Despite subsidies and an intensive promo-
tional campaign, sales are weak, and the blacks'
willingness to risk home investment in many areas
has been overtaken by their fear of damage from the
continuing unrest.
? The poor quality of education has been a major
cause for protest in the black community. According
to the South African Institute of Race Relations, in
1984 the South African Government spent R234
per black student, R569 per Colored student,
R1,088 per Indian student, and R1,654 per white
student (1R = US$0.40; figures include capital
expenditures). Black schooling, or "Bantu Educa-
tion," has been characterized by financial starva-
tion, pupil/teacher ratios of 50, 60, or more to 1,
makeshift classrooms, rudimentary inferior facili-
ties whether for science or sports, unqualified
teachers, and high dropout rates. In contrast, white
schooling is generally comparable to that available
in Northern Europe. Even so, black parents are
required to pay school fees, while white education is
free.
? The quality of health care varies among the town-
ships, but urban townships tend to be better
equipped than rural ones. Most urban townships
have clinics and sometimes hospitals staffed by full-
time personnel. Rural townships often lack any
formal health care facilities; when clinics are avail-
able, they often lack a full-time staff.
? Few blacks can afford cars, and many who owned
cars have had them commandeered or destroyed
during the current unrest. Public transportation,
though subsidized, is expensive. Bus companies have
refused to provide service in some of the worst riot-
torn townships after stonethrowing mobs destroyed
buses and sometimes even killed drivers, forcing
some workers to walk great distances each day to
and from their homes. Some black commuters spend
more than six hours traveling to and from work in
Pretoria, according to an Embassy report. The same
source reports that in the countries of the EC the
average distance traveled by bus commuters is less
than 14 kilometers a day, as compared with 28
kilometers a day for black South African
commuters.
? Public facilities are inadequate and often in disre-
pair. Many public buildings, particularly schools,
have been burned or severely damaged during the
current unrest. According to the South African
Institute of Strategic Studies, destruction on the
order of R211 million has been caused by rioters
from September 1984 through April 1986.
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The Black Local Authorities Act of 1982 provided for
the establishment of full-fledged municipal authori-
ties for the black urban areas. Black townships still,
however, have almost no financial resources other
than rents and utility fees with which to provide
services, and the new local authorities quickly became
the focus of black protest. Councilors have often been
the target of violence and intimidation, resulting in
wholesale resignations and the collapse of many local
authorities. During continuing unrest in 1986, rent
boycotts spread to over 50 townships, according to
press reports, costing those township governments
about $16 million per month in lost revenue. F-7
A Representative Black Township
Duduza, near Nigel in the Transvaal, is a typical
black township. Grossly overpopulated, its infrastruc-
ture is inadequate for even basic services. The present
population, estimated at 35,000, is expected to in-
crease to 43,000 by 1987. The residential area was
officially proclaimed in 1964, but most of the 4,500
residences are still without electricity. The housing
shortage is critical: more than 800 families are on the
waiting list for individual houses. Hostels, barracks-
like structures for males on work contracts, accommo-
date some 1,505. Only 370 hectares are available for
development; communal taps (one for every 13 houses)
supply water; sewerage is practically nonexistent;
streets remain untarred; and there are no leasehold
property rights (most of the area is unsurveyed).0
Soweto
Soweto is perhaps the best known black urban center
in South Africa, particularly since the 16 June 1976
riots that began there and spread to other areas of the
country. Located southwest of Johannesburg, and
separated from that city by a broad marshy tract
dotted with settling ponds and mine tailings, Soweto is
accessible by rail and highway. It is about an hour's
commute by bus to the Johannesburg central business
district.)
The 30 townships that make up the Soweto complex
are almost indistinguishable in general appearance,
but each has its own distinctive characteristics. Orlan-
do, the oldest and the closest to Johannesburg, was
first settled in the 1930s and houses a relatively stable
group-second- and third-generation residents. The
newest part, or deep Soweto, is approximately 16
kilometers south of Orlando; it houses the more recent
arrivals, the poorest of the poor. No signs identify the
few paved streets that crisscross the townships, or the
maze of dusty side streets. There are few distinguish-
ing landmarks: no large shopping centers, only occa-
sional small grocery or liquor stores, a few gas
stations, a train depot, three soccer stadiums, seven
swimming pools, and three movie houses to serve
nearly 2 million people.
