Townships vibes
Built as reserves for black people in the cities of South Africa, townships have acquired their own distinctive vibe and flavour.

Walk down NY1 (the main street in Gugulethu) and you’ll feel the vibe, in the music being played from cars to the clothes being worn by the fashionable township set. Living in a township is no excuse for bad taste!

The ubiquitous township shebeen came into being due to restrictions on the sale of alcohol to blacks in Apartheid South Africa.
Today shebeens are mostly frequented by men of all ages. These spots are still seen, in the townships, as gathering spots for bad elements of society.

Where do you live?
Until recently many townships didn’t have street names. Names like NY1, zone 25, and J-section are the typical township addresses. Newer housing developments have been given names, some of past political activists, some given names that no-one but the people in charge can explain.

Informal settlements
Many of Cape Town’s informal settlements sprang up in the 1970s with the black population exploding as a result of migration from the Eastern Cape.
Places like KTC and Crossroads sprang up overnight as people built their homes on vacant land. They were always under threat of demolition by the Apartheid security forces.
Today these former squatter camps have evolved into townships with people, having obtained title deeds, building their own homes, the corrugated iron shacks being replaced by brick and mortar. Check out for names like Taiwan, Barcelona, Lusaka and Kosovo.

Minibus Taxi’s
Minibus taxi's filled a transport gap left by bad planning by Apartheid authorities and poor public transport in mushrooming townships, and sprawling squatter camps. Minibus taxi’s, owned by black entrepreneurs, became one of the prime people movers for those traveling to and from business districts across the city.