Keyword: cape flats

Helen Zille's Hopeless Handling of Cape Gang Violence

Picture: The Democratic Alliance/Flickr Anna Majavu - With the DA beginning their campaign to wrest control of another few provinces from the ANC in the 2014 elections, the impoverished residents of Cape Town’s Lavender Hill and Hanover Park have become the latest convenient political footballs. Like other so-called “Coloured” communities - Delft, Grassy Park, Ocean View and Bishop Lavis - Lavender Hill and Hanover Park remain derelict ghettoes, which appear to be stuck in a long forgotten era. A part-privatised leaky...

Township Cinderellas

Picture: Al Jazeera Video Al Jazeera’s Witness tells the story of two Cape Flats teenagers who prepare for what is, thus far, the most important night of their lives – the matric dance. In the midst of widespread unemployment and gangsterism, a soaring school dropout rate and the complication of teenage pregnancies, this is the story of two “born frees” and their poignant journey through this rite of passage. In the 2011 graduating class of Manenberg High School, 61 students made it to...