The township of Imizamo Yethu is situated in the picturesque seaside suburb of Hout Bay in Cape Town. Hout Bay is like a microcosm of South Africa, with a wealthy, mainly white community, living alongside the black community in Imizamo Yethu, and so called ‘coloured’ community in the township of Hangklip near the harbour.
Imizamo Yethu has a population of roughly 14,000 residents, who are mainly Xhosa speaking. The informal settlement was established in the early 1990s when 450 families who had been squatting in shacks around Hout Bay were moved to this new area on the side of a mountain overlooking the harbour.
The population of the township has mushroomed since then, as black people in search of work, education and a better future settled there.
Conditions in the shanty town were shocking, when Niall Mellon first visited in 2002. Almost all of the residents lived in small corrugated iron shacks measuring about 9ft x 9ft. Few had running water in their homes and most were forced to share outside sanitation facilities.
Niall was so shocked by the horrendous living conditions of the people there, that he decided to act. Between the hardy volunteers and the subcontractors that build in Imizamo Yethu all year round, the target of building 450 homes was achieved by the end of 2005.
We hope to continue to build quality brick homes in Imizamo Yethu, however land remains a problem. The City of Cape Town pledged to free up some 16 hectares close to the township three years ago. However, an injunction was taken out by Hout Bay residents to stop the hand over of this parcel of land. As soon as more plots become available to the residents of Imizamo Yethu we will continue building in this, our first, township.
