Cape Flats
Encyclopedia
The Cape Flats is an expansive, low-lying, flat area
situated to the southeast of the central business district of Cape Town
. To many people in Cape Town, the area is known simply as 'The Flats'.
Described by some as 'apartheid's dumping ground', from the 1950s the area became home to people the apartheid government designated as non-White. Race-based legislation such as the Group Areas Act
and pass laws
either forced non-white people out of more central urban areas designated for white people and into government-built townships in the Flats, or made living in the area illegal, forcing many people designated as Black and Coloured into informal settlements elsewhere in the Flats. The Flats have since then been home to much of the population of Greater Cape Town.
to the south and Claremont
and Wetton to the north, where an intrusive mass of Cape Granite is to be found.
To the west the expanse of the Cape Flats is limited by rising ground that slopes up towards the mountainous heights of the Cape Peninsula
, while in the east the land rises gradually towards the Hottentots Holland ranges and other elevated regions of the interior of the Boland.
Most of the sand is unconsolidated; however, in some places near the False Bay coast the oldest sand dunes have been cemented into a soft sandstone. These formations contain important fossils of animals such as the extinct Cape lion and also provide evidence that stone-age people hunted here tens of thousands of years ago.
The area has a Mediterranean climate
, with warm dry summers and cool, damp winters. It is generally exposed to the wind, both from the NW (winter) and SE (summer). Flooding can be a problem, especially in July and August. Cold wet spells, especially in August and September, can make life very difficult for those living in sub-standard housing.
s and especially wattle
s (genus Acacia
). The principal reason for this infestation lay in decisions made by the colonial authorities. It was an era before the advent of modern technological methods for the construction of permanent roads and in those days the Cape Flats was a massive sea of unstabilized sand dunes that moved at will before the winds. This made travel between Cape Town and the interior very difficult, particularly for the large ox-drawn wagons of the time. The authorities decided to try to stabilize the sand with plants native to the British colonies of New South Wales
and Western Australia
.
The earliest importation of wattles was in 1827. Massive plantings were established in the 1840s and 1850s and the work continued until well after 1875.
At the time, the plan worked well enough: the march of the dunes was arrested. The price paid, in ecological terms, was that the Cape Flats was carpeted by invasive species
. Serious efforts have in recent years been made to roll back this alien scourge.
The Cape Flats has undergone revolutionary change in the past half a century. In 1950 the area was practically uninhabited. There was a single, narrow road across the Flats from Cape Town to The Strand that ran between walls of alien rooikrans bushes and one could travel for miles without seeing any sign of habitation other that a few fences and a handful of farmhouses. Native antelope roamed at will between the dense thickets of wattles. The army used the area for military exercises and the few farmers who inhabited the Flats eked out a living by growing vegetables in pockets of relatively poor soil between the barren dunes. Modern amenities were unknown; there were no telephones, drinking water was collected in tanks from roofs and at night the rooms were lit by oil lamps.
The era of sand and antelopes vanished completely in little more than a generation. Vegetable farming persisted but to a much lesser extent, because urbanization enveloped vast tracts of land in short order. During the apartheid era large housing projects were built here, mostly as part of the Nationalist government's larger effort to force the so-called Coloured
community out of the central and western areas of Cape Town, which the political theorists of the day had designated as whites-only areas. This meant that only whites could reside there permanently. People of colour could work in the city but could not live there. Additionally, other large townships of black people (e.g., Khayelitsha
and Gugulethu) grew up on the flats as a product of both informal settlement and forced government relocations. Since many Xhosa people of the region—including people born and raised in the Cape Town area—were designated under apartheid as residents of Bantustans, many were obliged to live in the area illegally, further contributing to the growth of informal settlements. These consisted in the main of shacks made of 'tin' (in reality corrugated iron), cardboard and wood.