Soweto has approximately 100,000 "matchbox"
houses (one-story, rectangular brick structures, each
about 20 feet by 25 feet). An average of 14 people live
in each four-room house. Most of the houses are
candle-lit, but Soweto is scheduled to be completely
electrified by the late 1980s-four decades after it
was founded. Unlike most other urban centers where
only one or two of the 10 or so black ethnic groups are
represented drawn from the closest rural area, Soweto
is a "melting pot." Some Sowetans have mastered as
many as eight or nine languages. The overall crime
rate is very high. Strict gun control laws are in effect
for blacks, but, even though most of the homicides are
committed with knives, the number of armed robber-
ies and murders committed with guns has increased
over the last year. About 1,000 murders occur each
year-several hundred more than Chicago, which has
twice the population.F__-]
Not surprisingly, South Africa's black urban town-
ships have been the site of most of the racially
motivated violence sweeping the country over the past
several years. Of the total South African population
of 30 million, some 80 percent are urban residents.
This includes over 90 percent of the whites and most
of the Coloreds and Indians. Notably, however, at
least half of all urban South Africans are blacks living
in or around segregated townships, and experts expect
this share to continue rising fast-to 65 percent or
more by the end of the century. Not only are these
blacks and Coloreds relatively well educated but they
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In a South African Township ...
South African soldiers line roadway
in Thokoza Township.
? . . in the new village of Khayelitsha, where the inhabitants of
Crossroads are being relocated.
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Figure 5
Urban Areas With Nonwhite Townships in the Johannesburg Vicinity
South
Atlantic
Ocean
Zirrit abwe
Indian
Ocean
Garankuwa
26?30
BENONI City with nonwhite
township
Alexandra Selected township
Dobsonlville
Nal di'
railr ad
stab
Nancefiel
I d
/
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Gallery of Township Residents
Townships house a broad cross section of nonwhite
South Africans from the very poor living in hostels
and rundown government houses to the few relatively
well-to-do living in custom-built houses. No matter
what their social or economic status, they are all
being profoundly affected by the continuing turmoil
in the townships. On the basis of
US Embassy and press reports,
~we have profiled
seven typical kinds of township dwellers who, even
though better off than most, must cope with the
repressive apartheid laws and daily violence. F_
The Policeman. After the third attack on his home
left nothing unscathed, a black policeman joined
hundreds of other policemen who have moved to
safety outside the townships to live in tents near the
station house or who have left the police force
entirely. His black neighbors often view the police-
man as a symbol of white rule, and he lives infearfor
his life and the safety of his family. He joined the
police force to maintain law and order and has no
sympathy for the rioters' view that peaceful protest
will win them nothing. His children do not attend
school for fear of reprisals, and often are sent for
safety to stay with relatives in rural or homeland
areas.
The Teacher. As a teacher at a secondary school in
Soweto, she is faced with the daily dilemma of trying
to satisfy the demands of pupils, parents, the educa-
tion authorities, and the police. If the pupils feel the
teacher is not responsive to their wishes, her life may
be threatened; the parents feel the teacher should be
their children's savior; and the authorities demand
that the teacher be loyal to them. The teacher has
been told that with her qualifications she should
leave the school, but she believes her duty lies with
solving the problems, not escaping to lecture at a
university.
The Student Protest Leader. The leader is a 21-year-
old male. During his schooling, disruptions because
of boycotts and failure to take examinations have
cost him an average of three years' education. He is
an articulate, forceful speaker, by the standards of
his peers. Like most of his counterparts, he is not the
product of a broken family or delinquent parents. His
parents probably belong to the nascent black middle
class and he usually gets what he wants from them.
He has lost respect for his parents and other author-
ity figures, whom he sees as docile participants in the
apartheid system. He feels his parents and other
elders have failed him and his generation. He de-
spises the police, whom he sees as part of a repressive
system that holds him back by feeding him "poison-
ous education. " He is impatient with his parents'
generation. He tends to regard arrest and prosecution
not as stigmas but as status symbols. F_~
The Manager. An account executive with a bank in
Johannesburg, she is a middle-class black, who with
her husband, an inspector for the education depart-
ment, earns $24,000 a year-a high income for
blacks or whites. She is able to send her children to a
private school and recently built a modern home in a
are young: over 20 percent are young adults between
15 and 24, the age group with the highest propensity
to violence in most countries.' Their political aware-
ness is also increasing, a process sharpened by the
unemployment, street-corner political rhetoric, and
more visible black-white imbalances characteristic of
the urban township setting.
