Inside the Dark City

Located only a few kilometres from one of the richest areas in all of Africa, Alexandra Township — known simply as Alex– is a densely populated slum known for its history of activism and collective resistance. Nelson Mandela described 1940s Alex as “exhilarating and precarious; its atmosphere was alive, its spirit adventurous, its people resourceful.” For three months in 1957, 60,000 residents marched many kilometres to work in protest of a drastic hike in public transit fees. Two months later, a fund was set up by the government and private employers to subsidize transit for township residents.

In the 1960s, the apartheid government announced its plans to demolish all family housing and build 25 single-sex hostels, an effort that was fiercely resisted by residents. Some 70,000 people were forcibly removed from Alex to Soweto and Tembisa but the plan had to be scrapped in 1979 due to high costs and increasing public resistance. In the early 90s, the few hostels that were built became hotbeds of political violence with members of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and the African National Congress (ANC) fighting a bloody urban war. It still remains the precarious place it was in the days of apartheid; 19 Alex residents were killed in the xenophobic violence that swept the country in May 2008.

Although electricity has been provided to most of Alex now, it is still referred to as the Dark City for the decades it was without power.

A woman and child sell “fatcakes” to morning commuters.

Alex residents begin their morning commute to school and work.

Alex is organized into three main areas: West Alex, East Alex and the Far East Bank. West Alex, also known as Old Alex (pictured above), is mainly comprised of cheaply built shacks with poor access to water and electricity. East Alex is a middle-class black neighbourhood with some gated homes. The Far East bank is composed of RDP homes built by the government for lower-income residents.

Poorly constructed shacks in front of the women’s hostel.

The humble interior of a shanty home is reflected in a mirror.

A child sits on a sewage pipe near the banks of the Jutskei River.

A township resident walks past a tangled razor wire enclosure.

A schoolgirl walks past an educational mural featuring Sleeping Beauty and the Seven Dwarves. The woman’s hostel looms behind.

A young boy hides from the sun in an Alexandra alley.

Young men warm their hands near a streetside shop.

Often-dangerous overhead power lines are a common site in Alex.

A vocal member of the Umphakathi Development Forum, an organization of concerned township residents, describes the lack of proper sanitation and electricity in Alex.

A serious rat infestation threatens to promote disease in the township. Dead rats are a common sight on the streets, where children play and where most local commerce happens.

Political rivalries that began in the early 80s and 90s still fester in Alexandra. A campaign poster of ANC leader Jacob Zuma lies defaced on a store wall.

An ANC supporter shows off a campaign t-shirt.

A young boy plays in the courtyard of Alexandra’s women’s hostel. More photos from inside the hostel coming soon.

Informal settlements, known colloquially as squatter camps, sit on the river of the Jutskei River. Every year, hundreds of houses along the river are destroyed by rising water levels.

Kids play on the banks of the Jutskei River.

A tree shoots above the tin roofs of the informal settlements.

On the Far East Bank, homes built under the government’s Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) are under construction. On the horizon lies Old Alex, where citizens wait years on waiting lists to get an RDP home. Some people we talked to have been on the list since 1996; they claim corrupt officials grant homes to people who will pay a bribe.

An RDP construction worker.

The interior of an RDP home.

RDP construction workers are silhouetted as the sun sets on the Far East Bank.

Check out Austin Andrews’ blog for some great photos from the same day.