Since the end of apartheid, these communities are no longer legally bound by racial restrictions but history, language, economics and ethnic politics still contribute to homogeneity of local areas. So, for example, most residents of Mitchell's Plain
likely still speak a locally-inflected version of Afrikaans
, along with English
and either they or their parents were designated as Coloured by apartheid; most residents of Khayelitsha still speak Xhosa
and English and either they or their parents were designated as Black by apartheid. Nonetheless, some areas of the Cape Flats have an increasing diversity of residents, with Xhosa-speaking people an increasingly noticeable presence in some previously mainly Afrikaans-speaking areas.
The Cape Flats is home to a remarkable cultural history.
Its music spans from the serious-minded jazz of Abdullah Ibrahim
and Basil Coetzee
and their anthem 'Mannenberg' (named after a Cape Flats township), to the bubbly pop hits of Brenda Fassie
; and continues in a new hip-hop
movement (e.g., http://www.urbansmarts.com/interviews/godessa.htm, http://www.music.org.za/artist.asp?id=59).
Its religious communities include (to name only a few), Afrikaans-speaking congregations of the Dutch Reformed Church
, Rastafarian communities, people who engage only in traditional Xhosa practices, syncretic Xhosa Christian churches, evangelical
Christian churches, and southern Africa's largest Muslim
community (drawing its oldest roots from the historic Cape Muslim community, which dates back to the 17th century).
Its political history is complex and sometimes baffling even to insiders: for instance, the politics of the Coloured communities of the Cape Flats have included Trotskyist activism in earlier years, and mobilization for the United Democratic Front
in the 80s; and then, widespread support for the historically white National Party
(which had presided over apartheid) in the early post-apartheid elections. More recently, the area has seen an expansion of African National Congress
strength from its base in the black townships and into historically Coloured areas , as well as a particularly strong local growth of left-wing social movements like the Treatment Action Campaign
which offer a critique of government policies. Sometimes violent Islamist movements have emerged from Cape Flats communities http://www.iss.co.za/Pubs/Monographs/No63/Chap2.html, along with other notable figures within the Muslim
community, such as Fareed Ishaq, who embody an ecumenical strain of religious progressivism.
Almost all of the communities of the Cape Flats remain, to one degree or another, poverty stricken. Serious social problems include a high rate of unemployment
and disturbing levels of gang
activity. During the late 1990s and early 2000s, there was significant armed conflict between various gangs and PAGAD (People Against Gangsterism and Drugs), a vigilante
organization.
A wide range of community empowerment organizations work non-violently to combat poverty, crime and health problems and the role of civil society
in many parts of the area is relatively strong.
Area
Area is a quantity that expresses the extent of a two-dimensional surface or shape in the plane. Area can be understood as the amount of material with a given thickness that would be necessary to fashion a model of the shape, or the amount of paint necessary to cover the surface with a single coat...
situated to the southeast of the central business district of Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
. To many people in Cape Town, the area is known simply as 'The Flats'.
Group Areas Act
The Group Areas Act of 1950 was an act of parliament created under the apartheid government of South Africa on 27th April 1950. The act assigned racial groups to different residential and business sections in urban areas in a system of urban apartheid...
and pass laws
Pass laws
Pass laws in South Africa were designed to segregate the population and limit severely the movements of the non-white populace. This legislation was one of the dominant features of the country's apartheid system. The Black population were required to carry these pass books with them when outside...
either forced non-white people out of more central urban areas designated for white people and into government-built townships in the Flats, or made living in the area illegal, forcing many people designated as Black and Coloured into informal settlements elsewhere in the Flats. The Flats have since then been home to much of the population of Greater Cape Town.
Geology and geography
In geological terms, the area is essentially a vast sheet of aeolian sand, ultimately of marine origin, which has blown up from the adjacent beaches over a period on the order of a hundred thousand years. Below the sand, the bedrock is in general the Malmesbury Shale, except on part of the western margin between ZeekoevleiZeekoevlei
Zeekoevlei is a major freshwater lake on the Cape Flats near Cape Town, Western Cape Province, South Africa. The name means "hippopotamus vlei," with "vlei" being afrikaans for "lake", and "zeekoe" being an archaic spelling of the afrikaans for hippopotamus.Zeekoevlei Nature Reserve is based on...
to the south and Claremont
Claremont, Cape Town
Claremont is a suburb of Cape Town, South Africa. It is situated six miles south of the city, and is one of the so-called "Southern Suburbs". It is an important commercial and residential area, which is currently experiencing significant growth and development.-History:Until the arrival of Dutch...
and Wetton to the north, where an intrusive mass of Cape Granite is to be found.
