Has the democratic era brought significant changes in the lives of hostel dwellers in the Langa Zones in Langa?

Table of contents page no.

1. Introduction…………………………………………………………....p. 1

2. Literature Review……………………………………………………..p. 4

3. Research Aims and Question………………………………………….p. 9

4. Methodology …………………………………………………………..p. 11

5. Chapter 1 - ………………………………………………………….....p. 13

5.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………....p. 13

5.2 Historical overview…………………………………………………....p. 13

5.3 The question and issue of Space? ........................................................p. 16

5.4 Interviewees……………………………………………………………p. 19-20

5.5 Discussion………………………………………………………………p. 21

6. Conclusion …………………………………………………………….p. 34

7. Bibliography …………………………………………………………..p. 38

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Has the democratic era brought significant changes in the

lives of hostel dwellers in the Langa Zones in Langa?

Introduction

Throughout their history, hostels have been

institutions that marked black experience; along

with passes, pass queues, curfew regulations,

living in hostels and surviving, they have been an

unremitting source of grievance and anger.1

Compounds and hostels represented a form of differential

accommodation that separated single migrant workers from other

urban residents.2 Compounds have been represented as being

prime instruments of labour control, whereas as hostels have

been seen as worker accommodation that housed initially

single-sexes.3 Hostels have serve as a reminder of a legacy of

a policy of systematic racial discrimination and gross

economic exploitation of indigenous people in South Africa for

over three centuries and are a logical outcome of the process

of conquest.4 Hostels in South Africa and the migrant labour

system are synonymous with one another, the former having

given the need for the latter. Hostels according to Cooke are

the core locus of the migrant labour system.5 Hostels and the

migrant labour system have been for years criticized for their1 A. Sitas, The New Tribalism: Hostels and Violence, (Taylor & Francis, Ltd. Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 22, (2), 1996), p. 2362 P. Maylam, Explaining the Apartheid City: 20 Years of South African Urban Historiography, (Journal of Southern African Studies, vol. 21, (1), 1995, p. 293 Ibid, p. 294 M. Ramphele, A Bed Called Home - Life in the Migrant Labour Hostels of Cape Town, (Cape Town: David Phillip Publishers; 1993, p. 155 J. Cooke, ‘The Form of the Migrant Labour Hostel’, (Architecture, July/August, 2007), p. 64

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detrimental effects on family life among Africans.6 The first

introduction of migrant labour hostels or compounds was in

Kimberley during the gold and diamond rush periods in the

mines. The implications of the compounds on both the diamond

and gold mines were that they were closed off from society and

the migrant workers for most periods were not allowed out of

the compounds as long as their labour contracts were still

active.7 The mine owners needed to control productivity of

their labour force and the only way they saw fit was to close

off and control that labour force in closed compounds which

were close to the mines themselves to increase productivity.

The closed compounds were only for the African miners so

racial discrimination was implicit.8 Others were however

different in that they were open and the miners could move

about.

Besides the mine compounds and hostels for mine workers, there

were also other hostels established in the locations and

townships for Africans who did not have accommodation in the

urban areas by charitable organisations such as churches.9

There were also those built for the purposes of housing

migrants in the urban areas by public companies and the

government authorities and they were isolated from the white

areas. These differed from mine compounds in two major

respects. The first feature is that they were owned by local 6 See – R. Smit, The Impact of Labor Migration on African Families in South Africa: Yesterday and Today, (Journal of Comparative Family Studies, Vol. 32, (4), 20017 J. Cooke, ‘The Form of the Migrant Labour Hostel’, (Architecture, July/August, 2007), p. 648 Ibid, p.659 G. H. Pirie and M. da Silva, ‘Hostels for Africans Migrants in Greater Johannesburg’, (Springer, GeoJournal, vol. 12, (2), 1986, p. 173-4

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and provincial authorities who took responsibility simply to

provide temporary accommodation, and not to ensure the

efficiency of the work force as the mine compound owners did.10

The other feature was that they housed workers from a whole

range of occupations therefore the control over entry and exit

was limited.11 The most notable feature of these hostels was

surveillance of the inhabitants. This relates to the fact

that there were usually one or two entrance-exit points in the

hostels and that the hostels were under constant police raids.

The system of migrant labour was further enforced on the

African by the apartheid government where the government

restricted the urbanisation of Africans in urban areas through

policies, and legislations such as the influx control laws of

the 1950s and Pass Laws.12 The implications of these laws meant

that the migrant had to live in migrant labour hostels in

urban areas and their families had to remain back home in the

rural areas.13

The main objective of hostels in South Africa was to house the

African in urban areas for a temporary period, for as long as

they were employed and could prove that they employed. The

process to be allocated to the hostel environment was a very

formal procedure and involved many parties. The process of

allocation of a bed in the hostels was in the terms that the

migrant possessed a job contract and the papers to prove so

and then the employer or the migrant himself, applied to rent

10 Cooke, ‘The Form of the Migrant Labour Hostel’, p. 6811 Ibid, p. 6812 W. Smit, The rural linkages of urban households in Durban, South Africa, (Environment and Urbanization, Vol. 10, (1), 1998), p.80-8113 Ibid, p. 81

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a bed in one of the hostels in the townships or locations; the

applicant had to go to the housing officer in the township and

if all was in order a bed was available, he would be allocated

to a specific block and a bed.14 The hostels were generally

sealed from its surroundings and entrance and exit confined to

a single, patrollable gate.15 This also highlights the question

of surveillance mention earlier on. The hostels did not have

many facilities aside from the sleeping rooms, toilets, places

of washing clothes and utensils and this was in accordance to

the objectives of the hostels, because they were created for

the provision of migrants with bare minimum shelter.16

The legacies of apartheid and in particular racial designation

have had a persistence influence beyond the transition to

democracy and they have further proved intractable for the

African who was forced to live in the hostel environment to

face material deprivation and impoverishment in the urban

areas.17 Hostels in post-apartheid South Africa are still a

source of family disruption and the migrant labour system has

over the years been criticized for those reasons in the

country.18 This relates to the fact that the migrants for most

times are away from home during the critical years of their

marriages and children’s growth. They live in the urban areas

in hostels while their spouses live in the rural areas. 14 J. Segar, Communities in Isolation: Perspectives on hostels in South Africa, ed. A Minnaar, (Human Sciences Research Council, Pretoria, 1993),15 G. H. Pirie and M. da Silva, Hostels for African Migrants in Greater Johannesburg, (Springer, GeoJournal, Vol. 12, (2), 1986),p. 17616 Ibid, p. 17317 B. Mgijima and V. Buthelezi, ‘Mapping Museum: Community Relations in Lwandle’, (Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 32, (4), 2006), p. 79718 See - R. Smit, The Impact of Labor Migration on African Families in South Africa: Yesterday and Today, (Journal of Comparative Family Studies, Vol. 32, (4), 2001

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Hostels do not only affect negatively the migrant’s family

life but also the migrant himself, this relates to the issues

they have to contend with in the hostels such as – health

hazards , personal security of their belongings, the constant

harassment from the police, overcrowding and the lack of

privacy in the hostels.

The existence and conditions of the hostels in the Western

Cape, Segar argued ‘can only be fully understood in the

context of decades of legislation, which controlled the

movement of Blacks in and out of urban areas’.19 Segar points

out that even though much of the legislation that disallowed

the free movement and settlement of Africans in urban areas

has been repealed, the effects from the years in which they

were passed and enforced are far-reaching.20 The post-apartheid

government has, however, implemented programmes which were

intended to improve the living conditions in hostels and the

structural features of the hostels have been changed to

accommodate the migrant workers in hostels with their families

in a family accommodating environment. In Cape Town three

townships housed migrants in hostels: Langa, Gugulethu and

Nyanga. Langa has four different forms of hostels which housed

migrants but, for purposes of this essay, the focus discussion

will be on the Langa Zones hostels.The conversion of the

former all-male hostels into environments that can accommodate

both migrants and their spouses has lifted some of the

hardships for the hostel dwellers. The city of Cape Town in an

19 J. Segar, Communities in Isolation: Perspectives on hostels in South Africa, ed. A Minnaar, (Human Sciences Research Council, Pretoria, 1993), p. 9720 Ibid, p. 97

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effort to change the apartheid legacies that are still visible

today, introduced a project that was to convert the hostels

into family units where the men could live with their wives

and children the Hostels to Home Project called Project

Dibanisa Iintsapho, the phrase meaning unite families.21

This essay will attempt to explore the experiences of the

hostel dwellers living in the Langa Zones hostels under

apartheid in the 1980s. In addition, it focuses on their

experiences of living in the hostels in the post-apartheid

era. The main question that this essay seeks to understand is

whether democracy in the country has brought any significant

changes in the lives of hostel dwellers in Langa. This essay

seeks to understand their feelings and experiences of living

in the hostels in the post-apartheid era.