The current unrest in South Africa began in Johan-
nesburg townships in September 1984 with protests
over nonwhite parliamentary elections and the new
Constitution and was exacerbated by sharp rent and
transportation increases and other local grievances. In
February 1985 rioting broke out in the eastern Cape
townships, hit hard by recession. In western Cape
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more prosperous section of Soweto. She reluctantly
decided to move from the old home in Soweto, which
had no indoor plumbing, in part because her family
could no longer fit into the old neighborhood and she
feared that they might become targets for collaborat-
ing with the white system. A former teacher, she
plans to give up her job to pursue a graduate
education program in London and return to Soweto
to open an alternative school for black children.
The Rich Man. An Indian by ancestry, this business-
man operates three record stores in Cape Town's
white suburbs and has an extremely successful store
in Stellenbosch, where his top black salesman regu-
larly sells upmarket stereo gear to the stars of
Afrikaner sports. The price he pays to stay in busi-
ness includes a conscious decision to stay out of the
booming new shopping malls, thousands of rands in
bail money annually paid to those arrested in street
demonstrations as incentives to leave his stores alone,
and constant worry about how he and his company fit
into Cape Town's complex social structures. He is
steeped in the complexities forced on him by apart-
heid: he lives in an illegal house because his
Colored wife has no right to live in the Indian "area"
of Rylands; he trades illegally because his wife owns
his Colored area stores and a white nominee owns his
central business district stores; and he even sends his
children to a private school that they are not legally
permitted to attend because of their mixed racial
background.
Province, rumors of a government plan to relocate
Crossroads squatters caused rioting that claimed 18
lives and injured over 250. One month later, police
opened fire on a crowd of blacks marching to attend a
funeral near Uitenhage and 19 blacks were killed.
Escalating unrest during the next four months
prompted the declaration of a 220-day state of emer-
gency covering the major urban centers, except Dur-
ban, in July of last year followed by a nationwide
state of emergency in June 1986.1
The Messenger. In order to catch a 6 a.m. bus to his
job in the city as a messenger at an engineering firm,
this father of four must rise at 4 a.m. His wife was a
factory machinist until she was laid off. Because of
the riots, buses no longer enter the township and he
must walk 4 kilometers to get home. When he and the
other workers get off the bus, they are stoned by
youths. Despite his meager income, he must shop at a
local store, which usually doubles its prices during
riots. He managed to purchase a refrigerator and a
television but cannot get them delivered because
delivery vans are burned if they enter the township.
While he is at work he worries for the safety of his
children and home. The fact that most township
houses like his bought under the 99-year-lease
scheme are not insured adds to the worry.
The Squatter. A recent arrival from the Transkei, this
widowed mother of three moved to a squatter area
near Cape Town hoping to find work to support her
children. With little education and no job training, and
because the Cape is a Colored Labor Preference area,
she has little hope offinding even intermittent employ-
ment. Early each morning she leaves her shack, built
of cardboard and bits of wood, to scavenge in the
refuse pit for food and items to sell in the squatter
community. She joins other single mothers like herself
who get first crack at the refuse and guard their finds
with machetes and sticks. Even if she found a job she
would not have carfare to get to it. Her children show
signs of malnutrition, and she lives in fear that the
authorities will send her back to the homeland, where
her situation would be even worse.
The unrest has been characterized by clashes with
security forces and factional violence within the town-
ships and only sporadic attacks on the white commu-
nity. There has been a continuing increase in the use
of knives, guns, and grenades over the past two years.
Incidents of arson, petrol-bombing, and stonethrowing
have been widespread and common to all unrest areas.
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More recently, some black and Colored vigilante
groups have been formed in response to intratownship
violence. Antiapartheid critics charge that govern-
ment policies have intensified traditional tribal rival-
ries that often erupt into violence.
Antigovernment resistance at the local level has per-
sisted despite the state of emergency restriction, al-
though at a lower level. School and consumer boycotts
are continuing in Soweto and the eastern Cape Prov-
ince. nearly 50 percent
of all unrest incidents occur in t ese two areas;
violence in Soweto in late August claimed more than
20 lives.