To the west the expanse of the Cape Flats is limited by rising ground that slopes up towards the mountainous heights of the Cape Peninsula
Cape Peninsula
The Cape Peninsula is a generally rocky peninsula that juts out for 75 km into the Atlantic Ocean at the south-western extremity of the African continent. At the southern end of the peninsula are Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope...
, while in the east the land rises gradually towards the Hottentots Holland ranges and other elevated regions of the interior of the Boland.
Most of the sand is unconsolidated; however, in some places near the False Bay coast the oldest sand dunes have been cemented into a soft sandstone. These formations contain important fossils of animals such as the extinct Cape lion and also provide evidence that stone-age people hunted here tens of thousands of years ago.
The area has a Mediterranean climate
Mediterranean climate
A Mediterranean climate is the climate typical of most of the lands in the Mediterranean Basin, and is a particular variety of subtropical climate...
, with warm dry summers and cool, damp winters. It is generally exposed to the wind, both from the NW (winter) and SE (summer). Flooding can be a problem, especially in July and August. Cold wet spells, especially in August and September, can make life very difficult for those living in sub-standard housing.
History
During the second half of the 19th century, the area was completely overrun by alien vegetation, mainly of Australian origin (Stirton, 1978). The plants included hakeaHakea
Hakea is a genus of 149 species of shrubs and small trees in the Proteaceae, native to Australia. They are found throughout the country, with the highest species diversity being found in the south west of Western Australia....
s and especially wattle
Cootamundra wattle
Acacia baileyana, commonly known as Cootamundra Wattle, is a shrub or tree in the genus Acacia. The scientific name of the species honours the botanist Frederick Manson Bailey. It is indigenous to a small area of southern New South Wales in Australia, but it has been widely planted in other...
s (genus Acacia
Acacia
Acacia is a genus of shrubs and trees belonging to the subfamily Mimosoideae of the family Fabaceae, first described in Africa by the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in 1773. Many non-Australian species tend to be thorny, whereas the majority of Australian acacias are not...
). The principal reason for this infestation lay in decisions made by the colonial authorities. It was an era before the advent of modern technological methods for the construction of permanent roads and in those days the Cape Flats was a massive sea of unstabilized sand dunes that moved at will before the winds. This made travel between Cape Town and the interior very difficult, particularly for the large ox-drawn wagons of the time. The authorities decided to try to stabilize the sand with plants native to the British colonies of New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
and Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
.
The earliest importation of wattles was in 1827. Massive plantings were established in the 1840s and 1850s and the work continued until well after 1875.
At the time, the plan worked well enough: the march of the dunes was arrested. The price paid, in ecological terms, was that the Cape Flats was carpeted by invasive species
Invasive species
"Invasive species", or invasive exotics, is a nomenclature term and categorization phrase used for flora and fauna, and for specific restoration-preservation processes in native habitats, with several definitions....
. Serious efforts have in recent years been made to roll back this alien scourge.
The Cape Flats has undergone revolutionary change in the past half a century. In 1950 the area was practically uninhabited. There was a single, narrow road across the Flats from Cape Town to The Strand that ran between walls of alien rooikrans bushes and one could travel for miles without seeing any sign of habitation other that a few fences and a handful of farmhouses. Native antelope roamed at will between the dense thickets of wattles. The army used the area for military exercises and the few farmers who inhabited the Flats eked out a living by growing vegetables in pockets of relatively poor soil between the barren dunes. Modern amenities were unknown; there were no telephones, drinking water was collected in tanks from roofs and at night the rooms were lit by oil lamps.