Literature Review

Violence theme

Scholars such Sitas have focused on the conflict and violence

that occurred in the hostel environment particularly in the

years 1990-94 in the Witwatersrand.22 Sitas traces the nature

of violence and the factors that contributed to the violence

in the hostels in Witwatersrand. Sitas has argued that the

violence of the Zulu people, who had occupied the hostels,

should be “understood within a broader context of migrant

21 S. Heleba, Perpetuating Apartheid Single Sex Hostels: The Implications Of Public Participation For Service Delivery, (2008), p. 522 See A. Sitas, ‘The New Tribalism: Hostels and Violence’, (Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 22, (2), 1996

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workers resistance against marginalisation”.23 Most of the

literature on violence has been focused on the hostels in the

Rand area and its adjacent areas.24 Segal focused key group of

protagonists in the violence and focused on the reasons for

the hostel dweller’s involvement in the violence and thus

highlights the ‘human face of violence’.25 The violence by the

hostel dwellers took place in the political context of the

country from the late 1989s up until the negotiation talks

around 1990-94.26 The period later marked the political

transition from minority rule to a democratic majority rule in

South Africa. The literature on hostels and violence has also

focused on the violence between the hostel dwellers and the

township residents.27 The literature on violence on hostels has

also focused on the numbers in terms of the deaths that were

recorded during the violence in the hostels in Witwatersrand.28

Gender theme

The literature on hostels and violence has been so dominant

that other themes or subject matter on the hostels can be

23 A. Sitas, ‘The New Tribalism: Hostels and Violence’, (Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 22, (2), 1996 , p. 23524 See - A. Sitas, ‘The New Tribalism: Hostels and Violence’, (Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 22, (2), 1996; L. Segal, ‘The Human Face of Violence: Hostel Dwellers Speak’, (Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 18, (1), 1992; G. S. Elder, ‘Malevolent Traditions: Hostel Violence and the Procreational Geography of Apartheid’, (Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 29, (4), 200325 L. Segal, ‘The Human Face of Violence: Hostel Dwellers Speak’, (Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 18, (1), 1992, p. 19026 P. Bonner; L. Segal, Soweto a History, 1998; L. Segal, ‘The Human Face of Violence: Hostel Dwellers Speak’, 1992; A. Sitas, ‘The New Tribalism: Hostels and Violence’, 199627 See – G. Marinovich, ‘the Dead Zone: the Confined Space of Political Conflict, Tokoza Township’, in H. Judin et al Blank, extracts, p.91-9328 ‘Political violence’, Index on Censorship: vol. 24, (3), Special Issue: Rewriting History, 1995

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easily neglected. Ramphele documents the dynamics of gender

politics in the hostels in the Western Cape were initially

meant to house single male migrants in particular how this

dynamic ‘is shaped by the exploitative system of racial

discrimination, economic deprivation and the manipulation of

'tradition' as a resource for the social control of women by

men’.29 She put focus on issues relating to the competition of

resources in the hostels between men and women and children.30

Ramphele focused on gender in terms of way in which women have

been ‘defined out of the system of migrant labour both in

terms of access to jobs and in terms of most analyses of this

system, which deal largely with women as dependents of male

migrants’ and also focuses on the way in which women are

considered as outsiders in the hostels and only get access to

the hostels through their male partners and on their terms.31

Women in the migrant labour system have been a focus in terms

of the issues of prostitution and the effects that

prostitution results in, in terms of their health. “A section

of the migrant workforce and a group of women dependent on

prostitution for economic support appear especially vulnerable

to contracting HIV infection since they are involved in

multiple sexual encounters with different, changing partners,

usually without condom protection”.32 Ramphele has also focused29 M. Ramphele, ‘The Dynamics of Gender Politics in the Hostels of Cape Town: Another Legacy of the South African Migrant Labour System’, (Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 15, (3), 1989, p. 39430 See - M. Ramphele, A Bed Called Home: Life in the Migrant Labour Hostels of Cape Town, (David Philip Publishers, Cape Town, 199331 Ramphele, ‘The Dynamics of Gender Politics in the Hostels of Cape Town: Another Legacy of the South African Migrant Labour System’, 1989, p. 39432 See - K. Jochelson; M. Mothibile; J. Leger, ‘Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Migrant Labour in South Africa’, (International Journal of Health Services, vol. 21, (1), 1991

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on the Western Cape hostels in terms of the concerns about the

problems of gender relations in the hostels. She links gender

relations in the hostels in the Western Cape to the overall

power relations in society.33

Structural theme

The structural aspects of the hostels in South Africa have

been documented in most of the literature produced on the

hostels in the country.34 This literature on the structure of

the hostels is hard to generalise due to the different forms

of hostels in the country. Pirie and da Silva (1986:176)

commented that, “the size, physical layout and appearance of

hostel buildings is difficult to generalise as there are

variations according to date of construction and periodic

alterations date past descriptions”.35 The structural aspects

of hostel does however, align the same element in terms of

space of the hostels and their location which had to be

outside the ‘white areas’. Ramphele’s A Bed Called Home (1993) on

the question of physicality of the Langa Zones hostels

concluded that that they “were by far the worst accommodation

amongst the council-built hostels in Langa”.36 Upgrades and

renovations in the structure of the hostels did however lift

33 See – M. Ramphele, ‘The male‐female dynamic amongst migrant workers in the Western Cape’, (Social Dynamics: A journal of African studies, Vol. 12, (1), 198634 See - G.H. Pirie; M. da Silva, ‘Hostels for African Migrants in Greater Johannesburg’,(GeoJournal, Vol. 12, (2), 1986; L. Segal, ‘The Human Face of Violence: Hostel Dwellers Speak’, (Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 18, (1), 1992; P. Bonner; L Segal, Soweto a History, 1998, M. Ramphele, A Bed Called Home - Life in the Migrant Labour Hostels of Cape Town,(David Philip Publishers: Cape Town), 1993,35 G.H. Pirie; M. da Silva, ‘Hostels for African Migrants in Greater Johannesburg’, 1986, p. 17636 M. Ramphele, A Bed Called Home - Life in the Migrant Labour Hostels of Cape Town, (David Philip Publishers: Cape Town), 1993, p.27

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both the living conditions for the hostel dwellers and their

families in the Post-apartheid era.

Health

Hostel dwellers on the country also had to contend with many

issues including those relating to their health and wellness.

Hostel dweller’s concerns where the focus of the study done by

Ramphele and Heap. They focused on the unequal distribution of

health resources among the black populated areas in the

country in the late 1980s. The study was carried in the

hostels in the Western Cape as a result of concerns from the

hostel dwellers themselves.37 The study was therefore focused

on the most popular health concerns that the dwellers had and

they related to overcrowding, poor and inadequate basic

amenities.38 Ramphele has also given analysis on how hostel

dwellers are confronted by health problems such as TB,

sexually transmitted diseases and alcoholism in the hostels

and how the occur within the wider sickness of the society and

also how the neglect of the hostel dweller’s well-being by

themselves prevents the restoration of health lives.39 The

issue of prostitution has also been attributed to the health

issues that hostel dwellers face in particular the contraction

37 M. A. Ramphele and M. Heap, ‘Health status of hostel dwellers’, (South African Medical Journal, Vol. 79, 199138 Ibid, p. 69739 See – Ramphele, A Bed Called Home, 1993; S. Nuttall, Review: A Bed Called Home:Life in the Migrant Labour Hostels of Cape Town by Mamphela Ramphele, (Journal of SouthernAfrican Studies, Vol. 20, No. 2 ,1994, 10 | P a g e

of the HIV infection.40 Hostels dwellers have also been a focus

of study by health care professionals.41

Family life

Hostels have also received scholarly attention in terms of

family life. Smit focused on the impact that hostels and

migration had on family life. She relates the impact in

relation to the policies of the apartheid government.42 The

focus was on the negative issues that resulted from the system

of migrant labour and its effects on family structures.43 Smit

also highlights another feature that dominated hostels, the

policy that excluded families on hostels and making hostels

single sex facilities. The most important aspect is the Smit

focused on the whole family not just males but put attention

to women too. Other authors have focused on the impacts that

the migrant labour force has on family life and highlight that

it produces changes in patterns of production and family

structure as well as the variations in wealth and productive

capacities.44 It is also highlighted from the literature on

families and hostels that issues that relate to children who 40 See - K. Jochelson; M. Mothibile; J. Leger, ‘Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Migrant Labour in South Africa’, (International Journal of Health Services, vol. 21, (1), 1991

41 See - M. Ramphele and M. Heap, ‘The quest for wholeness: Health care strategies among the residents of council-built hostels in Cape Town’, (Social Science and Medicine, vol. 32, (2), 1991; M. N. Lurie, ‘The Impact of Migration on HIV-1 Transmission in South Africa A Study of Migrant and Non-migrant Men and Their Partners’, (South African Medical Research Council, vol. 30, (2), 200342 See – R. Smit, ‘The Impact of Labor Migration on African Families in South Africa: Yesterdayand Today’, (Journal Of Comparative Family Studies, Vol. 32, (4), 200143 Ibid,44 See – W. Beinart, in P. Mayer (ed), Black villagers in an industrial Society. Anthropological perspectives on labour migration in South Africa, (Oxford University Press, Cape Town, 1980

