Nowhere else in Cape Town is the contrast between the wealthy and the wretched as visible and as stark as in Hout Bay. And nowhere else are people as desperate, fed-up and suspicious of one another.
Caught between the mountains and the cold blue Atlantic, Hout Bay is truly beautiful. “This is probably the only place in the world where I can literally sit with my feet in human shit and my back against my R2000 shack and look up to the mountains and across the valley on to a R3-million house and think: I live in a lovely place,” says Priscilla Moloke, who lives in Mandela Park, Imizamo Yethu.
Hout Bay’s problems started at least 30 years ago, when the numbers of black and coloured people — who have been settling here for generations because of the fishing industry — grew and couldn’t be housed in the single hostel built behind the harbour. As a result people started building shacks in the bushes off the beach. Moloke was born here. Now Moloke lives in Imizamo Yethu in a shack where she raised her boys. She has all but given up hope of owning land.
“Land ownership is one of the most fundamental questions we have to answer in transforming our society. It’s the most emotional and seemingly the most dangerous — it threatens our future says Cosatu’s Western Cape secretary general Tony Ehrenreich. “Hout Bay’s issues are a microcosm of South Africa — that’s why everybody wants to have their say about what happens here.”
Imizamo Yethu is home to about 18 000. A study by the Southern African Labour, Development and Research Unit (Saldru) found that more than 96% of Imizamo Yethu’s residents live in shacks.
In Hout Bay itself the residents are mostly white and affluent and own some of the country’s most expensive property.
The smallest group of residents, about 8000 people, are coloureds who live on the slopes of Hangberg, overlooking Chapman’s Peak. In this community only four kids successfully finished their matric exam last year. An estimated 80% of high school kids have used tik. About 40% of all black and coloured people in Hout Bay are unemployed.
Because of the divisive land issue, relations between community groups, ratepayers, political parties and racial groups and individuals have deteriorated so much that Cosatu recently asked the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation to facilitate meetings between them… M&G
Caught between the mountains and the cold blue Atlantic, Hout Bay is truly beautiful. “This is probably the only place in the world where I can literally sit with my feet in human shit and my back against my R2000 shack and look up to the mountains and across the valley on to a R3-million house and think: I live in a lovely place,” says Priscilla Moloke, who lives in Mandela Park, Imizamo Yethu.
Hout Bay’s problems started at least 30 years ago, when the numbers of black and coloured people — who have been settling here for generations because of the fishing industry — grew and couldn’t be housed in the single hostel built behind the harbour. As a result people started building shacks in the bushes off the beach. Moloke was born here. Now Moloke lives in Imizamo Yethu in a shack where she raised her boys. She has all but given up hope of owning land.
“Land ownership is one of the most fundamental questions we have to answer in transforming our society. It’s the most emotional and seemingly the most dangerous — it threatens our future says Cosatu’s Western Cape secretary general Tony Ehrenreich. “Hout Bay’s issues are a microcosm of South Africa — that’s why everybody wants to have their say about what happens here.”
Imizamo Yethu is home to about 18 000. A study by the Southern African Labour, Development and Research Unit (Saldru) found that more than 96% of Imizamo Yethu’s residents live in shacks.
In Hout Bay itself the residents are mostly white and affluent and own some of the country’s most expensive property.
The smallest group of residents, about 8000 people, are coloureds who live on the slopes of Hangberg, overlooking Chapman’s Peak. In this community only four kids successfully finished their matric exam last year. An estimated 80% of high school kids have used tik. About 40% of all black and coloured people in Hout Bay are unemployed.
Because of the divisive land issue, relations between community groups, ratepayers, political parties and racial groups and individuals have deteriorated so much that Cosatu recently asked the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation to facilitate meetings between them… M&G
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