Gugulethu

For the actress, see Gugu Mbatha-Raw.

Template:Infobox South African town 2011 Gugulethu or Guguletu is a township 15 km from Cape Town, South Africa. Though much more tranquil than it was under apartheid, Gugulethu is still a troubled area.

Geography

The main route, Steve Biko Drive (formerly known as NY1), runs through the township. The town planners did not give names to any of the roads, all were simply numbered. NY1 stood for "Native Yard 1", Gugulethu at the time not having been named as such and being considered simply as an extension of the adjoining township of Nyanga. There has been strong pressure for the NY terminology to be dropped and for the streets to be renamed. This resulted in the City of Cape Town renaming NY1 as Steve Biko Drive in September 2012. The renaming process continues and the City recently announced that streets will be named after, amongst others, Albert Luthuli, Amy Biehl, Ray Alexander and the "Gugulethu Seven" (the latter being a group who were fatally ambushed by security police in Gugulethu in 1986).Currently all the streets have new names but the NY terminology is still predominant as residents are used to it.

History

The name is a contraction of igugu lethu, which is Xhosa for our pride. Gugulethu, along with Nyanga, was established in the 1960s due to the overcrowding of Langa, which was the only black residential area for Cape Town at the time. During the Apartheid era black South Africans were not permitted to live in the city of Cape Town, and many people were removed from areas such as District Six to Gugulethu, Nyanga and Langa. The predominant language in Gugulethu is Xhosa.

Crime

According to data collected by the South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR) over 700 people were murdered in Gugulethu between 2005 and 2010. "This amounts to one murder every two-and-a-half days for five consecutive years."

Notable murders

• In August 1993, Gugulethu was the site of the violent murder of a young white American woman, Amy Biehl, in the upheaval following the official end of apartheid and before the multi-racial election of 1994.
• In November 2010, Swedish tourist Anni Dewani was murdered in Gugulethu while on her honeymoon.
• On June 10, 2014, 62-year-old Mbuyiselo Manona was murdered in Gugulethu, in a cannibalistic event. Andrew Chimboza stabbed Manona, and removed his heart while he was still alive, 'to show him that I am not a moffie [gay]'.

Gugulethu Square Mall

The newest development in Gugulethu is the Gugulethu Square Mall which was developed by Old Mutual, Tokyo Sexwale's Group 5 and local businessman Mzoli Ngcawuzele. The development has been controversial with claims of corruption, nepotism and significant protests against the mall's employment practices. On 29 October 2009, police shot rubber bullets into a crowd of people protesting about the mall.

Active organisations in Gugulethu

• Treatment Action Campaign
• Anti-Eviction Campaign

See also

• Mzoli's
• The Gugulethu Seven

Sources

• BBC history article