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misbehave and get into troubles and become delinquents is

resultant of them having grown up on the hostels.45

Post-apartheid

Scholars have also focused on the processes of transforming

the former single-sex hostels for migrants into homes and

places where communities can live. The focus is on the

conflict that rises when government decides to change these

hostels into homes and communities.46

Tourism and Museum

There has also been literature in terms of the way in which

the hostels have been a focus of tourism and the changing of

hostels into museums. Witz for example focused on the Lwandle

Migrant Labour Museum which was originally a hostel and

discusses how places and their histories come to be

reconstituted in the tourism industry.47 Dondolo on the other

hand has focuses on the issues that arise when the tourism

industry gives an imagery of the township; its residents and

hostel dwellers through the tourist gaze of the West.48 Mgijima

and Buthelezi focused on the Lwandle Migrant Labour Museum and

the issues and conflicts that arise in the creation of a

museum and they focused on the relationship between the museum45 See – M. Davies and I. Sinclair, ‘Families, Hostels And Delinquents: An Attempt To Assess Cause And Effect’,( The British Journal of Criminology, vol. 11,(3), 197146 N. Xulu, ‘ From hostels to CRUs: Spaces of perpetual perplexity’ converse, (South African Review of Sociology, Vol. 45, (1), 2014; B. Mgijima and V. Buthelezi, ‘Mapping Museum: Community Relations in Lwandle’, (Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 32, (4), 2006

47 L. Witz, ‘Revisualising Township Tourism In The Western Cape: The Migrant Labour Museum And The Re-Construction Of Lwandle’, (Journal Of Contemporary African Studies, 201148 L. Dondolo, ‘Depicting History At Sivuyile Township Tourism Center’, (Center For African Studies, University Of Cape Town, 2001

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and the local community and the conflicts that a museum

produces in the community.49

Research Aims and Question

The approach of using oral history has been argued by Thompson

to hold a number of positives saying that; oral history can be

used to change the focus of history; it is more democratic

than history from above.50 At the same time Bickford, Field

and Glaser have acknowledged that oral history has become a

crucial element in the production of social history in South

Africa.51 A relation will be made in this paper to their

argument that oral history brings to the fore the experiences

of ordinary people whose history is not documented in the

written sources of South African history.52 In particular to

the hostel dwellers in Cape Town, Langa, this I understand as

a valid point in trying to write the experiences and the

history of the hostel dwellers from their view point.

49 B. Mgijima and V. Buthelezi, ‘Mapping Museum: Community Relations in Lwandle’, (Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 32, (4), 200650 P. Thompson, ‘The Voice of the Past’ in R. Perks and A. Thompson eds, The Oral History Reader, 199851 V. Bickford-Smith; S. Field and C. Glaser, ‘The Western Cape Oral History Project:1990s’, (African Studies, vol. 60, (1), 200152 Ibid, p. 5

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Historians in the late 1970s onwards turned to examine the

birth of industrial and urban society and the ‘great unwritten

history of the South African working class’, who lived in the

cities, locations, townships and in hostels.53 However for the

most part, as Sapire (2013) has argued “the literature failed

to come to terms with the experience of the vulnerable and

most excluded communities in the cities such squatters in

informal settlements and migrants in hostels”.54 My goal is to

focus on the hostels. The foremost goal of this paper is to

answer the question of whether democracy in South Africa has

come with any significant changes in the lives of hostel

dwellers particularly those in Langa, Cape Town.

The aims of this essay are to highlight the experiences of

hostel dwellers in terms of circumstances and situations that

they had to contend with in the hostels and in the urban

environment in the 1980s and after 1994.

It is also intended to put into context their experiences and

feelings; in the context of 1980s and after the first

democratic elections in 1994

What mechanisms did hostel dwellers apply in coping with the

issues of living in hostels; in terms of space and privacy in

the hostels?

What are the hostel dwellers feelings towards Democracy and

Freedom?

53 H. Sapire, ‘Township Histories, Insurrection and Liberation in Late Apartheid South Africa’, (South African Historical Journal, vol. 65, (2), 2013), p. 17554 Ibid, p. 191

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Research Question – Has the democratic era brought significant

changes in the lives of hostel dwellers in Langa?

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Methodology

Cape Town hostels have been a main focus by Mamphela Ramphele

(1989; 1993)55 she had been writing from a feminist point and

approach. But not to argue or discredit her work she does

employ the use of oral evidence in giving the experiences of

the migrants in hostels.56 Evidence of oral writings is also

evident from the work that focuses on the Johannesburg

hostels.57 This highlights just the vitality of oral history

in finding out life experiences of people from different

socio-political environments. Oral evidence, although for

historians holds weight in the historiography of South Africa

now, it was absent in the historiography of the country before

the 1980s and the only scholars who first used it were

sociologists and anthropologists.58 I plan to use oral

evidence from hostel dwellers themselves as Field noted that

oral history research about places and spaces in the country

is underutilised even though people in their daily lives tell

stories about their memories of experiences in spaces.59

Thompson wrote that “through oral history ordinary people seek

to understand the upheavals and changes which they experience

in their own lives… like personal migration to a new

55 M. Ramphele, ‘The Dynamics of Gender Politics in the Hostels of Cape Town: Another Legacy of the South African Migrant Labour System’, Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol.15, (3), 1989; M. Ramphele, A Bed Called Home - Life in the Migrant Labour Hostels of Cape Town,(David Philip Publishers), 199356 See - Ramphele, A Bed Called Home - Life in the Migrant Labour Hostels of Cape Town, 199357 See - Pirie and da Silva, ‘Hostels for African Migrants in Greater Johannesburg’, 1989, Bonner and Segal, Soweto a History, 199858 V. Bickford-Smith; S. Field and C. Glaser, ‘The Western Cape Oral History Project:1990s’,( African Studies, vol. 60, (1)59 S. Field, ‘Sites of memory in Langa’ In Imagining the City: Memories and Cultures in Cape Town (eds) S. Field; R. Meyer; F. Swanson, 2008

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community”.60 This will provide a crucial part for this paper

in that most of the hostel dwellers in Langa are not from Cape

Town but rather came to the city as migrant workers from the

Eastern Cape, formerly known as the Transkei. Thompson has

pointed out that oral history can be used to change focus of

history itself and that most history is written from a

political standpoint and the ordinary people have been given

less attention.61 I hope that this approach will yield

information because the interviewees will speak from

experiences. The interviews have been constructed as a

question and answer approach. I therefore hope to get the full

extent of their experiences living in the hostels and most

importantly their views on democracy

For this essay I have interviewed four people and all male.

All the interviewees are over the age of fifty years and have

been living in the hostels since the 1980s and some even

before that. The interviewees also lived in the hostels after

1994 when South Africa became a democratic state. The

interviews were conducted in their homes as there was no other

neutral location to do so. The interviewing process was one on

one and the time period in which the interviews were conducted

differed from one to the other but the days were all the same.

The interviews were done on weekends, Saturday and Sunday to

accommodate them because during the week they had other

responsibilities. All the respondents were from the former

Transkei and the conservations were all in Xhosa and the

60 P. Thompson, ‘The Voice of the Past’ in R. Perks and A. Thompson eds, The Oral History Reader, 199861 Ibid, p.22

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process of translation was done in my own time and space. The

following chapter will discuss the Langa hostels and their

structural features. It is planning to explore the question of

space, both in terms of its physicality and relation to the

hostel dwellers. It is also going to discuss the hostel

dweller’s experiences in relation to the issue of space and in

relation to the question of this essay. The conclusion thus

will attempt to draw their responses and outline their

feelings towards democracy.

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Chapter 1

Langa; Hostels; and the Life lived in hostels.

1.1 - Introduction

This chapter will discuss the secondary literature that deals

with hostels. It is going to focus on the Langa Zones in Cape

Town. It is going to put in context the hostels in Langa with

those of the country in terms of their basis of introduction

and their purpose. I will first give a brief historical

background of the township of Langa and the introduction of

townships in the urban centres in the country. The question of

space will also be explored in this chapter using the analysis

given by Mamphela Ramphele.62 The other half of the chapter

will discuss the interviewee’s responses. The goal of the

questions is to answer the question of whether democracy has

brought any significant changes in the lives of the hostel

dwellers in the Langa Zones.

