Langa (South Africa)
| Langa | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| Coordinates | 33 ° 56 '40 " S , 18 ° 31' 53" E | ||
| Basic data | |||
| Country | South Africa | ||
| Western cape | |||
| metropolis | City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality | ||
| ISO 3166-2 | ZA toilet | ||
| surface | 3.1 km² | ||
| Residents | 52,401 (2011) | ||
| density | 16,958.3 Ew. / km² | ||
| founding | 1927 | ||
 Informal settlement of Joe Slovo
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Langa is a district of the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality in the Western Cape Province of South Africa . Even before the introduction of the apartheid system, it was the first Cape Town district to be planned and built for black people, making it one of the first townships in South Africa.
geography
Langa is located around 15 kilometers southeast of Cape Town city center. In 2011, 52,401 people lived there on 2.87 km². It is bounded to the west by Jan Smuts Drive , to the south by the N2 and to the east by the M7 expressway. A railway line runs north. Occasionally, Langa is included in the Cape Flats area , which, however, only emerged from the 1950s.
history
The district was built from 1927 as a result of the Native Urban Areas Act passed in 1923 exclusively as a residential area for blacks. By the turn of the century, blacks had been driven out of the city center and some of them were settled in the Ndabeni district. Langa was the first township in Cape Town and the entire Cape Province that was specifically planned as a home for black people. The planning authorities made sure that the area could easily be kept under control. Langa is the isiXhosa word for "sun". According to other sources, Langa was named after the head of the Hlubi Langalibalele, who was imprisoned on Robben Island in 1873 and whose detention was commuted to house arrest on a farm near what is now Langa. It was not until 1937 that the first secondary school ("secondary school") was set up, which enabled a higher school leaving certificate.
On March 21, 1960 and the following days black people protested in Langa, as in other places in South Africa, against the discriminatory passport laws . Several demonstrators were shot dead by the police . The day became famous for the Sharpeville massacre . As a result of the rioting, the government banned public gatherings of protesters in many administrative districts in the country . On March 26, 1960, the South African police told the press that temporarily no black person would be checked for the reference books that had to be carried with them but were hated in their circles . The PAC and the ANC assumed this was a success of their actions and hoped for a change in the previous labor market regulations. There were many public burnings of these work and residence certificates, according to which Albert Luthuli is said to have burned his own reference book. Because the nationwide actions did not want to end, the government prepared the ban of the ANC and the PAC, the legislative process began on March 28th. They were declared unlawful organizations on April 6th .
However, when a state of emergency was declared on March 30, 1960 , around 30,000 blacks from Langa and Nyanga marched into the city center. The demonstration only broke up after the local PAC chairman was assured a meeting with the Minister of Justice. Instead, however, he was arrested. As a result, residents of Langa went on strike. Langa was cordoned off by the authorities until the strike had to be abandoned.
Prime Minister Verwoerd told the National Assembly on May 20, through the Minister of Finance, in relation to the nationwide unrest that the government was unable to initiate the abolition of the reference books and the influx control system .
1990 was the southern edge of the Langa informal settlement Joe Slovo, named after the longtime chairman of the then again legalized South African Communist Party and former Chief of Staff of the underground Umkhonto we Sizwe , Joe Slovo . It has over 20,000 inhabitants. Part of the settlement fell victim to the extension of the national road N2. Some of the residents were relocated to the Delft district further to the east as part of the N2 Gateway housing project . Other residents fought against it in court.
Economy and Transport
Tours of the district are offered to tourists. The starting point for this is Guga's Thebe, which was originally conceived as a cultural center and is now mainly used as a tourist center. Langa is connected to the national roads N2 and the expressway M7. Passenger trains of the Metrorail Cape Town serve the Langa station .
Sons and daughters of the district
- Victor Ntoni (1947–2013), South African jazz musician
- Duke Ngcukana (1948–2011), South African jazz musician
- Brenda Fassie (1964-2004), South African pop singer
Other personalities
- Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela (* 1955), South African psychologist, grew up in Langa
Web links
- History of Langa at capetown.at (English)
- Cape Town: On tour through a township. Der Spiegel from September 26, 2002
further reading
Monica Wilson , Archie Mafeje: Langa. A Study of Social Groups in an African Township . Oxford University Press , London, New York, 1963
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b portrait at sa-venues.com (English), accessed on November 10, 2012
- ↑ a b Cape Town: On tour through a township. Der Spiegel from September 26, 2002
- ↑ 2011 census , accessed on November 22, 2013
- ↑ a b portrait at capetown.at (English), accessed on November 9, 2012
- ^ SAIRR : A Survey of Race Relations in South Africa 1959-1960 . Johannesburg 1961, pp. 62-63, 68-69, 72
- ^ Uprising in Langa 1960 at capetown.at (English), accessed on January 5, 2014
- ↑ SAIRR, Survey 1959-1960 , p. 105
- ^ Report of the Center on Housing Rights and Evictions on resettlement in South Africa, including the N2 gateway project (English, PDF file; 6.5 MB), accessed on November 10, 2012