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The apartheid legacy of spatial imbalances and economic inequality epitomises post-apartheid South Africa’s townships. Space was strategically controlled through forced removals and relocations from the land, the creation of townships and homelands and the establishment of industrial zones. The racial character of apartheid’s social and industrial geography meant that affluent white people lived in the inner cities or suburbs while working class and unemployed Africans were confined to townships or homelands. Even though there has been a radical move away from this sort of spatial engineering in the post-apartheid period, the legacies of apartheid are still very apparent in places like Mpumalanga and Enhlalakahle.

Both townships were built in the 1960s, according to regulations laid down by the Department of Bantu Administration, as part of a policy that aimed to both regulate the large squatter population which rented space on African-owned freehold land and to facilitate the transport, surveillance and monitoring of Africans. Enhlalakahle was proclaimed as a Bantu township by the Drakensberg Bantu Affairs Administration Board much earlier, though, in 1927. It consisted of plots, tents and mud houses and was originally known as Ezithendeni (an isiZulu word meaning ‘place of tents’). The municipality replaced the mud houses with brick ones in the 1960s. Mud houses can be still be found in the adjacent squatter camp, though, which to this day has no proper sanitation or electricity. In 1996, the township had 4 845 residents. This number had increased to 7 027 by 2001 (see Table 1.5).

TABLE 1.5 Key indicators of Mpumalanga Township & Enhlalakahle Township, 1996-2001

Source: Statistics South Africa (1996, 2001c)

Mpumalanga was established in the late 1960s. By 2001, the township had 26 535 residents, the majority of whom lived in 5 328 formal dwellings. 4 377 households had running water while 4 899 used electricity for lighting. As will be shown in later chapters, though, many residents are unable to pay for these services. Illegal electrical connections are rife, and many households have resorted to cheaper forms of energy. The number of households using electricity in Enhlalakahle actually declined by 27,9 per cent between 1996 and 2001, while the number of households using candles increased from 431 to 675 (a 56,6 per cent increase). The number of households with indoor running water decreased by 39,4 per cent in the same period.

By the 1980s, both townships were home to strong and distinctive communities. Several political and community organisations were formed and grew in strength. They included local branches of national political organisations, resident associations, trade unions, student organisations and churches. There was also unrest in Enhlalakahle in this period. Several houses were stoned or burned with petrol bombs. Two residents burned to death in 1984 after the door of their room was wired shut from the outside, a window broken and inflammable material thrown inside (Greytown Gazette, 7 December 1984). More people were killed in the 1990s, including church leaders such as Reverend Xaba, who was killed in June 1990 at a cemetery after he had finished conducting a funeral service. Numerous joint peace meetings between the ANC and the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) were called, but the violence continued. Residents also signed petitions calling for an end to the violence (Greytown Gazette, 27 September 1994). Events took a radical turn in February 1994, when a prominent ANC leader, Mr. Solomon Mzolo, was killed. Several ANC members were arrested but were later released.

Political clashes between supporters of the ANC-aligned United Democratic Front (UDF) and the IFP started in Mpumalanga with the killing of a prominent UDF leader, Victoria Mxenge, in 1985.¹¹ It was the attack on members of the newly formed, UDF-affiliated Hammarsdale Youth Congress (HAYCO) in 1987, however, that really fuelled political violence in the township. Many lives were lost, houses destroyed, ‘evictions’ and ‘invasions’ increased, and political and territorial no-go zones were introduced. Normal life ceased to exist for a number of years (Bonnin, 1997; 2000; 2001).

The violence was often labelled as ‘black-on-black’ violence. The state posed as a neutral actor that was genuinely concerned with resolving the war. Evidence later emerged, though, that implicated the South African Police (SAP) in the violence. They regularly sided with the IFP against the ANC. Bonnin (2001:194) notes that ‘the deployment of special constables attached to the SAP … had the immediate effect of strengthening Inkatha’s firepower and intensifying the violence’ (Bonnin, 2001:194). Several statements and affidavits by the public accused the South African Defence Force (SADF) and police representatives of being responsible for a series of shootings which took place in Enhlalakahle. However, the security forces always denied the claims (Greytown Gazette, 27 September 1990).

An uneasy peace returned to the townships after nearly four years of violence and killings. The trade unions, which were based in nearby Hammarsdale, helped to negotiate peace deals between the IFP and ANC in Mpumalanga (Interview, Former Union Leader, 26 March 2003). People gradually started returning to the homes that they had fled and schooling resumed (Nzimande & Thusi, 1991). However, both townships became exclusively ANC communities. IFP members were either ‘chased out’ or concealed their political affiliation (Interview, ANC official, 5 November 2003). While politically motivated crime and violence had significantly decreased by the late 1990s, things would never be the same again, socially or politically. A number of organisations disappeared or lost their political will. More importantly, the sense of community and social cohesion in the two areas had been seriously undermined. There is ample physical evidence of the years of conflict in both townships today. While the government has rebuilt some of the houses that were destroyed, many others remain in ruins and have been abandoned by their owners. The taxi route that was first disrupted and then stopped altogether in Mpumalanga has still not been re-established.