1.2 - Historical overview

1.2.1 Townships in South Africa

Townships in South Africa were inspired by colonial town

planning, and most of them were built or significantly

expanded by the apartheid government after 1950 as a result of

the Group Areas Act of 1950.63 The government through

legislations forced the non-white populations to live in

townships. Thee legislations implied that each race group

should have its own residential area, that each residential 62 See – Ramphele, A Bed Called Home, (David Philip Publishers), 199363 Township Renewal Sourcebook, (South African Cities Network), 2009

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group area should be separated by a strong physical ‘buffer’

such as a river or bridge, or an industrial or commercial

area.64 In South Africa townships or locations were founded

over hundreds of years ago, the oldest existing one is New

Brighton in Port Elizabeth which was built in 1902-3.65 In the

periods between the two world wars other municipalities built

other townships or locations at the periphery of urban centres

which were separated from the cities by green belts, these

include Langa in Cape Town, Lamontville and Chesterville in

Durban, and Meadowlands in Johannesburg.66

1.2.2 – Langa, Langa Hostels and Langa Zones

Langa is one of the oldest townships in Cape Town. The

township was officially opened in 1927, and it was a way by

the white government of South Africa to accommodate Africans

who had come to the city to work and those that were moved

from Ndabeni. The establishment of the township, Langa can be

“understood as a spatial representation of the way in which

the ‘then stewards of Cape Town’ sought to accommodate the

growing influx of indigenous Africans who were primarily

arriving from the Eastern Cape”.67 Isaacs further highlighted

that the establishment of the township was not simply about

accommodating the increasing number of Africans in the city,

but it was also in response to segregation and other social

64 Ibid65 Ibid66 Ibid67 F. Isaacs, ‘Socio-Spatial Dialectics Within Langa, The First Black Township In Cape Town, 1923-1960’, (Proceedings of the Ninth International Space Syntax Symposium, Seoul), 2013

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imperatives and those included concerns such as health and

sanitation.68 The township’s establishment was also in relation

to institutional mechanisms. These relate to the introduction

of Native Land Act of 1913, which effectively led to the

exclusion and alienation of the indigenous Africans and made

them “strangers in their land of birth”.69 The implication of

this Act was that it prohibited the indigenous Africans from

buying or hiring any land in the country.

The other institutional mechanism that was at play relates to

the Native (Urban) Land Act of 1923, which “controlled the

status and movement of Blacks within the urban centres of

South Africa”.70 Isaacs indicates how the township was

primarily conceived of as an instrument of control and a space

for the temporary presence of Blacks within the ‘white’ city.71

Most of the Africans that came into the city during the 1940s

went into the squatter settlements like Windermere and

Blouvlei and thousands of so-called bachelors from these

squatter settlements were moved into the Langa hostels.72 From

the mid-1950s “large numbers of African squatters were

uprooted from sites around Cape Town, and those who did not

qualify in terms of the new legislation were endorsed out of

the area”.73 The men who in terms of the legislation qualified

68 Ibid, p. 469 Ibid, p. 470 Ibid, p. 471 Ibid, p. 572 S. Field, ‘Sites of memory in Langa’, in Imagining the City: Memories and Culture in Cape Town, (eds) S. Field; R. Meyer; F. Swanson, (Human Sciences Research Council Press, 200773 S. Burman and P. van der Spuy, ‘The Illegitimate And The Illegal In A South African City: The Effects Of Apartheid On Births out Of Wedlock’, (Journal Of Social History, vol. 29, (3), 1996, p. 623-4

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were accommodated in single-sex hostels, meaning no families

were allowed in the hostels.74 The implication of the

legislation were that, “a ‘qualified’ man’s wife could not be

legally resident in the area unless he had township

accommodation for her, such women were prevented from

acquiring urban rights themselves, and many families were

unable to live together legally”.75

Langa had two barrack complexes, namely, the Main Barracks

and the North Barracks and they housed migrant workers from

the Eastern Cape and for the period between 1927 to 1959 Langa

was the only formal housing area for Africans in the city.76The

different forms of hostels in Langa “each have their own

internal logic, which tunes the minds of those inhabiting

them.”77 Therefore those living in the hostels have different

experiences in terms of space constraints from one hostel to

the other. There are four types of hostels in Langa and they

are; Langa Old Flats, Special quarters, Langa Zones and the

New Flats.

Langa Old Flats, these are the oldest hostels that are till today

still being used and consist of eight blocks of four storeyed

buildings brick and have solid brick staircase on either end

of each block.78 In these Flats, each room has two beds each

and thus they provided relative privacy when compared to other74 Ibid, p. 62475 Ibid, p. 62476 S. Field, ‘Sites of memory in Langa’, in Imagining the City: Memories and Culture in Cape Town, (eds) S. Field; R. Meyer; F. Swanson, (Human Sciences Research Council Press, 2007), p. 2377 Comaroff, 1985, p. 54 in Ramphele, A Bed Called Home,(David Philip Publishers), 1993, p. 2578 M. Ramphele, A Bed Called Home, 1993, p. 25

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hostels in Langa.79 Special Quarters are single-storeyed structures

which for reasons relating to the privacy were the most sought

after hostels.80 The rooms were originally intended to provide

accommodation to the migrants and their wives when they came

to visit and they were to be used on rotation so that all

migrants could have access to them.81 They are adjacent to

family housing in Langa and the residents in these Quarters

used the same facilities that the township residents in Langa

used.82 New Flats were built between 1969 and 1972 to relieve the

overcrowding Langa Zones. They however, have structural

defects despite their newness.83 These Flats are two storeyed

structures and are located on the outskirts of Langa near the

N2 highway leading to the airport.84

I have chosen to focus my attempt on the Langa Zones to

understand whether democracy in South Africa has given any

significant changes in the lives of the hostel dwellers. The

physicality of the hostels and the activities around the

hostels are appropriate to mention as well as the structural

features of the hostels. Ramphele concluded that the Zones

were by far the worst accommodation amongst the council-built

hostels in Langa.85 They are located in the outskirts of

Langa, near the Old Flats and the main road that leads to the

industrial area, Epping and this was well planned because most

79 Ibid, p. 2680 Ibid, p. 2681 Ibid, p. 2682 Ibid, p. 2783 Ibid, p. 2784 Ibid, p. 2785 Ibid, p. 27

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of the hostel dwellers work in the area and the surrounding

areas.

Although the Zones are sturdily constructed they

have grim, dark interiors, with few windows and a

layout which allows very little light between the

structures. Most units comprise three bedrooms-

two with three beds and one with two beds, an

ablution area with one toilet bowl, a urinal and

shower, and finally a small kitchen area. The

kitchen area is also the hostel entrance room and

the only common sitting area; it is narrow, unlit

and unequipped except for a sink and a tap in one

corner.86

1.3 – The question and issue of Space?

The hostels in Langa are ‘all simply uni-fuctional sleeping

areas with little sense of place’.87 These hostels in Langa

like those in the rest in the country lacked the proper

facilities required by a community. This relates to public

facilities such as schools, clinics, churches, playgrounds,

post offices, police stations and proper shops.88 This lack of

public facilities owing to the main objective of hostel life

and the migrant labour system. The hostel dwellers were only

86 Ibid, p. 2787 D. Dewar, ‘Urban Poverty and City Development: Some Perspectives and Guidelines’, 1984, p. 1 in M. Ramphele, A Bed Called Home: Life In The Migrant Labour Hostels of Cape Town, (David Philip Publishers), 199388 M. Ramphele, A Bed Called Home: Life In The Migrant Labour Hostels of Cape Town, (David Philip Publishers), 1993, p. 19

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accommodated for employment and other activities outside

hostel life were not taken into account by the authorities and

hostel managers. Public facilities would have meant that the

hostels were family friendly to have such facilities.

Therefore the hostels depended on surrounding townships for

most of the facilities which were in their own state limited.89

The hostels in Langa again as the rest in the country

possessed beer halls that were “conveniently placed at

people’s disposal in all areas”.90 Beer halls were the only

facilities that were accessible to the migrant workers in

South Africa and this also relates to mine compounds which are

related to hostels as they also housed migrant workers.

The facilities mentioned above require spaces for which to be

visible and used. Space as Ramphele noted has many dimensions

and also that their nature possess different impacts to those

involved. She outlines four dimensions of space91 and in

addition gives the attention of other spaces- micro and macro

level dimensions, highlighting their interrelationships at

different levels. In contextualising these terms in this

paper’s context, the micro-level dimension of space refers,

according to Ramphele ‘to those limits within the local hostel

environment which have an impact on people living in the

hostels’.92 The definition is in accordance with the hostels in

Langa, because this relates to the immediate impacts that the

89 Ibid, p. 1990 Ibid, p. 1991 See- M. Ramphele, A Bed Called Home: Life In The Migrant Labour Hostels of Cape Town, 1993, p. 292 M. Ramphele, A Bed Called Home: Life In The Migrant Labour Hostels of Cape Town, 1993, p. 2

25 | P a g e

hostel dwellers felt as a result of being forced to live as

bachelors regardless of their marital statuses. This level of

space is where experiences took place and it was within this

level that the hostel dwellers in where ‘confined’ in relation

to the township and its residents. It dominated most of their

experiences outside the working environment, apart from those

who had contacts with the townships residents. Therefore their

lives in Cape Town were dominated by hostel life and working

life as migrants.

Ramphele also explores the other level of space the macro-

level dimension which she argues as ‘referring to the larger

space nationally, in South Africa as a whole which has an

impact on the lives, as well as the capacity for

transformative action of people in these hostels’.93 Looking at

the hostels in Langa and the rest in the country it is clear

to understand their formation and roles. The country has a

history of segregation and racial discrimination, therefore

the role of the hostels were to keep the ‘African’ in areas

that were not visible to the ‘white’ areas, Ramphele supports

this notion; ‘they have been largely invisible particularly to

those living outside African townships, hidden as their

hostels often are from the white public in divided South

Africa’.94 Africans in the country that came to urban areas

wherever the case may be were not allowed by law to live in

urban areas therefore the previous governments made it lawful

to segregate non-whites from the whites.95 The restrictions of

Africans from acquiring any form of residence in urban areas 93 Ibid, p. 294 Ibid, p. 1

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and the introduction of the locations and townships and giving

the ‘African’ a space that the authorities could control and

have constant surveillance, shaped much of the hostel dwellers

life in the hostels.96

The issue of space is a very important matter in trying to

understand people’s mind of stand and their experiences. The

analysis given by Ramphele of the concept of space provides a

perfect means in dealing with people who have been ‘confined’

to an environment of the lowest standard- migrant hostels.

