Gugulethu is a

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

Western Cape The Western Cape ( ; , ) is a provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the List of South African provinces by area, fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , an ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

and is around 20km from

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

. Its name is a contraction of ''igugu lethu'', which is Xhosa for ''our pride / our hope.'' The area was the third township to be established in Cape Town, after Nyanga and Langa.

History

The name is a contraction of ''igugu lethu'', which is Xhosa for ''our pride/ our hope''. The establishment of the township began in 1959 as the government was preparing to forcibly remove blacks in Kensington and other suburbs. Africans were officially banned from District Six in 1964 and were forcibly removed to Gugulethu. Because of the large number of blacks who had been residents in District Six, Gugulethu quickly became the most populous township in the Cape Flats. The predominant language in Gugulethu is Xhosa. Gugulethu is passionately called or referred to as "Gugs" by the locals, which is a nickname stemming from the shortening of the name Gugulethu. Black residents living in Windermere were forcibly moved to Gugulethu when it was declared a black township. Windermere was declared by Apartheid regime to be a colored area. Gugulethu was one of the first townships in Cape Town to have a community information technology Center to provide training in multimedia and youth development.

Places of interest

The 'Gugulethu Seven Memorial' was built to commemorate the life of seven activists that were ambushed and killed by the South African security forces on March 3, 1986. The activists were members of uMkhonto weSizwe, the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC). The seven murdered were Jabulani Godfery Miya, Zandisile Zenith Mjobo, Zola Alfred Swelani, Mandla Simon Mxinwa, Themba Mlifi, Zabonke, John Konile, and Christopher Piet. On Human Rights Day 2000, the memorial was unveiled. *The Cape Town Jazz Safari is a tour which highlights musical history and jazz in Gugulethu. *Gugulethu Square was created in 2009 as a central business district in the township. *Gugulethu Indoor Sports Complex is an indoor all year round community facility. * Mzoli's was a butchery in Gugulethu. Customers bought meat that is cooked on the spot and accompanied by music. It is stated that it attracted about 30,000 people in a single weekend. *Maboneng Township Arts Experience in Gugulethu and Langa. Tours that turn homes into art galleries where local artists and crafters turn their homes into art galleries. This is an entrepreneurship project. *Ntonga Music School – in Gugulethu.

Notable people

* Loyiso Gola, stand-up comedian * Ayabulela Konqobe, footballer * Sindiwe Magona, author * Abigail Mbalo-Mokoena, restaurateur * Mandisa Monakali, the founder and executive director of Ilitha Labantu * Bantu Mzwakali, footballer * Thando Mngomeni, former South Africa national football team player * Siv Ngesi, actor, comedian, presenter * Nobulumko Nkondlo, politician, Member of the Western Cape Provincial Parliament *

Ray Ntlokwana Mvuyiswa Renek “Ray” Ntlokwana (5 May 1937 – 20 July 2000) was a South African actor from Gugulethu, who was affectionately known as “Velaphi” following his lead role in the SABC Xhosa comedy, Velaphi, a name he was associated wi ...

, actor * Jonathan Ntutu, para-athlete & paralympian, South Africa's fastest ever para-athlete * Tony Yengeni, politician, former Chief Whip of the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a political party in South Africa. It originated as a liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid and has governed the country since 1994, when the 1994 South African general election, fir ...

Crime

According to data collected by the

South African Institute of Race Relations The South African Institute of Race Relations (IRR) is a research and policy organisation in South Africa. The IRR was founded in 1929 to improve and report upon race relations in South Africa between the politically dominant White South Africa ...

(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." In a 2017 study of the 50 most violent cities in the world, Cape Town ranked number 15.

Notable incidents

*In March 1986, South Africa's Apartheid security murdered seven young black men. The incident became known as The Gugulethu Seven. The seven men were: Zandisile Zenith Mjobo, Zola Alfred Swelani, Mandla Simon Mxinwa, Godfrey Jabulani Miya, Themba Mlifi, Zabonke John Konile and Christopher "Rasta" Piet. They were members of the military wing of the

known as Umkhonto we Sizwe. *In 2017, Major-General Andre Lincoln stated during his testimony while under cross-examination in the Western Cape High Court that police officers removed evidence from the scenes of government-ordered crimes such as The Gugulethu Seven in the 1980s. *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 Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

and before the multi-racial election of 1994. In 1998, four men were convicted of Amy's murder. They were pardoned by the

Truth and Reconciliation Commission A truth commission, also known as a truth and reconciliation commission or truth and justice commission, is an official body tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoing by a government (or, depending on the circumstances, non-state ac ...

. Ms. Biehl's family supported the release of the four men. They started the Amy Biehl Foundation Trust in the townships to work with youth. The foundation's goal to empower young disadvantaged youth by using education and culture to deter crime and drugs. An Amy Biehl Memorial site was created in Gugulethu and tours into the township to see the memorial and visit some of the schools where programs were created by the Amy Biehl Foundation. *In November 2010, Swedish tourist Anni Dewani was murdered in Gugulethu while on her honeymoon. Anni Dewani's husband became a suspect in the trial of her murder. He fought a three-and-a-half-year battle against extradition to South Africa. Accusations and confusions by the accused suspects in the murder that the car-jacking and crime were staged by the billionaire husband Shrien Dewani. *On June 10, 2014, 62-year-old Mbuyiselo Manona was murdered in Gugulethu by Andrew Chimboza. Chimboza stabbed Manona multiple times. Various news outlets stated that Andrew ate Manona's heart. Chimboza denied it. Chimboza pleaded guilty at the Western Cape High Court of stabbing Mbuyiselo Manona. He did not mention in court anything about removing or eating Manona's heart. *On the evening of the 2 November 2020 the Gugulethu massacre took place at a home in NY78 in which 8 people died and one was injured.

Organisations and projects in Gugulethu

* Treatment Action Campaign * Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign

References

{{Cape Town, communities Suburbs of Cape Town Townships in the Western Cape