Most of the employment in the two townships has traditionally been provided by the footwear, clothing and textile sectors. These sectors were protected and supported by the apartheid government by means of import substitution industrialisation policies. Both townships were essentially established to provide labour for local government-subsidised industries and accommodation for workers. The process of industrial decentralisation in the country first emerged in 1940, as part of the Smuts government’s import substitution industrialisation programme. The state started to subsidise industrial decentralisation by giving out direct cash subsidies instead of granting tax concessions in the 1970s. The so-called border areas became the preferred location for these subsidised industries.¹²

The move away from the policy of import substitution industrialisation, which was completed in the post-apartheid era, began as early as 1980 (Hart, 2001; Bezuidenhout, 2004; Morris, Barnes and Dunne, 2002). By 1982, many factories had started relocating to places that were deemed cheaper and politically more stable. The owners of factories frequently used the political violence in the Hammarsdale and Greytown areas as an excuse to move their factories away from the two areas. Given their lax or absent trade union rights, homelands became the ‘hide-away’ place of choice for many clothing and textile factories (Interview, Former Union Leader, 26 March 2003). The relocation of these factories signalled an era of job losses and unemployment in the two townships.

Representatives of industry and commerce formed a committee to study the industrial development potential of Greytown in 1984. This was part of a response to proposals by industrialists to relocate their factories to Ezakheni, Ladysmith, because of the incentives granted to new industries there. The committee concluded that Greytown was unable to compete with other centres in attracting new industries because the government incentives allocated to the area were considerably lower than those offered in designated growth points (Greytown Gazette, 27 July 1984). The relocation of industries from Greytown also coincided with a decline in employment and production in nearby Pietermaritzburg, the ‘shoe city’ that had always provided the most jobs in the area.¹³ Many factories closed down, relocated and/or reduced their workforce by more than half. Garage-type and sweatshop factories grew in number.

The clothing and textile sector met the same fate in Hammarsdale, the town adjacent to Mpumalanga. The founders of Hammarsdale, the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), had argued that ‘a well-established textile industry would have tremendous employment potential for semiskilled operatives, which meant that it could raise the standard of living of the Bantu’ (IDC, 1971:57, cited in Young, 1972). The first clothing factory, Hammarsdale Clothing, was established in the area in 1957. Within three years of its establishment, Hammarsdale had three textile factories and a factory that manufactured sewing machines which employed 2 135 people. By the end of 1971, there were 13 factories employing 8 500 workers in the area (Young, 1972). Nearly every second person in Mpumalanga worked in one of the factories in Hammarsdale in the 1980s. But from 1990 onwards, an estimated 60 factories closed down, and 3 500 Mpumalanga residents lost their jobs. The majority of those who worked in the factories remain unemployed today. Potential new entrants to the labour market join their ranks every day.

There are many similarities between Enhlalakahle and Mpumalanga. They share a similar economic and political history. Both townships were part of the KwaZulu homeland. Both were established as labour reserves for clothing, textile and footwear industrial nodes. Both places have been hit hard by mass unemployment, poverty and HIV and AIDS. They both experienced political violence in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The shared legacies of apartheid, political violence and post-apartheid policies have played an important role in shaping the livelihood options that are available to the two communities.

There are also significant differences between the two communities. The size, physical location and political dynamics of the two townships are different. Enhlalakahle is adjacent to the medium-sized town of Greytown, while the nearest sizeable town to Mpumalanga is the city of Durban, almost 30 kilometres away. Agriculture also provides more employment possibilities for the people of Enhlalakahle than it does for those of Mpumalanga. Enhlalakahle is one of only three ANC-led wards among eleven IFP-led wards in the IFP-led municipality of Umvoti, a state of affairs which produces a considerable degree of tension between ward councillors and the local ANC branch. Mpumalanga, on the other hand, has ANC-led wards within the ANC-led municipality of eThekwini.

The economic and political trends that have emerged in the two townships will be described in the chapters that follow. Despite difficulties, the two communities are showing embryonic signs of political recovery. While the years between 1984 and 1994 can be described as a ‘decade of devastation’, ‘proliferation of war zones’, and ‘the destruction of pillars of the home’ (Sitas, 2002), the post-1994 period represents the beginning of an era of reconstruction and rebuilding in the two communities. However, while there is hope politically, the economic situation is bleak. Both townships have been sinking deeper into poverty and unemployment despite a plethora of ‘progressive’ post-apartheid economic policies, and poverty alleviation programmes. The evidence presented in this book, and confirmed by similar studies, suggests that South Africa’s post-apartheid economic, social and labour policies have failed to adequately address the systemic causes of poverty, inequality and unemployment, even though they represent a radical departure from the racially-based economic policies which preceded them. The macro-economic policies that have aimed at accelerating the integration of the South Africa’s economy into the global economy have had the adverse effect of deepening inequalities within the country itself (Webster and Bezuidenhout 2000; Ruiters, 2002; Webster and von Holdt, 2005; Seekings and Nattrass, 2005).