- 9 hours ago
Cape Town’s iconic beaches and upmarket housing is shadowed by severe inequality and gang violence that plagues many residents. This week, The 77 Percent explores how young people are trying to improve their communities.
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00:05South Africa's Cape Town looks like paradise but for many it's a war for survival as rent
00:10rises working families are pushed further into townships still carrying the burden of housing
00:16inequality that also means being pushed further away from jobs schools and just opportunities
00:22that's right in Cape Town wealth still largely follows the color lines drawn by appetite so
00:29even when gentrification is framed as an economic advantage where deep gaps between rich and poor
00:34shape who gets left behind let's not forget the crime factor Cape Town is one of the most
00:40sought-after cities on the continent and the place to be for influencers and digital nomads
00:51while they enjoy the high life locals struggle to afford life in the city not only do they cut the
00:57budgets for housing they cut the budgets for education parts of the city have become a war
01:02zone scarred by gang violence what gang are you this is a gang in our community they are currently at
01:09home if you really want to be part of the gang you must first kill someone as gangsters in life
01:14is there
01:15but you have the choice to step away from it the government needs to get a real needs analysis of
01:20the community this is the show my name is fatu elika muloshi and i am rachel nduwati
01:30so south africa has one of the world's highest inequality levels where the top 10 percent of
01:37the population owns more than 80 percent guys of the wealth in cape town alone 70 percent of downtown
01:43housing is for tourists can you imagine yeah right and many urban residents they are already face housing
01:49shortages and long commutes from townships now rising urban rents have also worsened this divide
01:55let's hear from nonto who is in cape town as we speak hey rachel hey fatu so yes all along
02:01the
02:01coast near cape town we are seeing new estates push out quaint cottages split beaches and increase the
02:08housing crisis it's part of a vicious cycle those who can afford it seek safer suburbs away from dangerous
02:15areas even here walking off the dock is still a bit of a risk but fundamentally new housing
02:21developments have been criticized as profit-seeking and putting a banned aid over the actual problem
02:27which includes crippling inequality and out-of-control crime back to you fatu and rachel i mean onto
02:34something's up there but there's a housing inequality and it's important that we start from there and i saw
02:39someone say that well cape town used to be this community where people just wanted to belong there was this
02:45sense of unison and community and a lot of entertainment until the segregation or the
02:51geographic segregation happened which pushed non-white residents into you know distant townships into the
02:57cape flats where they have little or no access to resources and just valuable infrastructure yeah and
03:02cape town is one is a really toughie because for example when you see um places like clifton which is
03:08inside of cape town the property there cost like 2.5 million dollars you know and this is super super
03:14expensive which means that the working class cannot afford it and it's not that cape town is not big
03:19it's really big and and it's super expensive and it faces challenges like the ones that new york faces
03:24but the difference is cape town has a history and we know that history was due to apartheid yes and
03:30so
03:30that is also a bit of a conundrum there yeah i mean you mentioned it right and things are just
03:35getting more and more expensive because when you look at the issue of now gentrification and that is what
03:39happens when you have this massive influx of population growth in urban cities but we're also
03:45talking about a community that is not only going through a housing crisis but it's also going through
03:50a lot of violent criminal activities we decided to follow up on this um in the city of cape town
03:56and
03:56look at like the government's plan to build this n2 highway to the airports why is cape town spending
04:03115 million rand on a wall along the n2 highway in south africa there is a big debate about a
04:09new wall
04:10being built next to the n2 one of the main roads coming from the airport into the city the city
04:17says
04:17it's to protect drivers from crimes that happen on that road calling it a safety upgrade that will also
04:23feature better lighting and pedestrian crossings but some people are questioning the real intentions
04:29behind it the wall runs along areas where homeless people live and critics say it's more about hiding
04:36poverty from tourists than actually solving the problem some also believe the 115 million rands
04:42should have gone to housing services or real community support not a wall that covers things up
04:48but what do you think is this wall really about safety or is it a means to separate the rich
