If there is one thing about townships that I think I should share is that there is a lot of monkey see, monkey do behaviour. It is a lot like the American mentality of keeping up with the Joneses but in a rather intricately township way. We (need I say) black people tend to overlook the bigger picture when it comes to doing what our neighbours do
My beloved mother recently told me that Gugu Mbali bought a house in Bramley and that “other kids are buying houses, I don’t know why you don’t”. Now, notice that Gugu is a 24-year-old neighbour of mine who has always been called by her name and surname because everyone looked up to their family. She was a bright spark, went to good schools and her grandfather owned a shop and was therefore considered rich.
When I first went to a “white school” in 1996 our neighbours believed that my mother’s decision to take me there was so that I could wear a different uniform and use “itransport” (a special minibus that transports school children) and not because she possibly wanted to expose me to a better education.
And there it was; the white school trend. All the kids in my area went on to wear their blue and red uniform to their “white schools”. I need to explain that the meaning of a white school is any school that is outside of Soweto and children use some kind of public transport to get to. So it didn’t matter what the reputation of the school was or if it offered a better education than that of a school that wears a black and white uniform without a school blazer; all there was to it was the “they all take itransport and they all wear blazers” factor which meant all expectations were met.
So naturally, when mama also resembled that shallow mentality I was thoroughly shocked. Don’t get me wrong, getting a place of my own is a great idea, in fact I would like to get that before I get a car. But now the problem is when we all have to mover to the burbs because that is the expectation. “I am sure that Gugu doesn’t earn more than you, I am sure you can also afford to buy a house,” my mother suggests in a very sombre tone. Hhawu! I wonder to myself…
Anyway, when I started working the first thing big thing I wanted to buy (emphasis on buy please) was a house of my own in Soweto. Thanks to apartheid, the houses there are bigger than most townhouses, they have yards on which you can extend your home and they are certainly priced for affordability. “No” mama said to what I thought was a brilliant idea, “you won’t be able to afford it”.
Ok, fine so I stayed at home and we were happy until Gugu went and did what every young, black and upwardly mobile person does; get a townhouse in the northern suburbs and spend half their salaries renting it. Why? Really, why do we not just buy property in Soweto or get cheaper places to rent? I have beef with people the likes of Gugu, in fact, I have a whole cow with them because it is because of them that we are a young and indebted black nation and we are seeing no problem with it.
Chika Onyeani in his renowned book Capitalist Nigger warns that you won’t get rich renting. There are a few exceptions to the renting rule. Like with a handful of my friends from KZN. They rent flats and townhouses in Johannesburg and I forgive them because they are nowhere near home and who wants to live with relatives that will want to live off them anyway? Besides some don’t even have the relatives.
Hhayi, and then there is your Gugus of this world who sprain their budgets and pay more than R4 000 on temporary dwelling just so they can make a mark back in the township and make our parents put us under pressure. “Yeah, I am telling you, she bought this townhouse and her mortgage is R3 000 a month,” mama insists. “Yeah right!” I say, frustrated by all elements of Gugu’s townhouse saga. First of all, the fact that I even have to care what she does bothers and secondly I now have the unnecessary task of explaining to mama that there is no way a person earning R6 500 a month could afford to buy a townhouse in Sunninghill, not with our National Credit Act anyway. Gosh, the pressure!
Bottom line; my mother doesn’t want me in her cottage (aka backrooms) any more because she is convinced I can afford to BUY a townhouse in Sunninghill. She is even less accommodative of my dream for a nice four-room house in Mofolo, Mapetla or even the better sounding Diepkloof because none of them sound as posh as “my child just bought a house in Sunninghill”. Really now? What difference does it make? Unless of course she took me to “white school” because she liked the sound of “my child’s transport picks her up at 6am so that she can get to John Mitchell School on time”. I know my mother and I don’t think she is that kind but somehow I feel because of expectations we all have become one kind.
I really think black people should start prioritising and stop doing things because others are doing them because we know very little about their actions. On that note, I am off to see who out there is willing to sell their 50-plus year old house in Soweto.
Later.
Hello sweet,
Africans- you call us black people even though not all of us like being called black – have always thrived on seeing what so-and-so’s daughter/ son does or what they (parents) do for him/her. Think of the following:
1. Little one’s earthday: invite anyone but not quite relatives ((English the medium in this instance) and go to a Fast foods outlet for games and a bit of adult booze. This also happens for baptisms/ matric dances etc.
2. Funerals and tombstone unveilings – let’s show them what we’ve got (never mind the debt afterwards)!
3. Why must I be seen hanging out Ekasi when my twanging friends can make better moves? I’ll get Ekasi when the pocket is low….
The day we learn that as a people we need to teach and respect each other will be one in which nations (and our own kids) shall know and appreciate BOTHO. Otherwise we grow as a disrespectful, leader-insulting lost generation, whether we like this fact or not! Every youth losing the plot begins to swear elders in the name of being a “politician” – there’s money in the ‘burbs’ – there’s life Ekasi.
By the way, I’d like to know Gugu’s input in all this… after all, she wouldn’t go to a “white school” and not get closer to them, would she now? As they say – Mzansi for sure!
Motlhajoe Motlhabane
I think you and your mother should pay attention to Tito(the reserve bank governor)’s announcements, convince her that the cost of living is too high out there. Maybe she’ll give you two more years to dwell in her back rooms (“until the recession is over”).