Intimidation within the townships continues as mili-
tant youth or "comrades" pressure residents to partic-
ipate in boycotts. Student boycotters ensure a large
pool of available protestors. Black political activity is
continuing despite bans on public meetings and dem-
onstrations, although there is still no apparent nation-
wide network.
The South African Government has accepted the
necessity of a racially integrated economy and the
permanence of urban blacks and has also conceded
the inevitability of an urban aspiration among blacks.
Racial violence and black pressure for an equal share
of political rights and economic benefits, however,
have underscored inherent contradictions in the go-
vernment's urban township policy:
? As they now exist, these segregated residential areas
serve, for blacks, as emotionally charged symbols of
their inferior status. By grouping nonwhites togeth-
er, the townships probably tend to focus both frus-
tration and rage against the white ruling class. They
also make it simpler for political agitators to find
sympathetic ears for their antiregime messages.
? At the same time, however, for most white South
Africans, segregated residential areas are a funda-
mental right. The townships continue to be a critical
element in the government's ability to keep violence
from threatening the white community. South Afri-
can security forces have repeatedly demonstrated
that they can seal off the townships very rapidly
and effectively screen any movement to and from
them while conducting meticulous house-to-house
searches. Moreover, elaborate legal controls, as well
as the enforced geographical separation and isola-
tion of many black townships, limit the capacity of
blacks to strike out at white authority beyond their
own communities.)
Consequently, although the townships are currently
serving as a major catalyst for the antiapartheid
protests, the government is unlikely in the foreseeable
future to weaken one of its most important mecha-
nisms for keeping nonwhites physically in check.
Indeed, the government is going ahead with plans for
the development of new townships. In mid-1986, for
example, a proposal for a new black township north of
Johannesburg-dubbed Norweto in press reports-
was floated for public comment. Conceding the enor-
mous cost of such a project, the government has called
for major private-sector involvement in the provision
of housing and services. While critics have rejected
new township construction as a costly perpetration of
past mistakes, US Embassy reporting
stresses that repeal of the Group Areas Act is nonne-
gotiable for the mainstream of the National Party and
for the majority of its constituents. F__1
There is, nonetheless, speculation that the 1987 par-
liamentary session might see a softening of its edges.
This could take the form of amendments allowing
localities to legalize "gray areas" at their own option,
or perhaps even the creation of new areas designated
explicitly for multiracial residence. (In so-called gray
areas the law is openly violated. Whites in such areas
are tolerant of their nonwhite neighbors.) Resistance
to even such partial relaxation is likely to be strong.
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Appendix
Town Name (Township) a
Location
Province
Ethnicity
Coordinates
Alexandra
Johannesburg
Transvaal
B
26 06 30S 28 05 40E
Alexandria
Grahamstown
Cape
NA
33 39 OOS 27 25 OOE
Allandale
Queenstown
Cape
C
32 26 OOS 27 16 30E
Alra Park
Nigel
Transvaal
C
26 25 30S 28 29 OOE
Amalinda
East London
Cape
NA
32 59 45S 27 50 OOE
Andalusia Park
Jan Kempdorp
Cape
C
Ashton
Western Cape
Cape
NA
33 50 OOS 20 03 OOE
Athlone
Cape Town
Cape
C
33 58 OOS 18 30 OOE
Athlone West
Cape Town
Cape
C
B
25 46 20S 28 04 30E
C
Belgravia
Cape Town
Cape
C
33 58 OOS 18 31 OOE
Bishop Lavis
Cape Town
Cape
C
33 56 50S 18 34 40E
Blanco
George
Cape
C
33 57 30S 22 25 30E
Blue Waters
East London
Cape
NA
Bochebela
Bloemfontein
Orange Free State
B
29 09 I5S 26 14 20E
a Township names have been compiled from unofficial sources
(NOMAD data base).
