In the Xhosa language, “langa” means “sun”. The township was officially opened in 1927. When the Native Urban Areas Act of 1923 was passed in South Africa – making it obligatory for African residents to reside in designated locations – Langa was established after the removal of black people from Ndabeni. READ MORE: Fighting spatial apartheid in South Africa A recent protest in Langa highlighted the anger many feel about the lack of progress in improving housing conditions in the region. “The accommodation in Langa is terrible, to say the least,” she sighs.Īnd Songeziwe isn’t the only resident of the Western Cape province’s hostels who feels this way.

“The most difficult thing about living in one of Langa’s hostels is the lack of privacy the cramp conditions,” Songeziwe reflects, “as well as the health and safety issues.”Īside from the “unhygienic” toilets, residents also have to put up with a sewage system that, Songeziwe says, sometimes leaves sewage outside the building. In a quest for privacy, Songeziwe says locals recycled old doors and painted planks to cover the entrance to each of the cubicles. The local authorities recently fixed a row of damaged toilets that had been abandoned inside a neighbouring building and which are used by the hostel’s residents, but failed to fit doors, leaving those using them exposed to passers-by. Songeziwe Nqoshela, 28, has no alternative but to sleep on the floor of the cramped single-bedded hostel room she shares with her parents, two sisters and son in Cape Town’s suburban township of Langa.

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