Gugulethu | |
---|---|
From top, Mzoli's restaurant & butchery. A spaza shop/grocery run out of an informal house (centre left). A roadside meat market operating out of a household (centre right). The Gugulethu Seven Memorial (bottom). | |
Coordinates: 33°59′S18°34′E / 33.983°S 18.567°E | |
Country | South Africa |
Province | Western Cape |
Municipality | City of Cape Town |
Main Place | Cape Town |
Government | |
• Councillor | Melody Klaas (ANC) (Ward 40) (Belinda) Ntombende Landingwe (Ward 41) (ANC) Mandisa Matshoba (Ward 42) (ANC) Faiza Adams (Ward 45) (DA) |
Area | |
• Total | 6.49 km2 (2.51 sq mi) |
Population (2011) [1] | |
• Total | 98,468 |
• Density | 15,000/km2 (39,000/sq mi) |
Racial makeup (2011) | |
• Black African | 98.6% |
• Coloured | 0.9% |
• Indian/Asian | 0.1% |
• Other | 0.4% |
First languages (2011) | |
• Xhosa | 88.6% |
• English | 3.6% |
• Sotho | 1.9% |
• Afrikaans | 1.7% |
• Other | 4.2% |
Time zone | UTC+2 (SAST) |
Postal code (street) | 7750, 7752, 7756 |
Gugulethu is a township in Western Cape, South Africa and is around 20km from Cape Town. [2] Its name is a contraction of igugu lethu, which is Xhosa for our pride / our hope. The area was the third township to be established in Cape Town, after Nyanga and Langa. [3]
The name is a contraction of igugu lethu, which is Xhosa for our pride/ our hope. The establishment of the township began in 1959 as the government was preparing to forcibly remove blacks in Kensington and other suburbs. Africans were officially banned from District Six in 1964 and were forcibly removed to Gugulethu. Because of the large number of blacks who had been residents in District Six, Gugulethu quickly became the most populous township in the Cape Flats. The predominant language in Gugulethu is Xhosa. Gugulethu is passionately called or referred to as "Gugs" by the locals, which is a nickname stemming from the shortening of the name Gugulethu.
Black residents living in Windermere were forcibly moved to Gugulethu when it was declared a black township. Windermere was declared by Apartheid regime to be a colored area. [4]
Gugulethu was one of the first townships in Cape Town to have a community information technology Center to provide training in multimedia and youth development. [5]
The 'Gugulethu Seven Memorial' was built to commemorate the life of seven activists that were ambushed and killed by the South African security forces on March 3, 1986. The activists were members of uMkhonto weSizwe, the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC). [6] The seven murdered were Jabulani Godfery Miya, Zandisile Zenith Mjobo, Zola Alfred Swelani, Mandla Simon Mxinwa, Themba Mlifi, Zabonke, John Konile, and Christopher Piet. On Human Rights Day 2000, the memorial was unveiled. [7]
According to data collected by the South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR) over 700 people were murdered in Gugulethu between 2005 and 2010. "This amounts to one murder every two-and-a-half days for five consecutive years." [16] In a 2017 study of the 50 most violent cities in the world, Cape Town ranked number 15. [17]