how many people live in south africa townships

But by some measures, inequality in the country today is worse than it was under apartheid. Mandela’s rainbow nation was supposed to show the world how a new, equitable society could be built out of the ashes of repression and racism. But in an age of widening divides between rich and poor, South Africa stands out because of its squandered hopes. Violence in Imizamo Yethu is rife in April, five people were killed in a shoot-out between rival transport cartels that run the minibus networks linking the settlement to central Cape Town, 12 miles away.įor the past several decades, inequality has been on the rise in developed and developing countries alike. Hout Bay, which is about 50 times larger and mostly white, has roughly the same number of residents. More than 6,000 black families live in this area, which is about the size of a suburban American shopping mall. The few paved roads intersect with a network of mud paths that reek of raw sewage in the summer heat, and flood under winter rains. This ramshackle settlement clinging to a rock escarpment is made up of small brick houses, corrugated-aluminum shacks and lean-tos constructed from old shipping pallets. The view of Imizamo Yethu from the suburb below, Hout Bay, is also extraordinary, if for different reasons. To one side is a fishing village that has gentrified into quaint cafés and handicraft shops on the other are stately mansions, horse paddocks and the expansive campus of a prestigious private school. A panorama of rolling hills, sand dunes and stone cliffs unfurls to the sea. Even for the Western Cape, a province known for its stunning vistas, the view from the settlement of Imizamo Yethu is extraordinary.

How many people live in south africa townships