A short history of Masiphumelele
Apartheid—meaning separateness in Afrikaans - was a system of legal racial segregation enforced by the National Party government in South Africa between 1948 and 1994.
Apartheid legislation classified inhabitants into racial groups (black, white,
coloured, and Indian), and residential areas were segregated by means of
forced removals. Blacks were stripped of their citizenship; legally becoming
citizens of one of ten tribally based self-governing homelands or Bantustans,
four of which became nominally independent states. The government segregated
education, medical care, and other public services, and provided black people
with services inferior to those of whites.
During the Apartheid era blacks were evicted from properties that were in areas
designated as "white only" and forced to move into townships.
In the early 1980's a group of 400-500 people started the first informal settlement
close to where Masiphumelele is today. It was in the bush area close to the
junction where the Long Beach shopping mall is now. Under the old Apartheid
laws the families were chased away and moved on by force.
The people were told that they had to live in the poorly set up township of
Khayelitsha, on the outskirts of Cape Town, more than 30 kilometres away.
For those who had found work in the Fish Hoek area this meant a long journey
on bicycle or public transport every day. They tried again and again to move
back to where they had first set up camp.
Nearly ten years later, in 1991/92 as Apartheid was ending, they tried again.
A group of people from Khayelitsha, joined by a few thousand people from
the Eastern Cape who hoped to find work in the area, moved onto what was
then known as "Site 5". It was renamed Masiphumelele by the people soon after.
In the early 1990s about 8000 people built their shacks and simple homes and
started to set up their own community. Until 1995 there was not even a building
for a school or a clinic. Today more than 38,000 people live in Masiphumelele..