Delft is a township on the outskirts of
Cape TownCape Town is the second most populous city in South Africa, and the largest in land area, forming part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality. It is the provincial capital of the Western Cape, as well as the legislative capital of South Africa, where the National Parliament and many...
,
South AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country located at the southern tip of Africa, with a coastline on the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. To the north lie Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland, while Lesotho is an independent country surrounded by South Africa.Modern...
. 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
N2 GatewayThe N2 Gateway Housing Pilot Project is a a large housebuilding project under construction in Cape Town, South Africa. It has been labeled by the national government's former Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu as “the biggest housing project ever undertaken by any Government.” Even though it is a...
.
Delft was established in 1989. It is a rapidly expanding community found within the Eastern District of the City of Tygerberg local authority.
Delft is a township on the outskirts of
Cape TownCape Town is the second most populous city in South Africa, and the largest in land area, forming part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality. It is the provincial capital of the Western Cape, as well as the legislative capital of South Africa, where the National Parliament and many...
,
South AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country located at the southern tip of Africa, with a coastline on the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. To the north lie Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland, while Lesotho is an independent country surrounded by South Africa.Modern...
. 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
N2 GatewayThe N2 Gateway Housing Pilot Project is a a large housebuilding project under construction in Cape Town, South Africa. It has been labeled by the national government's former Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu as “the biggest housing project ever undertaken by any Government.” Even though it is a...
.
History
Delft was established in 1989. It is a rapidly expanding community found within the Eastern District of the City of Tygerberg local authority. This community was originally established as an integrated service land project for 'coloureds' and 'blacks'.
Geography and Demographics
Delft is situated approximately 34 km north east of Cape Town, and approximately 7,5 km from Bellville. It was established to be one of Cape Town's first mixed race township including 'coloured' and 'black' residents.
In 2000, it had a population between 25 000 and 92 000 inhabitants.
According to a recent census, Delft is currently 60% Coloured and 40% Black African with almost no Whites or Indians. The most prominent languages are
AfrikaansAfrikaans is an Indo-European language derived from Dutch and thus classified as Low Franconian West Germanic. It is mainly spoken in South Africa and Namibia, with smaller numbers of speakers living in Botswana, Angola, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Zambia, Australia, New Zealand, the United...
and
XhosaXhosa 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...
while
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
is in wide use as a second language. The majority of residents have not finished their matric. Official unemployment levels are at about 43% (although unofficially, this might be much higher).
Delft is subdivided into six sections namely, The Hague, Rosendal, Voorbrug, Eindhoven, Leiden and Delft South. The first three sections are predominantly 'coloured' while Eindhoven is partially inhabited by 'coloureds' and blacks and Delft South and Leiden are predominantly 'black'.
Much of Delft consists of shacks and government housing projects. The newest projects are the Symphony which is the main part of the N2 Gateway Pilot Project as well as Temporary Relocation Areas (TRAs) such as Tsunami and the Symphony Way TRA.
Subdivisions
Delft is a big Township. It is divided into 7 places(divisions) namely Delft South (Suburban), Voorbrug, Leiden (Delft Central),Eindhoven, Roosendal, The Hague & the new Symphony section. Delft South also known as Suburban which is predominantly populated by Xhosa speaking people, Leiden (Delft Central) is a mixed community of both Xhosa speaking and Afrikaans speaking people. Voorbrug, The Hague, Roosendal & Eindhoven is predominantly populated by Afrikaans speaking Coloured people.
In the News
Delft recently became newsworthy because of the controversial N2 Gateway housing project. The shackdwellers of Joe Slovo Informal Settlement in Cape Town have publicly refused to be forcibly removed to Delft. Also, in December 2008, backyard dwellers occupied over 1000 N2 Gateway houses in the new Symphony section of Delft. DA Councillor Frank Martin who was accused of inciting thousands of poor people to occupy these houses. Eventually, the families who occupied the houses were violently evicted by police who used rubber bullets to put down the protest. News of the violent repression reached international news with some people saying that it has severely hurt South Africa's reputation.
. Evicted residents are now living in makeshift shacks on Symphony Way across from the houses. They have vowed a permanent sit-in on the road..