can the crushing poverty of South Africa’s townships be overcome?
At first glance, as one whisks past the endless shacks it appears not, but – as Go2Africa writer Dominic Chadbon found out – there is a whiff of optimism in the air. It’s not easy to get excited about South Africa’s townships: crime and violence saturate the sprawling, litter-strewn wastelands and the vast majority of South Africans either avert their eyes or shrug their shoulders resignedly and say ‘It’s life – what can we do about it?’ But life goes on for those who live there – it’s the tough, raw business of survival – and luckily there are people who are prepared to do something about it. Gloria Bebeza runs Khumbalani Orphanage Centre, a gaspingly small building on the corner of a sandy, weed-choked scrap of wasteland slap-bang in the middle of Khayalitsha – Cape Town’s biggest township. She, and her 7 staff, gets up before dawn to prepare for a gruelling 12 hour working day providing day care to 165 kids from, to put it into spin speak, ‘distressed backgrounds’ – better known to