04:54and the poor
04:54yeah a lot of people have so many reactions to this and yeah we actually went viral from that rule
05:00that favor did and somebody here called demon said um people who criticize here have not experienced a
05:07near-death incident they have not been robbed they have not been hijacked they have not lost a family
05:12member there it's easy to comment from the outside but it's very different when you've lived this reality
05:18interesting and what are others also talking about you know instead of using the money to build the
05:24wall let them use it to build the homes uh of the poor and i think the wall there is
05:30you know this
05:31this wall if it's constructed in any way it's quite strategic um for the government because it's a
05:36valuable corridor it links the airport to the city and you can imagine tourists applying that road as well
05:42but also the community you know the road also leads them into the city where they're going to access
05:47their jobs they're going to access their schools and other activities and building the wall for them
05:52just reinforces the same segregation yeah that happened during appetite so it's more of divide
05:58and then control where of course it's now easier to manage people or manage crime that you mentioned
06:04that the government is involved because also some members of the anc party seem to not agree with this
06:09they're actually calling it the berlin wall at the moment they're calling it like the south africa's
06:13berlin wall because if you look at where this war is passing it's passing via kaya licha i hope i
06:18pronounced that correctly it's passing by a guguletu which is also a township it's passing by michelle
06:24plains yeah so these are all townships so it's it looks like it's just a form of segregation from the
06:29rich and the poor but i think it's a very deep issue uh that one needs to look at from
06:34a very uh you know
06:36fair lens because at the end of the day you also have the issue of housing where people feel like
06:42this is
06:42kind of like an aesthetic you know uh you know coverage of the housing inequality that is
06:48currently happening in cape town and we would go a little bit more into that as we see people talk
06:53about how difficult it is for them to even afford rent in that city as we speak cape town is
06:59reserved
07:00for the rich they don't see a place for domestic workers or the working class in that image as foreign
07:06investment flows in cape tonians are grappling with a housing crisis they're pushing us out of the city
07:15but cape tonians are fed up with the situation and demand action property owners need to decrease
07:22their prices so we can afford to stay there due to its proximity to the city center what stock has
07:27experienced the sharpest rent hikes in cape town the crisis is real cape tonians pay the highest rent in
07:35south africa while salaries have stagnated even if you have a job it doesn't mean that you can afford
07:42rent in the city but why is rent increasing so drastically development owners are looking into
07:50more foreign uh uh in interest because a lot of people when they come here they trade with like
07:56dollars and euros so they're trying to please that market developers they much more prioritize that
08:01because obviously it's more money in their pocket obviously airbnb is the main factor the reason why
08:06we're here but even before that before airbnb we were having issues with the housing crisis because
08:13of gentrification because of digital nomads and because of airbnb wow yeah so for me what really stood
08:20out in that report was the fact that airbnb is actually the thing which means that these digital
08:25normads they do not go to hotels unlike for example in kenya when we have digital normads they normally go
08:30to hotels but here the landlords are like we prefer right we prefer euros more than dollars and so we
08:36we decide to focus on the short-term rentals for digital normads yeah and well it will be unfair on
08:41the side of residence but it's like like we're saying in the beginning this is what happens when you are
08:45experiencing uh you know this kind of massive urban growth that is developing at a very fast pace and
08:51cape town as we mentioned in the beginning is like a safe heaven for most people as well tourists who
08:56want
08:56come and explore the place and they want to live in very nice areas and at the end of the
09:01day once
09:02wealthier residents or whether people are coming into these you know areas that that are meant for
09:08people from low-income households it just pushes them into a corner where they cannot afford the
09:14very settlement that they were actually meant to leave in here we will be uh seeing that these people
09:19living in a bundled buildings that are located at the city than in the townships where access to
09:24resources are far more limited let's listen to megan megan bobojana the struggle for affordable housing
09:30takes on a different form she lives in an occupied building only meters away from cape town's swanky
