The government further planned to move all ‘illegal’ people to Transkei, a homeland created in the eastern part of the country.

The initial plan was to create four towns, each with 30,000 residents in brick houses, a proportion of which were to be privately owned.

The government envisaged Khayelitsha as a relocation point to accommodate all 'legal' residents of the Cape Peninsula, whether they were in informal settlements or in existing townships, in one new purposely built and easily controlled township. The government classified people as legal if they had already lived in the area for ten years. Due to the immense influx of people, it is the second biggest Black township in South Africa after Soweto in Johannesburg. Khayelitsha was built under the principle of racial segregation executed by the government. Khayelitsha Township was established in the same year to accommodate informal settlement dwellers on the Cape Flats, the majority coming from Old Crossroads to escape the violence by the ‘Witdoeke’ (a notorious vigilante group) under the control of Johnson Ngxobongwana.

He announced that all ‘legal’ residents of the Cape Peninsula living in squatter camps or existing townships would be housed in a newly proposed 3220-hectare site located to the south-east, between N2 and False Bay, to be called Khayelitsha, or ‘New Home’. Piet Koornhof, the Minister of Cooperation and Development, overturned this promise to Crossroads residents. The houses were leased to ‘legals’ who could afford them. A small number of brick houses were erected at New Crossroads, near Old Crossroads. He embarked on negotiations with Crossroads residents aimed at either upgrading the settlement or providing an alternative due to the overcrowding in the area. Botha promised fair treatment for Black people who resided in urban areas, though he persisted with influx control. The name is of Xhosa origin and means ‘new home’.

Khayelitsha Township lies some 19km east of Wynberg and 25 km of south-east of Cape Town in the Western Cape.

Township south africa