Pirie and da Silva characterised hostels as ‘bleak and

regimented world that speaks to a practice of providing

migrants with the bare minimal shelter an amenities which will

avoid disruption of migrancy’.97 Physical space provides the

vital role of writing about people’s experiences in particular

hostel dwellers in Cape Town, Langa. These physical spaces

contributed immensely to the experiences of the hostel

dwellers and still continue to do so. The migrant workers that

came to live in the Langa hostels, their space was both

controlled and limited. The physical space of hostels also

defined the hostel dwellers and set them apart from the

township residents. Thus in the Johannesburg hostels in the

95 See – E. Bahre, ‘Housing for the urban poor in Cape Town: a post-Apartheid dream or nightmare?’, (University of Amsterdam, 2001; R. Lee, ‘Reconstructing 'Home' in Apartheid Cape Town: African Women and the Process of Settlement’, (Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 31, (3), 200596 See – J. Seekings, ‘Race, class and inequality in the South African City’, (Centre For Social Science Research, CSSR Working Paper No. 283, November 2010; P. Maylam, ‘Explaining the Apartheid City: 20 Years of South African Urban Historiography’, (Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 21, (1), 1995; P. Bonner and L. Segal, Soweto: A History, (Cape Town, Maskew Miller Longman), 199897 G.H Pirie and M. da Silva, ‘Hostels for African Migrants in Greater Johannesburg’, (GeoJournal, Vol. 12, (2), 1986

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political transition period violence between hostel dwellers

and township residents erupted due to that differentiation.98

Aside from defining and differentiating, physical space in the

hostels also provides an important aspect to the hostel

dwellers; it serves as ‘home’ to thousands.99 Hostels have been

home to thousands of migrant workers for years in South Africa

and in Cape Town in particular, they after 1994 been

renovated, revamped, and refurbished to a more family

accommodating environment. However pre-1994 the notion of home

was much different back then. The most important factor in

terms space, was a bed. A bed Ramphele argued to be the common

denominator of space allocation in the hostels.100 One’s very

existence in the Langa hostels was through one’s bed and

space. The relationship between a bed and space was therefore

one’s identity in the hostels and ultimately one’s ability to

call their space a home.

The issues of overcrowding were quickly felt and visible in

the hostels when women and their children most from the

Transkei came to live in the hostels with the husbands and

male partners. Buthelezi and Mgijima in Witz concluded that as

a result of women and their children coming to live in the

hostels in “a space [in hostels] that was initially planned to

accommodate two single males thereafter came to be occupied by

98 See - P. Bonner and L. Segal, Soweto: A History, (Cape Town, Maskew Miller Longman, 1998; L. Segal, ‘The Human Face of Violence: Hostel Dwellers Speak’, (Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 18, (1), 1992; A. Sitas, ‘The New Tribalism: Hostels and Violence’, (Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 22, (2), 1996; H. Judin et al Blank, ‘The Dead Zone: confined space conflict, Tokoza township’, 1999;99 M. Ramphele, A Bed Called Home: Life In The Migrant Labour Hostels of Cape Town, 1993100 Ibid, p. 20

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two families, which increased lack of privacy.101 Although this

statement refers to the hostels in Lwandle the same situation

occurred in most of the hostels therefore its relevance is

justified.102 In the late 1980s at the end of apartheid the

Pass Laws were being retracted and the free movement of the

black population in the country was made possible thus

allowing families who had been living in the ‘homelands’ the

possibilities of coming into urban areas and towns to live

with their migrant husbands and again this resulted in serious

overcrowding,103 because most of the migrants had been living

in hostels that were meant to accommodate male migrants and

not entire families. This led to a shift in space dynamics in

the hostels.

1.4 Interviewees

Mr M. - The first interview is a Xhosa man from the Transkei

in the Eastern Cape. He first arrived in Cape Town in the mid-

1980s. He arrived in the city without permit and without a job

but because there were ‘abakhaya’ that he knew and had been

living in the Langa Zones, he was quickly assisted to get a

bed in the hostels and a job in the firms in Epping, the

industrial location. He was given a bed in the hostels and

101 L. Witz, ‘Revisualising Township Tourism In The Western Cape: The Migrant Labour Museum and The Re-Construction Of Lwandle’, (Journal Of Contemporary African Studies, Vol.29, (4), 2011102 See - M. Ramphele, ‘The Dynamics of Gender Politics in the Hostels of Cape Town: Another Legacy of the South African Migrant Labour System’, 1989; S. Heleba, ‘Perpetuating Apartheid Single Sex Hostels: The Implications Of Public Participation For Service Delivery’, 2008 ; L. Dondolo, ‘Depicting history at Sivuyile Township Tourism Center’, 2001103 J. Cooke, ‘The Form of the Migrant Labour Hostel’, Architecture, July/August, 2007

29 | P a g e

worked in the same place for most of 1990s and early 2000s. He

came in the city alone living his family back home in the

rural areas but sent money on a monthly basis when he was

working.

Mr Mq – This interviewee arrived in the hostels very early in

the seventies. He lived there for many years before his wife

and children could live him. He has been living in the hostels

for more than 40 years, although the ones he lives in now are

the new buildings that were built after the fire in the early

2000s. His home is in the Transkei also and returns from time

to time. He is retired and stays with his wife and

grandchildren in a hostel room that has one bed room and a

kitchen and toilet.

Mr B – This respondent is also from the Eastern Cape but left

home as a boy to find work in Cape Town in the sixties. He has

been in the city since then and moving from place to place

until he was given a bed and space in the Langa Zones. He is

unemployed and is receiving the social grant from the

government. He stays alone in the Zones and therefore has no

responsibility in terms of wife and children. He unlike the

other respondents sees himself as a ‘Cape Born’ although he

was born in the Eastern Cape and did not appreciate the word

of ‘amagoduka’.

Mr S – He first arrived in Cape Town and stayed in Gugulethu

with his uncle after coming from Johannesburg in the 1970s and

later moved to Langa but because he had no permit to be in the

city and in the hostels he was frequently running from the

30 | P a g e

police. He stayed with people he knew and later found a bed in

the zones in Langa and a permit. He has been in Cape Town

since then and returns home whenever he can. He is also from

Transkei but because he had some family members in the city he

did not struggle that much he said. Support was easily

provided if he needed something when he was jobless. He now

stays with his family in the newly renovated hostels in Langa.

1.5 Discussion

The question I asked Mr M in relation to life in the hostels,

was how was life in the hostels and how did you view it?

Mr M responded by saying,

“We lived as men and we all contributed towards

the grocery by putting in whatever money was

required to buy the food. Boys did not contribute

they only cooked the food. Women were not allowed

31 | P a g e

in the hostels it was just men but there were

times when women would stay but it was not legal

for them though. It was nice compared to now where

there are many grudges amongst us”.104

The tension between hostel dwellers and the township residents

is well documented especially in the Witwatersrand

surroundings, a tension that resulted in violence and hundreds

of death.105 Pirie and da Silva wrote that, ‘outsiders regard

hostel residents with suspicion as people who don’t belong to

the townships, as individuals whose temporary presence inducts

alien and unwelcome raw, machismo values’.106 Although this

provides analysis of the hostels in Witwatersrand, it also

relates to the hostels in Langa and through the use of

derogatory names to refer the hostel dwellers. One example of

the attitude of township residents to hostel dwellers is

quoted by Pirie and da Silva when they discuss the hostels of

the Witwatersrand, “In plainer language, one township resident

protested indignantly: "we can't have on our doorstep a cage

with people who live in herds; who don't live with women; who

cook hit-and-run meals and have a beer-yard for their nightly

entertainment".107

Mr Mq however gave a different perspective to life in the

hostels, he responded to the same question by saying that,

104 Mr M, interviewed on 20 September 2014105 See – Segal, ‘The Human Face of Violence: Hostel Dwellers Speak’, 1992; Sitas, ‘The New Tribalism: Hostels And Violence’, 1996106 G.H. Pirie; M. da Silva, ‘Hostels for African Migrants in Greater Johannesburg’, 1986, p. 178107 quoted by Themba in Drum November 1957, p. 21) in Pirie and da Silva, ‘Hostels for African Migrants in Greater Johannesburg’, p. 178

32 | P a g e

“We lived as bachelors. There would be three men

in one. There, beds were made of cement and wooded

material. You stayed there and made your own rules

of how you are going to live together. What time

you have to sleep, what time the door was closed,

the do’s and don’ts. And all this was done by you

the dwellers and not the government”.