09:37waterfront a former nurse's home that was evicted and left unoccupied for years so here's a building that
09:45could have housed people just sitting there for 10 years without being occupied the occupation is
09:50organized by reclaim the city a prominent social justice movement that fights against evictions
09:56and for affordable housing in well-located areas megan is one of 700 people living here it's gonna be very
10:06dark so this is my home so is there no electricity here not at all what do you mean there
10:15hasn't been
10:16electricity since we got here so two weeks after they realized that we were inside the building
10:21they then cut off the electricity but wait wasn't that like years ago 2017 to be exact do you guys
10:29pay
10:29rent if you live here how does it work so because this building is owned by public works so
10:35nobody has the right to ask for money for a place here so we don't pay rent but what we
10:41do as the
10:42community is we organize amongst ourselves so we basically fundraise to keep the building maintained
10:47there was a murder here as well which is still unsolved on the third floor one of our activists ayanda
10:54passed away in this building killed in his own house and we still don't know who killed ayanda you
11:00choose the devil that you want and this for me was the easier devil there's the discomfort of now
11:08versus what we're fighting for this was worth it for me so to say to the city you know we
11:13will stay
11:13under any conditions provided that you meet us halfway you know and we we will still stay here
11:20as long as the government feels like they don't need to answer us we will stay in this discomfort it
11:26is a
11:26huge contrast just to be able to access work and access the city indeed sure hey that's hectic and
11:34the interesting part is the government cannot take take them out of those places until they're able to
11:39provide an alternative housing because people have a right to shelter yeah and also like when you look
11:44at what she's saying somebody realized that they moved in yeah they decided to switch the lights off and
11:49she decides to say better the devil but you know then you know the uncertainty that is behind this
11:54form of activism i mean yeah yeah i don't know i was going to say that though and i've also
11:59realized
11:59that the formal housing you know backlog exceeds hundreds and hundreds of units there are long waiting
12:06you know long queues of people just waiting to have access to the same housing so at the end of
12:12the day
12:12they just they have to be somewhere you know and like you heard her say they would rather be in
12:17those
12:17places where they can access their daily life activities than be in places where one day
12:22disadvantaged they cannot have access and two they're going to deal with on safety issues so it's
12:26a perfect storm that you know criminals have really really managed to exploit gangsterism still shapes
12:33life across large areas of the cape flats as crime continues to escalate the government has deployed the
12:39military in areas like mitchell's plane neighborhood watch groups patrol the streets together with the police
12:45here alone 13 gangs are fighting over territory linked to the drug trade the sheer density of these
12:53rival territories shows just how little it takes to spark a turf war some are part of the so-called
12:59number gangs born inside the prison system others go by names like the school boys the sexy boys or the
13:05americans for many residents the greatest concern at the moment is the scombiezo gang the police and
13:12residents are heading to a well-known drug hot spot selling drugs here what gang are you were you guys
13:19involved in that shooting of yesterday last night who was shot last night is one of your people that was
13:24shot last night it's your people
13:29they are selling drugs you've got suspicious that they're selling drugs it's also one of the places
13:36where they come and smoke drugs also and there's also gang affiliation one of the gangs within the
13:42area which is the scombiezo which i found three of them in that house in that windy house don't say
13:48you
13:48don't know because you sit with them and smoke drugs we're gonna stop that nonsense we're gonna stop that
13:54nonsense oh the gangsterism is very heavy yeah very heavy two gangsters no uh uh scombiezo's and
14:05they are fighting with each other the police only come afterwards afterwards they shot a lady yesterday
14:13in a leg um a church lady just a few streets away we meet one of the victims denise had
14:22been standing
14:23outside when rival gang members suddenly started shooting at each other the bullet had only just been
14:30removed from her leg
14:55that is super emotional you know seeing such an old person having
15:00hope in the police system but also at the same time thinking that the police may not really be able
15:06to help i think what makes it even difficult in this instance is that they're dealing with gangs and
15:12of course these are people that are very much uh somehow sometimes protected i don't know but
15:18the community themselves live in fear they cannot report any criminal activity because once they do
