Posts tagged soweto

Two days ago on our way to Mitchells plain, one of my fellow colleagues was discussing townships, she said that Khayalitsha (in Cape Town) was the second largest township in South Africa after Soweto (Joburg), well shortly after that another one intervened and said actually it shouldn’t be that way cause Mitchells plain is bigger than Khayalitsha. I then asked why isn’t Mitchells plain the second largest township when she replied because it isnt a township its a suburb.

well firstly what constitutes a township? aesthetics or the race populating the location? cause both do not make sense to me and i would love to be enlightened on this. If all areas populated by Black people are called townships then what are the areas populated by coloured people, Indians etc. called? if you argue that it depends on how the area looks among other factors, i ask what are these other factors? Khayalitsha and Mitchells plain honestly looked pretty much the same to me so the argument of aesthetics makes little sense. if a township is a place with a significant number of slums, Khayalitsha is not a township then? right? because there is just as much nice houses as there are in Mitchells plain, and more or less the same amount of impoverished households in MP like in Khayalitsha.

this question has really been bothering me and if you have more knowledge on this topic please share. i beg*