Again, this can be seen as a symptom of the prevailing patriarchal attitudes that permeate South Africa’s township communities. Levels of AIDS are also higher among women (almost 4 times higher than men in the 15-24 age bracket), in part due to the fact that men are statistically more likely to have multiple partners and still all too often shun contraception. In South Africa’s townships, domination of women, in whatever form it might take, remains a way for men to gain respect or to assert a sense of power and ownership in an otherwise disempowered and deprived environment. In 2010, more than 45,000 cases of domestic violence against women were reported in South Africa, nearly as many as in the US whose population is almost four times greater. Some human rights organizations say that as many as 40% of South Africa’s women are likely to be raped in their lifetime, a higher percentage than those who will complete secondary school. However, all too commonly subsumed into this wider conversation is the specific and acute plight faced by young women in South Africa’s townships.įirstly, rape and sexual violence against women are particularly rife.
This is the generation so often referred to as a “ticking time bomb” by politicians and the media. While such ailments are undeniably widespread, it is the younger demographics that are the worst affected and this is of particular concern when more than 20% of South Africa’s overall population are between 15 and 24 years old. Often all of these are closely intertwined and mutually reinforcing. These townships, known as shanty towns in much of the rest of the world, comprise a large percentage of the overall population of the country and therefore any conversation about South Africa’s future cannot be isolated from them.Īs is so often the case, the poor standards of living that most people in these townships have to endure – as a result of their low economic status, coupled with woefully inadequate service delivery from the government – have spawned high levels of disease (most notably AIDS), crime and violence, as well as alcohol and drug abuse. Poverty and unemployment are chronic ailments that afflict much of South Africa’s scattered township population.
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