15:22they might be attacked as well and they the gang activities also obstruct schools you know they
15:28affect education in fact i understand that they do go into school sometimes to try and recruit kids
15:34into their gangs the police can intervene all the time but the police is not the solution yeah to the
15:41problem because they cannot address the issue of unequal access to education they cannot address the
15:46problem of unemployment so these are issues that are really systemic and clearly needs a very holistic
15:52approach an influencer went into cape town and they asked this gang leader how they feel about
15:59being a gangster and his response was bro it's lecker me robbing you with all your these cameras and
16:06things my brother is lecker because this is the reality that's been sold they they they find themselves
16:11being born he was born a gangster he said he was raised a gangster and you know what it means
16:16to
16:16be able to buy drugs every day with gangster money my brother but let's let's have a look yeah it's
16:24not a
16:24laughing matter it's for sure true it's just the accent that's what he's using that's here a 16 year
16:30old called estevan didn't get the chance to step away at just 11 years old he was already pulled into
16:36a gang
16:36i was born in in a nova park race race as like how can i say like not in a
16:45stable family you see
16:48and as years goes past and i just found myself in gangsterism and all of that stuff if you really
16:55want to be part of the gang you must first kill someone you must stand out for the gang to
17:01prove
17:01yourself you can choose like any guy what guy you want to kill or you want to do something i
17:06don't
17:07feel nice because like if you do it like and if you go home like your body started suffering and
17:13you
17:14started vomiting but now let's smoke weed and drink wine and that is where um i started to do coke
17:24also
17:24every night every morning estevan once led a crew of 15 gang members for one of the major gangs in
17:32the area the ghetto kids he says he killed five people and was nearly killed himself
17:40the guy who did come to shoot he was actually out on me and the empty actually two extension makes
17:46but only one bullet touch me two years ago estevan found a way out through the first community resource
17:53center founded by pastor craven engel the ngo offers gang members a lifeline if they agree to heartbreak
18:01from drugs and violence their team of outreach specialists approach young gang members directly
18:07estevan took the chance so far the organization says it has successfully pulled more than 2 000 young
18:14people out of gang life because he never had an opportunity in life so he actually he lost
18:21already when he when he was born he lost because his parents couldn't really take care of him and they
18:28were living on the street for a long time for a very long time they were living on the street
18:32and his mother was also on substance his father's not there anymore so when it comes to recruitment of
18:36gang members youth gang members this is the kind of kid they're looking for they're looking for this
18:41typology of a child who's got no parental covering no sound living conditions education issues poverty
18:50issues so they look for these guys and then this is easy recruiting estevan now wants to look ahead
18:56with help he secured an apprenticeship in a company for renewable energies i mean it's really difficult for
19:03anyone to reform these gangsters i've seen that almost 50 percent of the reformed gangsters go back
19:09to the same gangsterism so you've got like communities really struggling to do any form of rehabilitation
19:16for them and well fortunately these ministries that also rely on ngo support were able to make
19:22or build makeshift rehabilitation centers to get some of them in yeah making them sustainable is
19:28definitely a tough one especially because also the guilty conscience that this person had you know when
19:33they were doing and committing these actions um and the crimes that they commit are really really grand like
19:38estevan there said that he had killed five people that in itself is a very disturbing thing and you
19:43know his story is sadly one of the many people who are caught in gang violence and in the course
19:48of
19:48that um they commit terrible terrible crimes yeah i mean crime officials in cape town admit many serious
19:55crimes go unresolved and unpunished the story we also just saw shows what can happen when inequality and
20:02lack of opportunity uh caused communities to be to become dysfunctional yeah but we also like don't
20:08know what the future of esteban like holds but perhaps his journey is a small step and a blueprint
20:15to stopping the spread of gangster gangsterism and what's even better is staying out of gangsterism in
20:20the first place like we see with the temple boys who resorted to music instead let's go
20:28we meet the temple boys in their neighborhood of raven smith on a cape flats their journey began in