Modern history, politics and culture
Coloured
In the South African, Namibian, Zambian, Botswana and Zimbabwean context, the term Coloured refers to an heterogenous ethnic group who possess ancestry from Europe, various Khoisan and Bantu tribes of Southern Africa, West Africa, Indonesia, Madagascar, Malaya, India, Mozambique,...
community out of the central and western areas of Cape Town, which the political theorists of the day had designated as whites-only areas. This meant that only whites could reside there permanently. People of colour could work in the city but could not live there. Additionally, other large townships of black people (e.g., Khayelitsha
Khayelitsha
Khayelitsha is a partially informal township in Western Cape, South Africa, located on the Cape Flats in the City of Cape Town. The name is Xhosa for New Home...
and Gugulethu) grew up on the flats as a product of both informal settlement and forced government relocations. Since many Xhosa people of the region—including people born and raised in the Cape Town area—were designated under apartheid as residents of Bantustans, many were obliged to live in the area illegally, further contributing to the growth of informal settlements. These consisted in the main of shacks made of 'tin' (in reality corrugated iron), cardboard and wood.
Since the end of apartheid, these communities are no longer legally bound by racial restrictions but history, language, economics and ethnic politics still contribute to homogeneity of local areas. So, for example, most residents of Mitchell's Plain
Mitchell's Plain
Mitchells Plain is a largely coloured township about 20 km from the city of Cape Town. It is one of South Africa's largest townships. It is located on the Cape Flats on the False Bay coast between Strandfontein and Khayelitsha...
likely still speak a locally-inflected version of Afrikaans
Afrikaans
Afrikaans is a West Germanic language, spoken natively in South Africa and Namibia. It is a daughter language of Dutch, originating in its 17th century dialects, collectively referred to as Cape Dutch .Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch; see , , , , , .Afrikaans was historically called Cape...
, along with English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and either they or their parents were designated as Coloured by apartheid; most residents of Khayelitsha still speak Xhosa
Xhosa language
Xhosa is one of the official languages of South Africa. Xhosa is spoken by approximately 7.9 million people, or about 18% of the South African population. Like most Bantu languages, Xhosa is a tonal language, that is, the same sequence of consonants and vowels can have different meanings when said...
and English and either they or their parents were designated as Black by apartheid. Nonetheless, some areas of the Cape Flats have an increasing diversity of residents, with Xhosa-speaking people an increasingly noticeable presence in some previously mainly Afrikaans-speaking areas.
The Cape Flats is home to a remarkable cultural history.
Its music spans from the serious-minded jazz of Abdullah Ibrahim
Abdullah Ibrahim
Abdullah Ibrahim , born Adolph Johannes Brand, 9 October 1934 in Cape Town, South Africa, and formerly known as Dollar Brand, is a South African pianist and composer...
and Basil Coetzee
Basil Coetzee
Basil "Manenberg" Coetzee was a South African musician, perhaps best known as a saxophonist.Mountain Records describes Basil thus: 'His distinctive raunchy tenor sound and the untiring commitment to his cultural roots made him one of the best known jazzmen to come out of South Africa...
and their anthem 'Mannenberg' (named after a Cape Flats township), to the bubbly pop hits of Brenda Fassie
Brenda Fassie
Brenda Fassie , was a South African pop singer. She was known for her "outrageousness" and widely considered a voice for disenfranchised blacks during apartheid. She was affectionately known as the Queen of African Pop and her nickname amongst fans was Mabrr.-Biography:Brenda was born in Langa,...
; and continues in a new hip-hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
movement (e.g., http://www.urbansmarts.com/interviews/godessa.htm, http://www.music.org.za/artist.asp?id=59).
Its religious communities include (to name only a few), Afrikaans-speaking congregations of the Dutch Reformed Church
Dutch Reformed Church
The Dutch Reformed Church was a Reformed Christian denomination in the Netherlands. It existed from the 1570s to 2004, the year it merged with the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Kingdom of the Netherlands to form the Protestant Church in the...
