Kayamandi

On Sunday, I went out to Kayamandi, a township (very poor informal settlement, like a shanty town) of Stellenbosch. It was just me and the guide, Matiba, who lives in a "real" house in Kayamandi. He came to Stellenbosch from the Eastern Cape during the apartheid and worked for many years at a pub in town. But every night he would have to go back to Kayamandi, because nonwhites were not allowed in town overnight. He stayed in hostels in Kayamandi that were built by the government. Women and kids were not allowed to stay in the hostels. The hostels he stayed in, some of which are still standing and have since been converted into family homes, housed up to 64 men in very cramped quarters. Matiba used to run a store in Kayamandi, but now he gives tours and is involved with campaign programs for housing issues. He and his wife run a grassroots (not subsidized by the government) kindergarten program for kids who were not accepted by the normal public schools for reasons such as being born HIV-positive or with mental disabilities. Matiba and his wife have also adopted multiple orphans from the township who had dropped out of school and get them back into school.

It seems like everyone in Kayamandi knows Matiba, as he spoke to almost everyone we passed as we walked around the township. They come to him for advice on many matters in their lives. He seems to be very well respected.

Everyone I spoke to in Kayamandi was very friendly. Many, before they even saw my camera, came up to me and asked for me to take their picture, and then they wanted to see the picture I had taken of them. They seemed to assume that because I was white, that I was a tourist, and because I was a tourist, that I had a camera. Both kids and adults alike asked me to take their picture, as seen in my pictures below. Most of the kids were kind of shy about asking me - it was cute. :)

Matiba took me to an area of Kayamandi where they are building new houses. People get on a waiting list and the government provides them with homes as they are built. The problem is that some families are on the waiting list for years. This is a problem all around South Africa. There simply isn't enough housing. Matiba is involved with a campaign that advocates the construction labor for building the new houses comes from the township itself, thus creating more jobs for the residents. 38% of Kayamandi residents are unemployed. My concern is that the simple act of providing people with decent housing, though a good start, will not truly solve the problems. There are still not enough jobs for the people. And even those who get involved with construction work on the new houses, there is no promise that that work will be ongoing in the future.

Kayamandi had a good mix of shacks, former labor hostels converted to homes, construction homes from the 1960s onward, and all were in various states of repair. Some of the houses were in very good condition and might be similar to something you'd see in the US, only they were quite small. Even Matiba's house, which was one of the nicest ones, was very small. Most of the homes do not have access to running water or electricity. There is a municipal water pump that people haul water from for washing clothes, bathing, and cooking. Shortly after I got to Kayamandi with Matiba, in the middle of the day with people all around, a man came out of his shack to relieve himself in the street. That's very common, Matiba says, and no wonder since the people don't have properly-constructed homes, much less plumbing. There is a combination of paved streets, narrow pathways between shacks (see picture below), and dirt roads. Cars are actually pretty normal.

It's sad that people have to live like this due to the unavailability of proper housing, but the people seem to have adapted to their environment as best they can. Everyone I met seemed friendly, and the community was very active.


In first world countries, I'm sure this would be prime real estate land since it has amazing views of the mountains of Stellenbosch. Who knows? The township may be cleared and residents evicted to make way for new, high-class homes.


Guy pushing a shopping cart full of crates of beer. Uphill, mind you!


Women hauling water from the township's pump since they have no running water in their home.


There were many people walking on the main road to/from Stellenbosch since it was a Sunday afternoon.






Grassroots kindergarten that Matiba and his wife run.






Following Matiba through the labrynth of shacks.


These kids were so cute. :)








This woman was preparing hops over the fire for homebrewed beer, a special tradition in the townships.




Another step of the home brewing process. I think the hops were being strained. It takes about 24 hours.