20:34high school when a group of friends started making music together and went on to develop their
20:39distinctive african's gum crossover sound all our writers and it's all based on true life stories um
20:47people imagine this look at kate town as a crime scene that gangsterism life is there but you have the
20:54choice to step away from like we did the track that launched them into mainstream fame the sound for
21:05sakis has been used in over 25 000 tick tock videos with the group's own energetic dance performances to
21:12the song becoming massive viral hits on the platform it's still their most popular song so today they are
21:19rehearsing it with a group of dancers for their next concert i don't know they're down to earth
21:24mess like usually people that's famous like act like they're famous they don't act like they're famous they don't act
21:30like they're famous they're very humble
21:30very humble the reason they never forgot where they came from
21:37on concert day their fans have been gathering outside the venue for hours
21:43i'm very excited to see them first because what it is doing is it's redirecting the narrative that we
21:49are not just about gangsterism we're about fun we're about upskilling the youth
21:57meanwhile the temple boys are getting ready at their manager's grandmother's home
22:01where she offers them a final few words of advice before the show
22:10i'm so excited bruh
22:13people that's also they're so scared of the cape flat we wanna we wanna go into every cape flat
22:19of course there's actually people loving their youth
22:22look at that i like this sound like it's like this beat you know yeah amazing stuff yeah it's nice
22:35also the bits are like you know so good yeah and you can see they've got a lot of community
22:40support
22:40as well and i think that gives me the feeling of the community wants something better for themselves
22:44exactly yeah it's just that the opportunities also have to be yeah yeah yeah and it's also good to see
22:50something good coming out of cape plats you know because it's it's been for years it's been this hub of
22:55gangsterism um and we did see like also like the fans coming together and all of these things and they
23:00did say that they were in fact part of that same ecosystem but they decided to do something good for
23:07themselves yeah and i think aside from the fact that it's important to demilitarize the whole narrative
23:13it's also important that you know the causes of this are actually addressed you know going going
23:18down to the roots yeah exactly and you know in fact we've even discussed this issue extensively in
23:24our street debate and capetonians were very vocal about the solutions they envisioned for this city
23:29my mom passed she died waiting for a house so you can imagine we are at 30 years of democracy
23:38she
23:38waited 23 years the first thing that the national government can start doing when it comes to housing
23:43is to stop cutting the budgets to municipalities every single year not only do they cut the budget
23:49for housing they cut the budgets for education provincial education provincial hospitals when are they
23:55going to fix the trains in cape town all of those has have an impact when it comes to connecting
24:01people from different parts of the city into work opportunities where people live matters release
24:06public land we're not saying private land there's public land here in the inner city which must be
24:12released for affordable housing to accommodate the workers of the city as well as the students of
24:18this city yeah you know south africa has actually been termed as the country with one of the most um
24:25ambitious this is the word that people use ambitious public housing programs in the world because they
24:30said that they would actually give affordable housing to people who were actually discriminated during the
24:35appetite times but they have not really managed to do that as we have seen in that street debate
24:40it is very important where you live really matters a lot and it just takes us back to everything that
24:48we've discussed it gives you access it gives you opportunity so if you're far off from all those
24:54infrastructure infrastructure then clearly there is a fundamental issue and what we're faced with here is
25:00it's like a tragic clash between survival and a system in gridlock like they've been finding it
25:07extremely difficult to get out of the system so you have you know low low income households or people
25:15living in low income situations forcing themselves to live in very uncomfortable situations because of the
25:22access that they need and you have a system that is extremely you know in this gridlock because they are
25:28fighting so hard to provide opportunity for their people but they also are faced with structural issues
25:34like crimes criminal activities but guys yes that was about it we've come to the end of the show
25:40it was really great having you let's continue this conversation on our socials my name is fatu
25:44elika muloshi and i am rachel ndwati talk to us on our social media platforms but until next time bye
25:49bye see you later bye