, Rastafarian communities, people who engage only in traditional Xhosa practices, syncretic Xhosa Christian churches, evangelical
Evangelism
Evangelism refers to the practice of relaying information about a particular set of beliefs to others who do not hold those beliefs. The term is often used in reference to Christianity....
Christian churches, and southern Africa's largest Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
community (drawing its oldest roots from the historic Cape Muslim community, which dates back to the 17th century).
Its political history is complex and sometimes baffling even to insiders: for instance, the politics of the Coloured communities of the Cape Flats have included Trotskyist activism in earlier years, and mobilization for the United Democratic Front
United Democratic Front (South Africa)
The United Democratic Front was one of the most important anti-apartheid organisations of the 1980s. The non-racial coalition of about 400 civic, church, students', workers' and other organisations was formed in 1983, initially to fight the just-introduced idea of the Tricameral Parliament The...
in the 80s; and then, widespread support for the historically white National Party
National Party (South Africa)
The National Party is a former political party in South Africa. Founded in 1914, it was the governing party of the country from 4 June 1948 until 9 May 1994. Members of the National Party were sometimes known as Nationalists or Nats. Its policies included apartheid, the establishment of a...
(which had presided over apartheid) in the early post-apartheid elections. More recently, the area has seen an expansion of African National Congress
African National Congress
The African National Congress is South Africa's governing Africanist political party, supported by its tripartite alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party , since the establishment of non-racial democracy in April 1994. It defines itself as a...
strength from its base in the black townships and into historically Coloured areas , as well as a particularly strong local growth of left-wing social movements like the Treatment Action Campaign
Treatment Action Campaign
The Treatment Action Campaign is a South African AIDS activist organization which was founded by the HIV-positive activist Zackie Achmat in 1998. TAC is rooted in the experiences, direct action tactics and anti-apartheid background of its founder...
which offer a critique of government policies. Sometimes violent Islamist movements have emerged from Cape Flats communities http://www.iss.co.za/Pubs/Monographs/No63/Chap2.html, along with other notable figures within the Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
community, such as Fareed Ishaq, who embody an ecumenical strain of religious progressivism.
Almost all of the communities of the Cape Flats remain, to one degree or another, poverty stricken. Serious social problems include a high rate of unemployment
Unemployment
Unemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...
and disturbing levels of gang
Gang
A gang is a group of people who, through the organization, formation, and establishment of an assemblage, share a common identity. In current usage it typically denotes a criminal organization or else a criminal affiliation. In early usage, the word gang referred to a group of workmen...
activity. During the late 1990s and early 2000s, there was significant armed conflict between various gangs and PAGAD (People Against Gangsterism and Drugs), a vigilante
Vigilante
A vigilante is a private individual who legally or illegally punishes an alleged lawbreaker, or participates in a group which metes out extralegal punishment to an alleged lawbreaker....
organization.
A wide range of community empowerment organizations work non-violently to combat poverty, crime and health problems and the role of civil society
Civil society
Civil society is composed of the totality of many voluntary social relationships, civic and social organizations, and institutions that form the basis of a functioning society, as distinct from the force-backed structures of a state , the commercial institutions of the market, and private criminal...
in many parts of the area is relatively strong.
Areas on the Cape Flats
- AthloneAthlone, Cape TownAthlone is a suburb of Cape Town located to the east of the city centre on the Cape Flats to the south of the N2 highway. It is named after Alexander Cambridge, 1st Earl of Athlone who was Governor-General of the Union of South Africa from 1924 to 1930...
- BelharBelharBelhar is a suburb of the City of Cape Town in the Cape Flats area.It is known for being the place where the Belhar Confession was formulated....
- Bontehuewel
- Cape Flats Dune StrandveldCape Flats Dune StrandveldCape Flats Dune Strandveld is an endangered vegetation type. This is a unique type of Cape Strandveld that is endemic to the coastal areas in Cape Town, including the Cape Flats district. -Habitat:Strandveld means “beach scrub” in the Afrikaans language...
