Alexandra, the 'dark city'

ALEXANDRA TOWNSHIP (JOHANNESBURG). This is South Africa’s oldest townships, it has just celebrated its centenary on the 22nd of May 2012. The African National Congress (ANC), the ruling party in South Africa, joined in these celebrations as most of them stayed in Alexandra during the apartheid years, and the struggle against the racist regime. It carries deep scars of history. Nelson Mandela once rented a room in the 1940s, when Alexandra was called the “Dark city” due to no electricity when the rest rest of Johannesburg was lit up at night.

It only got electricity in the early 1970s. But 18 years after the beginning of democracy, the celebrations were still disrupted by protesters who complained that the government was not doing enough on service delivery. In may 2008, the frustration was directed against immigrants coming from all over the continent (Zimbabweans, Mozambicans, Somalians,...). The xenophobia attacks which left 62 Africans dead started in this township, and later spreading to other parts of the country. They accused the foreigners of depriving them job opportunities.

Plastic toilets which are shared by several families in Alexandra township in Johannesburg.

Driving past this township, one has the impression of desperate poverty, overcrowded shack land and many unemployed people wondering the streets. Goats and stray dogs scratching for food in heaps of garbage, several alleyways separate single room shacks, where parents and children sleep in the same bed, one water tap and a few plastic made toilets shared by several families. Coal and paraffin stoves are still being used for cooking and heating, hence fire disasters are common especially during the winter seasons.

A view of some of the shacks in Alexandra Township, decent housing is very common problem and a lot of people struggle to survive.

“We live worse than pigs, this place is not fit for human beings to live here. Everything is broken, look at the windows!”, shows an old man, who arrived from the Zulu region in the early 1980’s. “Toilets have been broken for years. We have rats that bite our children at night when they are sleeping. Our government people have forgotten where they can from, they keep promising us on new housing, since we have been on the housing list for the past 10years. If the RDP (Rehousing Development Program) was been done in proper way maybe we could be in houses by now, but they are so corrupt...”.

Residents complain that the ANC goverment is not doing enough on service delivary 18 years after the end of Aparttheid. People have to use commual taps for water, more than ten families per tap.

He has been staying in Alexandra township since the 80s and has been on the housing waiting list for the past 10 years and nothing has come though yet. "One day I will have my own house God Willing" he says.