Cape Flats
Crossroads Township was a large squatter camp (shanty town) in the Cape Flats area on the outskirts of Cape Town. Many people moved to camps like Crossroads to get closer to work opportunities, health care, and education services unavailable in poorer rural areas of South Africa.
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“Crossroads was the only African squatter camp in Cape Town that successfully resisted apartheid bulldozers in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It’s an iconic piece of anti-apartheid struggle history in South Africa.” JUSTOR
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Crossroads History
Settlements like Crossroads consisted of thousands of shacks made of cardboard, wood, and tin scrap material. Living conditions were substandard, with entire families living in one tiny makeshift structure, with no running water or sewerage system.
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“Fighting and rioting at Crossroads was largely thought to be the result of the South African government’s political control methods and an example of the Apartheid policy of contra-mobilization.”
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In 1975, four years after it was established, the South African government decided to classify Crossroads as an “emergency camp”. After the June 16, 1976 Soweto Youth Uprising, an emergency camp classification made Crossroads immune to the demolition that occurred in similar shanty towns.
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“In the South African context, contra-mobilisation was used to organise and support ‘moderate blacks’ to oppose revolutionary movements.”
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“By the mid 1980s, Crossroad’s population was over 100,000 and highly visible in the world press and below the flight paths of Cape Town International Airport. Authorities relocated residents further away from the city to a new township, Khayelitsha (meaning new home in Xhosa), but many refused to move. Rival gangs rioted and fought in the streets.”
Fighting, Rioting, Violence
“In the South African context, contra-mobilisation was used to organise and support the opposition of more ‘moderate blacks‘ to ongoing revolutionary movements. Of necessity, it was a covert strategy that made use of ‘surrogate’ forces, thus concealing the state as provider of logistical, political, and financial support. Hence, the state wasn’t seen to be involved in the conflict and violence between rival groups and resistance organisations” – para. 555, Vol 2, Chap 3, Truth and Reconciliation (TRC) Report.
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“Rioting in May and June of 1986 resulted in burned houses and 60 deaths. Almost 60,000 residents of Crossroads became homeless.”
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Johnson Ngxobongwana was a local warlord who had a strong political voice at Crossroads. He represented moderate Africans. Over the years Ngxobongwana developed a popular following, including local thugs wearing white headbands (Witdoeke) for identification. South Africa’s Apartheid government security forces provided Ngxobongwana with “unofficial support“. He was said to have used those resources to eliminate his rivals and degrade women and youth groups.
National State of Emergency 1986
On June 12th, 1986, President PW Botha declared a National State of Emergency to halt the violence across South Africa. Botha characterized the violence as perpetuated by “revolutionaries supported by the African National Congress (ANC),” a member of Socialist International.
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Open cooking fires and candles for lighting resulted in burns, accidents, and frequent fires. This continues today.
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Government Pre- and Post-Apartheid
Although the South African media reported the violence as “black-on-black,” the South African government’s involvement was clear. The government attributed the conflict to “historical rivalries and political differences between different groups and an increasing tendency to resolve differences by violent means”.
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“Settlements like Crossroads consisted of thousands of shacks made of wood, tin, cardboard, and scrap material.”
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Today’s post-apartheid South Africa governed by South Africa’s National Liberation Movement, the African National Congress (ANC), has a growing number of squatter camps populated by Afrikaners – white South Africans.
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“Despite impoverished blacks in the region far outnumbering whites, poverty is a human issue, not necessarily racial.”
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