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South African Townships (continued)
Breidbach
King Williams Town
Cape
32 53 30S 27 26 30E
Bridgetown
Cape Town
Cape
33 57 20S 18 32 OOE
Buffalo Flats
East London
Cape
33 03 30S 27 52 30E
Cambridge
East London
Cape
32 58 30S 27 53 OOE
Cathcart
Eastern Cape
Cape
32 18 00S 27 09 OOE
Cato Manor
Durban
Natal
29 51 40S 30 57 OOE
Coronationville
Johannesburg
Transvaal
26 11 20S 27 58 30E
Cravenby
Cape Town
Cape
33 55 30S 18 35 20E
Crossroads - Sq
Cape Town
Cape
33 5940S 18 36 05E
Daveyton
Johannesburg
Transvaal
26 09 OOS 28 25 30E
Dennilton
Kwandebele
Transvaal
25 1600S 29 10 30E
Diepkloof
Johannesburg, Soweto
Transvaal
26 14 15S27 57 OOE
Dimbaza
King Williams Town
Cape
32 50 30S 27 07 OOE
Dobsonville
Johannesburg, Soweto
Transvaal
26 13 20S 27 52 OOE
Dondonald
Lothair
Transvaal
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South African Townships (continued)
Cape
Cape
Cape
Cape
Queenstown Cape
Cape Town Cape
Cape Town Cape
Galeshwe
Kimberley
Garankuwa
Gatesville
Cape Town
Geluksdal
Brakpan
26
20 30S 28 22 OOE
Gelvandale
Port Elizabeth
Cape
33
55 30S 26 33 OOE
Ginsberg
King Williams Town
Cape
32
53 45S 27 22 30E
Gleemoor
Cape Town
Cape
33
57 45S 18 31 OOE
Grassy Park
Cape Town
Cape
34
02 40S 18 30 OOE
Greylingstad
Johannesburg
Transvaal
264500S 28 44 30E
Guguletu
Cape Town
Cape
33
58 40S 18 34 IOE
Gwaba
King Williams Town
Cape
32
54 30S 27 18 OOE
Hambanati
Durban
Natal
2934 30S31 07 OOE
Hammarsdale
Durban
Natal
294800S 30 39 45E
Hangberg
Cape Town
Cape
34 03 20S 18 20 40E
Hanover Park
Cape Town
Cape
33 59 20S 18 32 OOE
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South African Townships (continued)
Hazendal
Cape Town
Cape
C
33 57 15S 18 30 20E
Heathfield
Cape Town
Cape
C
34 03 OOS 18 28 OOE
Heideveld
Cape Town
Cape
C
33 58 OOS 18 33 40E
Hofmeyr
Cradock
Cape
NA
31 39 OOS 25 48 15E
Hornlee
Knysna
Cape
C
34 02 OOS 23 03 30E
Houtbaai
Cape Town
Cape
C
34 02 20S 18 21 15E
Hinge
Queenstown
Cape
B
31 59 OOS 27 02 30E
Ingogo
Kwazulu
Natal
Z
27 34 30S 29 53 30E
Isipingo
Durban
Natal
I
29 58 45S 30 55 OOE
Kagiso Krugersdorp Transvaal B 26 09 OOS 27 48 OOE
Kayamnandi Stellenbosch Cape NA 33 55 OOS 18 50 45E
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South African Townships (continued)
Kuilsrivier Cape Town Cape C 33 55 30S 18 41 OOE
Kutloanong Odenaalsrus Orange Free State NA 27 51 OOS 26 45 30E
Kwadabeka Durban Natal NA 29 45 30S 30 55 30E
Kwanobuhle
Uitenhage
Cape
B
33 48 30S 26 23 OOE
Kwanobushle
Uitenhage
Cape
B
33 48 30S 26 23 OOE
Kwanogane
Middleburg
Cape
NA
Johannesburg
Transvaal
NA
26 18 OOS 28 23 30E
Port Elizabeth
Cape
B
33 52 30S 25 34 20E
Oudtshoorn
Cape
NA
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South African Townships (continued)
Witbank
Transvaal
B
25 52 OOS 29 12 OOE
Pretoria, Boph.
