I Predict a Riot

The townships around Cape Town are not suburbs like in other cities. They are lingering remnants of forced, racial segregation where the Apartheid government relocated non-whites to undesirable parts of the city. Working in these townships can be a sobering experience. It can jar you from you comfortable reality and bring you face-to-face with extreme poverty and inequality. You really get a feel for how those at the bottom of the pyramid live. Sometimes though, those at the bottom get envious of those at the top, especially in a country with some of the highest rates of inequality in the world.

Yesterday Luke and I had to drive to the township of Khayelitsha to do some work for a Holiday Camp that Grassroot Soccer is running. As soon as we had gotten off the freeway we were greeted by port-a-potties barricading the road, cows meandering about, a crowd of people shouting, and there were definitely some things set on fire. We had driven into a good ol’ fashioned township riot. It was about the time we were off-roading around the barricade of waste that we remembered every bit advice we were given had said not to travel around the townships by ourselves. All it would take would be one rock thrown at our car to entice a mob reaction against these foreign intruders. Noticing that the rioters were in the process of dragging more port-a-potties into the road, I made a mental note to get directions for an alternate way back.

Once at the Holiday Camp I asked Xolani and Gcina (in charge of the camp) about the riots. Xolani said they were most likely because of housing. Apparently, every so often the people in the townships will get so fed up with their deplorable living conditions they will riot and demand better houses. He didn’t understand why they always overturn port-a-potties in their own neighborhood. He suggested, instead of making their own neighborhood smell, they should drag the toilets to city hall and then overturn them. That would be more persuasive. Personally, I believe there have got to be better ways to protest than by destroying the little infrastructure you have. What would you use if you had to use the bathroom?

It seems the people in Khayalitsha agreed with me. Two hours later when we drove back all the port-a-potties were back to where they were, although there was still plenty of trash in the road and smoldering embers now lined the street. No sign of the cows.

On the radio today there was news of further road closures in Khayelitsha due to continued rioting.