Khayelitsha, the 'new home'

Khayelitsha, or ‘new home’ in isiXhosa, is the second largest township in South Africa af­ter Soweto in Johannesburg. It is situated on the periphery of the city of Cape Town (30-35km from the CBD)  and next to the N2 leading into Cape Town. Officially established in 1983, Khayelitsha was constructed to resettle African residents from the Western Cape. Khayelitsha was proposed to be 1070 hectares with four ‘towns’, each made up of four villages of 1500 residents per village. The original planned population size was 200,000 people, this was subsequently doubled to 400,000 people by 2011.

Today Khayelitsha is home to an estimated 2,400,000 people and consists of a minimum of 22 separate settlements. It has the largest single concentration of informal settlements in the City many of which are located on land that is unsuitable for housing as a result of flooding. There is a continued growth in shack numbers, estimated at 10 000 per annum.

Khayalitsha is characterized by old formal areas and new informal/formal areas. The old formal areas built originally by the apartheid government include: Bongweni, Ikwezi Park, Khulani Park, Khanya Park, Tembani, Washington Square, Graceland, Ekuphumleni and Zolani Park.

The newer areas have been built up around the older areas (sprawling expansion) and include: Site B, Site C, Green Point, Litha Park, Mandela Park, Makaza and Harare. With the exception of Litha Park, these areas contain a high number of informal settlements (64.4% of households in Khayelitsha live in informal dwellings), RDP houses, and informal backyard dwellings (mainly shacks). The most recent informal settlements in Khayelitsha include QQ Section, TR Section, RR Section and Enkanini.

Housing varies from formal state (RDP) houses on a separate stand, informal housing in the backyards of the formal houses, and, the majority, shacks in informal settlements.

DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE
Population Size:  2,400,000 inhabitants (Wikipedia 2021)
Racial composition:  Approximately 90.5% Black African, 8.5% Coloured, 0.5% White
Gender Profile:  The female to male ratio in this node is skewed towards females with women forming 52% of the population in Khayelitsha
Population Density:   7748 inhabitants / km² (2005)  Estimated 55,159/km² (2020)
Household Size:    Most households are relatively small with 69.3 % of households consisting of 4 people or fewer (City of Cape Town, 2005).
Employment Status:    Unemployment rate is 54.1% (compared with an average of 29.9% for Western Cape)
Poverty Indicators:  71.8% of households earn below the HSL

SERVICES
The 2005 stats quoted here show the lack of services. 

• 14 521 households do not have access to water.
• 29 811 households do not have access to sanitation
• 24% of households do not have access to electricity
• Refuse removal is efficient – serving approximately 95.1% of households
• Housing backlogs in the area are continuously growing with current backlogs estimated to be 245000 units and with 16000 new households requiring new houses every year
• Currently, the transport system of the city is uncoordinated and fragmented – the proposed Integrated Transport System (Bus Rapid Transport System) has the potential to address this. Currently, most of the residents of Khayelitsha are reliant on taxis and trains to get around the city. Both of these modes of transport, however, are unreliable, unpredictable and often under-serviced.

In 2023, many houses still do not have access to water, sanitation and safe electricity.

CURRENT AREA DEVELOPMENT
Development challenges include:

• Overcrowded living conditions
• A lack of land for formal housing projects
• Increased land invasions (within the context of limited land) – placing pressure on infrastructure
• Extensive housing backlogs
• High levels of HIV and AIDS
• Limited access to affordable public transport
• Poor skills base of community
• The informal sector currently employs 22% of the labour force. But, limited information and understanding of this sector means that support to this sector has met with varied success.
• Reliance on social grants for income (among high levels of unemployment, economic inactivity)
• High gender based violence and substance abuse​

INVESTMENT
Current investment projects include the Khayelitsha Urban Renewal Programme: The area is undergoing changes as a result of the R1.5-billion Urban Renewal Project. Some of the projects being undertaken include new formal housing delivery in Mandela Park comprising  two to three- bedroomed houses for middle-income families (prices ranging from R307 000 – R417 000). Further planned interventions by the City of Cape Town include:

• upgrading Monwabisi beach and resort
• upgrading LookOut Hill
• a golf driving range
• development of Site C
• long-term (in-situ) upgrading of Khayelitsha’s informal settlement area
• Khayelitsha Mall: Much of the development is happening around the Khayelitsha Mall, which opened in 2005, and includes a new magistrate’s court and new premises for the Department of Home Affairs and the Department of Social Development.

Sources: 
www.alhdc.org.za/static_content/?p=91
www.wikipedia.org

Quick stats

• Approx 75% of residents live in shacks in informal settlements
• 1 in 3 people has to walk 200 metres or further to access water
• 89% of household are moderately or severely food-insecure
• Approx 46% of Khayelitsha's total working age population is unemployed 
• 73% of the adults of the community have not completed Grade 12
• The five most common forms of employment are domestic work (19.4%), service work (15.2%), skilled manual labour (15.2%), unskilled manual labour (11%), and security services (10.4%). 
• 76% of Khayelitsha's inhabitants are under the age of 29
• Estimating growth stats from the last census, there are approximately 196,000 children under the age of six in Khayelitsha
• Informal & formal preschools reach 30% of preschool age children.    
• 70% of children are not receiving any form of early childhood development interventions. 

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In 2023, we note the impact of COVID-19, ongoing loadshedding and rising food prices - evidenced by increased food insecurity, gender-based violence and escalating crime rates.