Hostel dwellers have complained vigorously about the lack of

space in the hostels. Lack of space ultimately implies also to

the lack of privacy and that subsequently impacts on the

living conditions of hostel dwellers. In an interview one

parent commented on the issue of space and privacy in the

hostels in Cape Town,

“There is no space for private things. There are

no doors. Sometimes a man is washing and his

daughter enters without calling. Then she sees the

underparts of her father. Children lose respect

for adults when they see these things. Sometimes

people sleep together. The children see it and

then they do it themselves outside”.108

The relationship between hostel dwellers and the

township residents

108 S. Burman and P. van der Spuy, ‘The Illegitimate And The Illegal In A South African City:The Effects Of Apartheid On Births out Of Wedlock’, (Journal Of Social History, vol. 29, (3), 1996, p 624

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In the question of space I asked Mr M. How was life in

relation to space in the hostels in the apartheid years in the

1980s? And he responded by saying that,

There was no absolute space in the hostels aside

from a bed. A bed was the only space we had to

call our own but the police did not care about

that, they would come in whenever they wanted and

search for people who did not have rights to be in

the hostels. They disrespected us as men and as

people. The township residents would also remind

us of our space by calling us ‘amagoduka’109, this

meant that we were not home and that our homes

were in the Transkei. You see our lives revolved

around two spaces – hostel space and working

space.110

S.J – How did you live in relation to the township

residents themselves? And what did you think of the name

‘Amagoduka’?

‘That was just a way of provoking us to start

arguments because they called us names even though

most of them were also from the Transkei. But

others were born here but most of them had roots in

Transkei. In terms of movement it was very scarce

to see people from the hostels in the location only

109 The name given to those who were not considered to part of the city and city life - those who return home110 Mr M interviewed on 20 September, 2014

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the person who would go back and forth between the

two spaces was the ‘laundry girl’111.112

The above responses from Mr M offer two aspects to

living in the hostels. The first relates to the fact

that some residents in the township where related to the

hostel dwellers and they had relationships between them

and kept in contact. The other relates to the hostility

that existed between township residents and hostel

dwellers.113 This is the type hostility which resulted to

violence between the years of 1990-1994. Although this

is not related to this essay it is crucial to mention

because the violence resulted from the mixture of

ethnicities in the hostels and surrounding areas at a

time when political transition was taking place from

apartheid to democracy. In the hostels in Witwatersrand

hostel dwellers were of a different ethnicity from the

township residents. In Cape Town however, there was no

such grouping and as result no violence but township

residents did see hostel dwellers as different from

them. This resulted to the name calling of hostel

dwellers as ‘amagoduka’. The way in which people in the

hostels Langa were housed was in home basis and

affiliations. That meant that people were accommodated

111 ‘Laundry girl’- is a person who was collecting laundry from the hostels to do them in the township and return it for a fee. It was usually a femaleperson.112 Mr M, interviewed on 20 September 2014113 Mr M interview and also see – Segal, ‘The Human Face of Violence: Hostel Dwellers Speak’, (Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 18, (1), 1992; G. S. Elder, ‘Malevolent Traditions: Hostel Violence and the Procreational Geography of Apartheid’, (Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 29, (4), 2003

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in relation to their rural backgrounds meaning that

those from eGcuwa were put together with those from

eGcuwa –‘Abakhaya’.114

When I asked Mr S about the relationship he witnessed in

relation to the hostel dwellers and the township

residents in context of what was happening in

Johannesburg in the 1980s, he replied by saying that,

“the situation in our hostels was not same as the ones

in Gauteng… there was less violence between us and the

township residents”.115

For Mr B I asked, how did it come for the people in the

townships to call the hostel dwellers names such

‘amagoduka’?

‘That was discrimination amongst us blacks because

there was no reason for them to say “we are from

the locations” and the people living in the

hostels are ‘amagoduka’ there is nothing

associating “us with them”. Because now we are

living together that only means that they were not

using their heads.’116

S.J – I also asked Mr B if there were any physical

altercations between the hostel dwellers and the

township residents?

He responded by saying, 114 ‘Abakhaya’ is word used to call those from the same rural backgrounds. It is used as a term of acknowledgment of that person rural background.115 Mr S, interviewed on 17 September 2014116 Mr B, interviewed on 4 October 2014

36 | P a g e

‘No, there was never any violence. It was just the

name calling. Only just that when the kids from

location came to rob here in the hostels and the

‘rank’117, they would be beaten such much so you

would think we were going to kill them there was

not what you see today.’118

On the question about the issues of township residents

and hostel dwellers Mr Mq responded by saying,

“There were judgements by the township residents

towards us hostel dwellers. Because the location

was full of people from Cape Town and those in the

hostels were not from Cape Town were called

‘amagoduka’. But there was never any bad air

between the two, people visited each other… there

was never a war but just people calling us names.

It was just discrimination of where you were

born.”119

The situation has however changed over the years through the

city’s initiatives and programmes to making the former hostel

spaces for migrant workers to an environment and a space that

can accommodate both the migrants and their families.120 The

post democratic government put emphasis on the eradication of

the apartheid government’s legacies and laws and policies. One

117 Rank – it is the name used for terminus for taxis and buses, but mainly taxis.118 Mr B, interviewed on 4 October 2014119 Mr Mq interviewed on 25 October 2014120 See – Township Renewal Sourcebook, South African Cities Network, 2009; E. Bahre, Housing for the Urban Poor in Cape Town: A Post-apartheid dream or nightmare?, 2001

37 | P a g e

of these policies and laws that affected migrants and the

hostel dwellers was the 1923 Urban Areas Act, “that restricted

the residence of Africans in urban areas and the Act also

meant that Africans were only allowed to live in the city as

workers and even family members were not permitted to live

with them”.121 Hostel dwellers were amongst those workers that

the Act specifically targeted and affected. The Reconstruction

and Development Programme (RDP) was founded on the need to

provide housing for the poor and this included hostel

dwellers.122 The notion of space in relation to a bed was

changed into the notion of community.

The follow up question was in relation to post-apartheid. When

I asked, since the apartheid government has fallen and

democracy taken over in the country how has this affected the

situations of in the hostels now?

Well after 1994 people could do what they wanted…

going into town was no longer an issue and there

was no fear of the police harassment like they

used to under apartheid. The men who had been

living in the hostels as bachelors could now live

with wives and with their families.123

My other respondent on the question of space in hostels,

responded in the same manner as the other interviewees

did, but commented on the police and how they used to

raid that space as they pleased,121 ; E. Bahre, Housing for the Urban Poor in Cape Town: A Post-apartheid dream or nightmare?, 2001, p. 33122 Ibid, p. 33123 Mr M, interviewed on 20 September 2014

38 | P a g e

The police could kick the door… break it… use their

torch lights. you see! And you now think you have a

wife in the room and tell her to hide…124

Mr S on the question of space responded differently from

my other respondents because he highlighted that their

space in the city was the hostels and the work

environment but also mentioned that “some of the hostel

dwellers had families they visited in the townships

although that was scarce to see”.125 He for instance had

an uncle in Gugulethu which he visited over the

weekends.

On the other hand when Mr Mq when I asked him how space

affected the lives of hostel dwellers, he responded by

saying,

“What we had there was a gate in every location,

which was for black people only. There whoever you

were, you would be asked and checked who you are.

Are you from Langa? If not and you are coming in

you would be asked where you are going and how

long you are going to stay there. You were given a

time limit to be in the hostels as a visitor. And

if you were found there after your time had

expired you would be arrested. You did not just

come in the hostels, it was like a border post, on

124 Mr B, interviewed on 4 October 2014125 Mr S, interviewed on 17 September 2014

39 | P a g e

both sides of the gates. That is how we lived in

these hostels”.126

Life in the hostels

The way in which people lived in the hostels was well

corresponded by all my respondents in their responses.

This relates to the question of how the organisation of

living was in the hostels. Mr S after I asked how people

he people lived in the hostels?

He highlighted the living arrangements in the hostels for me,

saying that you could not just live in any block. One had to

live with his ‘abakhaya’,127. Mr S’s emotions awakened as he

stated that “there was Ubuntu back then”.

S.J – What do you mean?

I mean that back then you could depend on your

‘homeboys’ and people from around your home -

rural areas. People shared things with one

another, for example if a ‘homeboy’ came to the

city, a ‘homeboy’ could take him in and share his

bed area, food and even help you find a job and

permit to stay in the city. Ubuntu was part of

life back then, not now money has taken over

126 Mr Mq interviewed on 25 October 2014

127 Reference to homeboys - meaning that people from Gcuwa stayed with thosefrom Gcuwa and those from Cofimvaba likewise

40 | P a g e

people’s lives, and there is no respect for the

elders and no respect for the law.128

Staying together with ‘homeboys’ is something that most

of the hostel dwellers in the Langa hostels found

similar for example Field conducted interviews for a

different topic matter and in the question of

accommodation one interviewee responded,

The Main Barracks. Wow! It was worse. It was far

better in the Zones. Even there for instance

homeboys stay together. Like my people were in 74,

78, 80 and 84, we knew those people were coming

from our area…129

Ramphele provides insights to the gender relations in the

hostels when she commented on kinship and ‘homeboy’ grouping

saying that they are important in understanding the networks

of support and appropriate behaviour, “these networks are a

source of support newly arrived work-seekers in the form of

accommodation, food and placement in jobs”, and she further

references the humility that hostel dwellers have and in times

of loss, sickness and important ceremonies for other hostel

dwellers.130 Mr S understands this as Ubuntu and this was the

kind of kindness that he witness and experience in the hostels.