- habitatHabitat* Habitat , a place where a species lives and grows*Human habitat, a place where humans live, work or play** Space habitat, a space station intended as a permanent settlement... - Cape Flats Sand FynbosCape Flats Sand FynbosCape Flats Sand Fynbos , previously known as Sand Plain Fynbos, is a critically endangered vegetation type that occurs only within the city of Cape Town, including the Cape Flats district. Less than 1% of this unique lowland Fynbos vegetation is conserved.-Description:This is the richest and most...
- habitat - Manenburg
- HeideveldHeideveldHeideveld is a town or suburb in the Athlone part of Cape Town, South Africa. Its name means "heath-field".- Location :It is located in the Cape Town Metro area...
- Hanover Park
- Mitchell's PlainMitchell's PlainMitchells Plain is a largely coloured township about 20 km from the city of Cape Town. It is one of South Africa's largest townships. It is located on the Cape Flats on the False Bay coast between Strandfontein and Khayelitsha...
- Lavender Hill
- Vrygrond
- Capricorn
- Overcome Heights
- Sea Winds
- RetreatRetreat, Cape Town-Geography:Retreat is bordered by Lavender Hill to the south and Heathfield to the north. Retreat railway station is on the main line from Cape Town to Simon's Town. Main Road runs along the west of Retreat....
- Grassy ParkGrassy Park, Cape TownGrassy Park is a suburb in the Western Cape Province of South Africa, situated on the Cape Flats in the City of Cape Town.- History :Grassy Park began to develop in the early 1900s on part of the Montagu's Gift estate north of Zeekoevlei. At that time, the area was rural, under the administration...
See also
- List of nature reserves in Cape Town
- Nyanga, Cape TownNyanga, Cape TownNyanga is a township in Cape Town, South Africa. Its name in Xhosa means ‘moon’ and it is one of the oldest black townships in Cape Town. It was established as a result of the migrant labor system. In the early fifties black migrants were forced to settle in Nyanga as Langa became too small. ...
- Khayelitsha, Cape TownKhayelitshaKhayelitsha is a partially informal township in Western Cape, South Africa, located on the Cape Flats in the City of Cape Town. The name is Xhosa for New Home...
- Mfuleni, Cape TownMfuleni, Cape TownMfuleni is a relatively new township about 40 kilometres from Cape Town, South Africa. It is a predominantly Black township, although there are also some Coloured members of the community....
- Crossroads, Cape TownCrossroads (Cape Town)Crossroads is a high-density township in Cape Town, South Africa.It is situated near Cape Town International Airport and borders Nyanga, Philippi, Heideveld, Gugulethu and Mitchells Plain....
- Delft, Cape TownDelft, Cape TownDelft is a township on the outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa. It is situated next to the Cape Town International Airport, Belhar, Blue Downs & Site C, Khayelitsha. It is known for its high crime rate, substandard schools, lack of jobs, and numerous government built housing projects such as the...
External links
- Cape Flats Details An extensive photojournalism project on the area and its people.
- Capeflats.org A personal web site with an overview of the language, politics and culture of the area.
- CAFDA The Cape Flats Development Association's website.
- Cape Flats tourism A government Cape Flats tourism initiative hopes to bring more visitors.
- Hip hop "comes home" BBC view of the Cape Flats hip hop scene.
- Minstrel Carnival A foreign scholar joins a local celebration.
- Seeing South Africa A Washington Post travel writer visits.
- CapeFlatsNature.org Organization aims to organize impoverished residents to help sustain areas of biodiversity.
- CFNR The website of the Cape Flats Nature Reserve.
- Red Cross aids Cape Flats The Red Cross responds to the Cape Flats' special vulnerability to floods.
- ISS paper June 2003 paper on 'The social contradictions of organised crime on the Cape Flats.'
- Surfline Cape Flats surfers.
- http://www.newworldfoundation.org.za The website of New World Foundation in Lavender Hill
- The Cape Flats Website