Transvaal
B
26 30 OOS 28 04 OOE
Somerset West
Cape
C
34 04 OOS 18 46 OOE
B
24 09 OOS 28 57 OOE
I
Manenberg
Cape Town
Cape
C
33 59 30S 18 33 20E
Maraisberg
Roodepoort
Transvaal
B
26 10 45S 27 56 20E
Maraisplaas
Mosselbaai
Cape
NA
Mpophomeni
Pietermaritzburg
Natal
NA
29 34 OOS 30 11 OOE
Mpumalanga
Durban
Natal
NA
29 49 OOS 30 37 OOE
Mtunzini
Northern Natal
Natal
NA
28 57 OOS 31 45 30E
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South African Townships (continued)
Nooitgedacht
Cape Town
Cape
C
33 57 15S 18 35 OOE
Northdale
Pietermaritzburg
Natal
NA
29 33 20S 30 23 45E
Nqkebela
Robertson
Cape
NA
Nyanga
Cape Town
Cape
B
33 59 40S 18 35 20E
Observatory
Cape Town
Cape
C
33 56 15S 18 28 05E
Ocean View
Cape Town
Cape
C
34 08 45S 18 21 20E
Okhukho
Kwazulu
Natal
Z
Pabalello
Upington
Cape
B
28 27 OOS 21 13 OOE
Pacaltsdorp
George
Cape
C
34 01 OOS 22 27 30E
Parkside
East London
Cape
C
33 01 OOS 27 53 30E
Parkwood
Cape Town
Cape
C
34 01 45S 18 30 20E
Pefferville
East London
Cape
C
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South African Townships (continued)
Town Name (Township) a
Location
Province
Ethnicity
Coordinates
Phillipi
Western Cape
Cape
C
34 01 OOS 18 34 45E
Phillipstown
Northern Cape
Cape
NA
30 26 OOS 24 25 OOE
Phoenix
Durban
Natal
I
29 42 30S 31 00 OOE
Phomolong
Kroonstad
Orange Free State
NA
Ratanda
Heidelberg
B
26 33 OOS 28 20 OOE
Ravensmead
Cape Town
C
33 55 30S 18 36 15E
Refenghgotso
Vaal Triangle
B
Reigerpark
Boksburg
Transvaal
C
26 13 30S 28 14 OOE
1 33 58 15S 18 31 50E
I 26 11 30S 28 21 45E
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South African Townships (continued)
Town Name (Township) a
Location
Province
Ethnicity
Coordinates
B
26 34 30S 27 50 OOE
C
Sharpville
Vereeniging
Transvaal
B
26 41 OOS 27 52 30E
Shongweni
Kwazulu
Natal
Z
Silvertown
Cape Town
Cape
C
33 57 45S 18 31 40E
Slangspruit
Pietermaritzburg
Natal
NA
29 39 20S 30 21 30E
Sobantu
Pietermaritzburg
Natal
NA
29 35 45S 30 25 20E
Songa
Uitenhage
Cape
NA
Soshanguve
Johannesburg
Transvaal
B
25 34 30S 28 05 OOE
Soutrivier
Cape Town
Cape
C
33 55 50S 18 28 OOE
Soweto
Johannesburg
Transvaal
B
26 15 OOS 27 53 10E
Soweto-On-Sea Sq
Port Elizabeth
Cape
B
Steenberg
Cape Town
Cape
C
34 04 30S 18 28 20E
Steynville
Piketberg
Cape
C
Sunnyside
Cape Town
Cape
C
33 58 15S 18 31 OOE
Surrey Estate
Cape Town
Cape
C
33 58 30S 18 33 OOE
Sydenham
Durban
Natal
I
29 49 40S 30 59 20E
Sykes Farm
Verulam
Natal
I
Tembisa
Johannesburg
Transvaal
B
26 00 30S 27 14 30E
Thabong
Pretoria
Transvaal
B
25 44 30S 28 07 30E
The Range
Cape Town
Cape
C
Thornhill
Queenstown
Cape
B
31 59 OOS 26 07 OOE
Tlhabane
Bophuthatswana
Transvaal
B
26 38 OOS 27 13 OOE
Thokoza
Alberton
Transvaal
B
26 21 OOS 28 09 OOE
Touwsriver
Western Cape
Cape
NA
33 20 30S 20 02 45E
Tsakane
Springs
Transvaal
B
26 21 OOS 28 23 OOE
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South African Townships (continued)
Umbumbulu Durban Natal B 29 59 OOS 30 44 OOE
Umlazi Kwazulu Natal B 29 57 40S 30 53 OOE
Valencia Park Nelspruit Transvaal I
Zwelentemba Worcester
Zwelitsha King Williams Town
Zwide Port Elizabeth
Cape
Cape
Cape
NA 33 39 OOS 19 29 30E
B 32 55 30S 27 25 30E
NA 33 52 00S 25 33 45E
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