I asked Mr S the following question what do you mean by

respect for the law and respect for the elders?

128 Mr S, interviewed on 17 September 2014129 Quoted in S. Field, ‘Sites of memory in Langa’ in Imagining the City: Memories and Cultures in Cape Town eds S. Field; R. Meyer; F. Swanson, 2008130 Ramphele, A Bed Called Home, 1993, p. 68

41 | P a g e

“I am talking about the fact that today people can

kill and stab someone and have no worries about

going to jail and they live like nothing is wrong

and show no remorse for what they did. And respect

for the elders I am talking about these young boys

who today know how to raise their hands on their

elders. They also walk with their girlfriends on

front of their elders, drink in public places with

no shame and no care for the eyes of the

community, unlike in the past”.131

Mr M also gave some information which relates to

organisation in the hostels and that is when he

commented on the fact that men did not cook in the

hostels that responsibility was given only to the boys

did who cooking in the hostels. Field has also commented

on the role of organisation and rules that hostel

dwellers in order comply with living with so many

people. This relates to the way in which hostel dwellers

lived was grounded on rules and regulations that were

created by older men and managed by the ‘isabanda’,132

these relate to cooking and other tasks in the hostels.133

From the above statements, I am able to differentiate between

two forms of authorities – the police and the traditional law

– in reference to the respect of the elders. Through the

analysis of the Mr S’s statements emotions and feelings of

131 Mr S, interviewed on 17, September, 2014132 Reference to an elected headman in the hostels.133 S. Field, ‘Sites of memory in Langa’ In Imagining the City: Memories and Cultures in Cape Town (eds) S. Field; R. Meyer; F. Swanson, 2008, p. 26

42 | P a g e

nostalgia arise in an environment that represents two worlds –

rural and urban. Dlamini (2010) used Svetlana Boym’s types of

nostalgia in her book The Future of Nostalgia – restorative

nostalgia and reflective nostalgia and he also mentions that

Boym did not say that these types were absolute.134 The second

type of nostalgia – reflective nostalgia- is the one which Mr

S fits in, through his commentary of the past and the present

dichotomy. “Reflective nostalgia for its part lingers on

ruins, the patina of time and history, in the dreams of

another place and another time”.135 Therefore the reflection of

a time when young people respected their elders and people

respected the law resonate his nostalgic feelings about the

past. His reference to the idea of Ubuntu and a time when that

meant everything in the hostels indicates that his feelings

towards democracy are bitter-sweet. According to Mr S,

“Democracy came with issues of bitterness…, most

of the youth in the hostels now drink…, there is

no respect for the elders…, jobs are hard to find

but when you came to the Cape Town from the

Transkei you could find a job within a week. Today

you go without a job for years and when you find

one it is either temporary. Most of the jobs are

taken by foreigners and that is what this

democracy came with, before the government

controlled the inflow of foreigners in the country

but now everyone can come. You can go to any firm

134 J. Dlamini, Native Nostalgia, (Auckland Park, Jacana), 2010135 Ibid, p. 17-18

43 | P a g e

or hospital you will see that most of the

securities are foreigners”.136

The commentary that this Mr S is outlining clearly

indicates his resentment of the current situation in the

country, the lack of employment opportunities and the

increasing levels of unemployment amongst the youth.

Although this reflective nostalgic feeling implies a

time when jobs were easily accessible and the levels of

foreign internationals were controlled by the apartheid

government it is also important here to mention that the

above responses by the interviewee are not of praise of

the apartheid government and the lifestyles of living in

hostels as bachelors meanwhile having wives and children

in the Transkei. Even though living in urban areas in

hostels was economically sound, the life experiences

that he encountered indicate resentment of the apartheid

government. This relates to his comments when I raised

the issue of the police and authorities

The role of the police in the hostel dweller’s everyday lives

S. J – What roles did the police play in an everyday life of

hostel dweller?

You see the police, that is the only thing I don’t

miss about the apartheid is the constant

136 Mr S, 17, September, 2014

44 | P a g e

harassment by the police. They used to come in

unannounced kick doors open shouting ‘pass and

permit’, they showed no respect, and they would

light their torches on our faces as if we were

cattle in a kraal.137

I also asked Mr Mq how the police played part in the

lives of hostel dwellers?

He responded;

“The police (South African Police Service) in

conjunction with the council police only checked

to valid the Pass if you had the right to be in

city. If not you would be arrested and sent to a

place called ‘emaplangeni’138 where they don’t even

ask if you are guilty or not. You got fined R10.00

and released.”139

In addition to being subjected to live in townships and

hostels Africans were also required by state law in

urban areas to carry a ‘Pass’, having been found without

one, fines or arrest were the consequences. The ‘pass

book’ was to be on every African over the years of

sixteen at all times and to show it on demand whenever a

police officer required so.140 This constant harassment

by law enforcement officers points to the resentment

part that Africans had for the apartheid government and 137 Ibid,138 It is the name of the court that the hostel dwellers were taken to afterbeing found without a Pass or permit.139 Mr Mq interviewed on 25 October 2014140 M. Ramphele, A Bed Called Home, 1993

45 | P a g e

its laws and policies. This disgruntlement over the

police no longer exists and this Mr S attributes to

democracy. Space confinement no longer exists, both

hostel dwellers and townships residents move in back and

forth between the two spaces, they have freedom of

movement and he attributes to democracy.

There were similarities in the way in which the hostel

dwellers in Cape Town in the Langa Zones and those in

Johannesburg lived in respect to the discipline and

respect for the elders in the hostels. This relates to

the findings that Bonner and Segal in the book, Soweto: A

History, when they discussed the way the elders exercised

control over the young men and boys, both in terms of

them keeping their wages and warning them off, the

township girls.141 The other similarity is in respect of

the networks that the hostel dwellers found in the urban

areas in particular in the hostels. Bonner and Segal

have highlighted that for other migrants, hostel life

was alienating because they could immerse themselves

among hostel networks of relatives and neighbours from

their home villages. They also highlight that these

neighbourhood groups imposed a personal discipline on

migrants as well as providing a reasonably satisfying

social life.142

141 See – Bonner and Segal, Soweto: A History, (Cape Town, Maskew Miller Longman, 1998)142 Bonner and Segal, Soweto: A History, 1998, p. 40

46 | P a g e

Family life

I asked Mr Mq how life was living in the hostels without

his wife?

Life was alright because there was no trouble, we

lived together as men. When you wife came to visit

whenever she came, you would go and ask for space

in the township. She would stay for whatever

months she was given by the municipality and then

go back home. That was how men who had wives lived

in the hostels. That was a soldier’s life we lived

as soldiers.143

I also asked Mr Mq if saw any positive or negative

impacts on that way of living?

“The only disadvantage was the fact that as a

black you had to live in Cape Town for a year

without your wife, and family who are behind in

the rural areas. That is the reason why many

households broke. A man living in Cape Town would

find another lady and impregnate them and stay in

the location and forget about his wife in the

rural areas. Then the wife would also have

children from another man back home and that

resulted in the breaking down of families and

homes. All this as a result of the law that did

143 Mr Mq, interviewed on 25 October 2014

47 | P a g e

not allow men to stay with their wives. That was a

very bad thing because it broke homes apart”.144

Field has highlighted that the most central agony that

the hostel dwellers had to contend with was the lack of

connection to family.145 One responded in his work

commented on the experiences of the so-called migrant

bachelors,

“The Flats is single-beds also… when your wife who

has come up from the Transkei. Can you imagine

sleeping in the same bed with your wife there and

being the envy of thirty people around you? It

doesn’t work does it?”…146

The impact of the system of migrant labour still remains

today, because many hostel dwellers (in particular men)

are still living in the hostels without wives and

children whom live in the rural areas. They have

according to an interviewee in Field,

“can’t cope to stay in the homes, some even

quarrel with their families, and leave there and

come back to stay in the hostel”.147

There was strain on many of the hostel dwellers relating

to the lifestyle of hostel dwelling.148 The system of 144 Ibid145 S. Field, ‘Sites of memory in Langa’ In Imagining the City: Memories and Cultures in Cape Town (eds) S. Field; R. Meyer; F. Swanson, 2008, p. 26146 Quoted in Field, ‘Sites of memory in Langa’ In Imagining the City: Memories and Cultures in Cape Town (eds) S. Field; R. Meyer; F. Swanson, 2008, p. 26147 Ibid, p. 27148 See – R. Smit, ‘The Impact of Labor Migration on African Families in South Africa: Yesterdayand Today’, 2001

48 | P a g e

migrant labour in South Africa has been criticized for

its detrimental effect on family life among Africans,

because migrant workers were for most part absent during

the critical years of marriage and childbearing and they

missed out those duties and responsibilities.149 It is

through those conditions that family relationships have

been broken and eroded over the years. For those that

braved the policies of the exclusion of women and

children by the apartheid government, the lack of

privacy and overcrowding was their reward.

