Some old townships have seen rapid development since 1994, with, for instance, wealthy, and middle-income areas growing up in parts of Soweto, Chatsworth, etc. Today they are often viewed as just one of the many suburbs that an urban area might have. Most South African towns and cities will have at least one township associated with them. However policy makers are, as in the 1950s, once again using the term ' slums' in a highly pejorative way. Townships sometimes have large informal settlements nearby.ĭespite their origins in apartheid South Africa, today the terms township, location and informal settlements are not used pejoratively. The slang term 'Kasie', a popular short version of 'Lokasie' is also used sometimes to refer to townships.

Townships for non-whites were also called locations or lokasie in Afrikaans, and are often still referred to by that name in smaller towns. Legislation that enabled the Apartheid government to do this included the Group Areas Act. Separate townships were established for each of the three designated non-white race groups (blacks, coloureds and Indians). Apartheid in South Africaĭuring the Apartheid Era blacks were evicted from properties that were in areas designated as 'white only' and forced to move into segregated townships.

The town of Hankey ( foreground), with accompanying township ( background) on the edge of the town.

Township (in South Africa) south africa