Mr M who arrived in the hostels in the early 1980s has

been living in the Cape Town for most of his prime years

up to now. And when I asked if he was ever married and

also how did hostel life affect family life? He

responded,

Yes I was once but my wife passed away years ago…

it’s a good thing because the way in which we

lived in these hostels was not nice. Before women

and children were allowed in the hostels, those

were the hardest years for those who had wives and

families back home. If your wife visited you in

the hostel, that proved to be a difficult

situation because there was no private rooms for

you to use for marital relations. People used

curtains to cover their space and for privacy.

Discussion of personal information with spouses 149 R. Smit, ‘The Impact of Labor Migration on African Families in South Africa: Yesterday and Today’, 2001

49 | P a g e

was also difficult because of the number of ears

in the room. Staying in the hostel really

disturbed family life because you had to hide your

wife when the police came in at night and during

the day you would hide in the location outside of

the hostels and bring her back at night.150

When I asked Mr S about how living in the hostels

affected family life and lifestyles he said that,

“It was hard and difficult for men to stay as

bachelors although they were married and another

problem was that there was no privacy for men and

their wives in the hostel rooms. When your wife

visited you in the hostels that was very difficult

for us men because of those issues.”151

S. J- I then asked my respondents if they saw any change

in the way hostel dwellers live in the hostels now as

compared to the 1980s?

Mr Mq - Many people thought that freedom would

mean everyone was going to be economically stable,

they had these ideas about freedom. Others knew

that freedom meant you can do whatever you liked

without anyone holding you back. But I can say

that life in the hostels became better after we

received freedom. It took time for people in Langa

150 Mr M, Interviewed, 20 September, 2014151 Mr S, interviewed on 17 September 2014

50 | P a g e

to be built proper housing. Even though those in

the hostels are still living with the same

conditions they lived with before 1994, you live

here with your wife and children, even if there’s

six of them in this one room. There was a process

where they said they were going to change the

hostels into family houses. It is happening but it

is happening very slowly. Others were lucky to

receive flats.152

Mr S – I can say many things changed after 1994.

The good things for example we were free do go in

the townships and towns without carrying a ‘pass’,

you can also do whatever you liked because now the

laws that discriminated against black people were

over. Our families could stay with us in the

hostels also.153

Mr B – Many things changed but some not for the

better because after 1994 people have become

jobless. But in those years jobs were easy to

find. When women came in the hostels troubles

started because they controlled men and their

wages. People cooked separately now because of

women, something that was not happening before

they lived in the hostels.154

152 Mr Mq, interviewed on 25 October 2014

153 Mr S, interviewed on 17 September 2014154 Mr B, interviewed on the 4 October 2014

51 | P a g e

Mr M’s response on democracy highlights his feelings

about it, “Well we are free but there are no jobs now.

Its unemployment problem only that is troubling us

because there are no longer jobs”.155

It is clear to relate their responses in terms of the

current situation in the country where there is an

unemployment issue. As vague as these answer sounds, the

emotions depicted by the respondent in terms of the lack

of employment comment, it highlights his nostalgic

feelings when employment was easily accessible. Most of

the respondents in this essay, although they do not want

for apartheid to come back, their reflective nostalgic

feelings about the past highlight their resentments of

what democracy brought and at the same time in their

eyes took away. Another respondent also commented on the

idea of going and stand in the robots (traffic robots)

in search for jobs and employment in which he commented

on the fact that you would never see that in the past.156

It is clear to relate their responses in terms of the

current situation in the country where there is an

unemployment issue.

Conclusion

The legacies of the apartheid government still affect a lot of

people in the South Africa today. The people who were

classified as non-whites face challenges in the country as a

result of policies and legislations that discriminated against155 Mr M, Interviewed, 20 September 2014156 Mr B, interviewed on the 4 October 2014

52 | P a g e

them under apartheid. Black people in the country were

discriminated in many different forms, through legislations

like the Group Areas Act of 1950, the Native Land Act of 1913,

and the Native Urban Act of 1923, they were forced by law to

be in certain areas that were designated for them. The most

criticised system of the apartheid government in terms of its

impact of families and the lives of the migrants themselves

was the migrant labour system. The migrant labour system

resulted in people being away from their homes and housed in

compounds and hostels around the country in urban centres. The

impacts of these two systems had on the migrant differed, as

both the systems differed from the other also. The main

objective for the compounds was to control the labour force

for the mines and their owners, whereas the hostels were

purposefully introduced to accommodate single sex migrants in

the urban areas.157

Those housed in the hostels face numerous challenges,

including issues relating to their health, social, and to a

greater extent political. It is without doubt that hostels in

the country affected every aspect of the people that lived in

them, and those who still do live in them. They have been an

unremitting source of grievance and anger,158 for those who

have experienced life in the hostels. The hostels were

institutionalised on the black population of the country,

however not all black people lived in them. Although they were

157 P. Maylam, Explaining the Apartheid City: 20 Years of South African Urban Historiography, (Journal of Southern African Studies, vol. 21, (1), 1995, p. 29158 A. Sitas, The New Tribalism: Hostels and Violence, (Taylor & Francis, Ltd. Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 22, (2), 1996), p. 236

53 | P a g e

created to house single sexes in the urban areas (mostly men),

women were also housed in some forms of hostels too. The

hostels that the apartheid government introduced were

initially supposed to be a temporary basis to house the

migrants.159 The key word being temporary and it is evident

enough that did not happen as many Africans came into the

cities in search for better economic opportunities, the

hostels were occupied indefinitely by the migrants and this

resulted to more issues both for the hostel dwellers and the

state.

The Langa Zones in Langa are still worst accommodation amongst

the hostels in Langa.160 They are still occupied by the former

migrants who were inhabiting them as bachelors even though

most were married with wives and children who were in the

rural areas in the Transkei. Although the hostels now are

occupied by both the former migrants and their families they

still have the same structural features they had when they

were first built. As a result of these new living arrangements

they are more overcrowded than ever, the lack of privacy has

taken another form, and space in the hostels is no longer a

male aspect. The hostel dwellers that occupy these hostels

like many all over the country faced issues. This essay put

focus on the following; the idea and issue of space, life in

the hostels, family life, the relationship between the hostel

dwellers and the township residents, and the role that the

159 See - J. Segar, Communities in Isolation: Perspectives on hostels in South Africa, (ed). A Minnaar, (Human Sciences Research Council, Pretoria, 1993), 160 M. Ramphele, A Bed Called Home - Life in the Migrant Labour Hostels of Cape Town, (Cape Town: David Phillip Publishers; 1993, p. 27

54 | P a g e

police played in the everyday lives of the hostel dwellers, in

order to answer if whether democracy brought any significant

changes in the lives of the hostel dwellers in the Langa

Zones.

Therefore in conclusion, the hostel dwellers in the Langa

Zones have experienced the system of migrant labour and

apartheid into the fullest. They are also in relation to the

system of apartheid still experience its legacies years after

its fall. The respondents for this essay gave similar

responses in relation to life in the hostels under apartheid.

Their responses were similar because the life lived in these

hostels was to an extent one life. This relates to the living

arrangements in the hostels and their blocks, where people

lived according to their home affiliations, lived according to

the different hierarchies between the old and young. The

respondents also saw the disadvantages of living in the

hostels without their wives and highlighted the negative

impacts that this had on family life. This relates to the

context of the apartheid government because after the laws

were lifted women and children could live in the hostels. This

gave rise to overcrowding and the space that was formerly for

male migrants was now also occupied and used by women and

children.

The tension that existed between the hostel dwellers and the

township residents in the Witwatersrand resulted into violence

in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In the Western Cape hostels

however the tension between the hostel dwellers and the

township residents never got to the point of violence. The 55 | P a g e

respondents all indicated that the tension that existed in the

Langa Zones with the township residents only led to name

calling, ‘amagoduka’. They also indicated that movement

between the two spaces was limited, although others

highlighted that people did move about these spaces, to visit

each other and their family members who were in the city in

the township. They also highlighted the role of the police

under apartheid and how they used to be a nuisance in their

lives and their wives. Others have also showed feelings of

nostalgia, this relates to them reflecting about certain

things that they feel have long gone as a result of democracy.

They do however see the negative aspects that apartheid came

with and also according to them positives that it also came

with.

The hostel dwellers have contrasting views on how democracy

played part in their lives. They have a contrasting view on

democracy itself, arguing that although people are free, that

freedom came with a price. This is an economic phrase and it

is what they feel they lost after democracy came into

practice, their economic freedom which was supplied by having

employment. However, they also see the positives that

democracy came with and this relates to free movement within

the city. Under apartheid black people were required to carry

a ‘pass’ in the urban areas and if found without one would be

arrested on the spot. Democracy, they view lifted such burden

on them and the constant harassment by the police. They are

also able to freely visit people in the townships without fear

of being attacked and vice-versa. The hostel dwellers also

56 | P a g e

praise the fact that they are now able to live with their

wives and children in the hostels. Therefore in the context of

the hostels and the hostel dwellers experiences in the Langa

Zones in the 1980s and after 1994, their lives have changed

both for the better and worst. This conclusion is taken from

their responses on the subject issues I focused on.

57 | P a g e

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