I do however disagree with your generalisation by saying Africans “Black according to you” don’t really afford to dwell in the burbs.
Another point not every so called black is renting in the burbs.
I must say this is a good article, keep up good work
This may seem as a very ‘black’ ideology with you but I’m sorry to say that this is also really really common among Indian families.
I'm from KZN]
[btw i hope you understand why I rent
on another note I personally think that buying a house with a yard is more beneficial then the little townhouses and flats that we live in.
Johannesburg is such a fast pace place that once in a while its good to get into your garden and relax.
I hope that you can convince your mother that there is more to life then being in debt most of your life.
Life is……… “Leaving the house in the morning, dressed in clothes that you bought on credit for work, driving through the traffic in a car that you are still paying for, in order to get to the job that you hate but need so badly so that you can pay for the clothes, car and the house that you leave empty the whole day, in order to live in it”
as at 15:53pm,
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torture or triumph?
@ Lihle: “Thanks to apartheid, the houses there are bigger than most townhouses, they have yards on which you can extend your home and they are certainly priced for affordability”. So Apartheid was a good thing for you? How old are you?
It is also facctually incorrect to claim that blacks are the most indebted. It is surprising that someone who claims to be a journalist should be so ignorant about statistics that were splashed all over newspapers: that white South Africans are the most indebted because banks feel more comfortable lending them money. Plus, most of them have very extravagant lifestyles because Apartheid acclamatised them to luxury and now they must keep up that standard.
Check your facts, child, before writing here.
But I think, overall, you are a promising journo and it’s good to know that you’re not overly concerned about material things.
Much love,
Phillipa
All of us, no matter what ethnic group we represent, suffer from the Gugu mentality. I know this is such a shame, but when you looking for a place to buy, the last place I will search for property is in less prestige suburbs. The same goes for buying a vehicle, furniture etc. We are so scared that people might think we have fail in life because we don’t have the best.
If all of us can just realise that success isn’t about having something man-made…
@ Phillipa
Get off your patronising high horse!! And that “much love” at the end – sis! So, now you know how a woman (no, NOT a child!), expressing her take on the buy/rent dilemma in her own family, in rather an amusing way, must think…for your satisfaction!! This is a subject discussed in many spheres of South African life. It is a conversation held among many up and coming black professionals…certainly those I have spoken to; and yes, among many up and coming whites, too.
@ Lihle
I had a good laugh at your article, even though I appreciate the serious side of it. My husband and I also had this same dilemma when we bought our first house. He is of Portuguese extraction – social climbers of the first rank – who were horrified that we chose to go for a bigger house in an area we could afford, rather than buy in
Sandton – in their eyes the ultimate in “arrivaldom”. Ugh – and then you have to live among the other wannabes – torture!
Good Post. Made me feel part of the family.
Tell us more about just ordinary life in Soweto.
Jeez Phillipa, you wonder why so many people find you objectionable? How patronizing your tone is.
Not sure how you see her statement as indicating Apartheid was a good thing ?
You speak of ‘check your facts, child’? (again, how awfully patronizing) yet your very sentence before that was this wild sweeping generalization that white south africans have ‘extravagant lifestyles’. Bit ironic.
Anyways, nice article Lihle, nice to get a perspective on things in SA that I otherwise wouldn’t get exposed to.
Lipinsky – your words I give back to you “Check your facts, child, before writing here.”
In 1969 I became a single mother and 3 school going girls.
I worked myself into a suicidal state of mind, my life policy payout would educate my girls ! WHY?
No hand outs or expectations – I knew that -
Apartheid would not help me.
Was it because I was a “rooi neck” ? NO !
Now they take care of me with their hard work, despite having their own children and children’s children.
God helps those who help themselves by working with the sweat of the brow.
Go back to Poland – no capitalists there, or are there and you ran to our Communist state for whatever reason ?
Capitalists are very evil not so ?
EISH Siphiwo –
it is lungele to tell someone to “go back to” instead of being told to do so by your type – to my white skin.
I advise you to read this about your brothers up north.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/5331608.stm#map
Thanks Lippy child –
I would not have missed this moment not even for the reward of peace of mind – not troubled by our politics.
Get used to us beneficiaries of ex regime if you stay here crammed with capitalists white and black too nogal.
History Lesson over.
Ja-well-no fine.
Lihle, where have you been all this time.the 11.5 million SAfricans that voted the current govt in can relate to this.I really am tired of reading in this publication how brilliant the views from “my flat” of Table mountain are.
I give you 9 out of 10 for relevance to majority South africans today.I subtracted one because you did not mention that R6500 a month has to support your less fortunate extended family cousins in the rural areas aunts and uncles falling on hard times.
But I guess you will come to that some day- hope springs eternal.
but a BIG THANK YOU
I’m 22, also went to “white schools” from 96 and am now an Engineering graduate. All this while my folk still stay in rural kzn. I can’t say I’ve had pressure from them to buy property in upmarket areas. In fact I really can’t afford it yet, even with my present salary. Nice post though.
Old,female, paleface
Only a few years ago the Nigerian elite were consuming 1/6 of the champagne produced in France – even bathing in it! NONE went to the people! Plus the oil comes from the Christian South in the first place where they had a genocide against the “seperatist” Biafrans!
Now they are broke (oil price down) and asking for TRILLIONS in Aid!
It is useless trying to explain any of this to Phillipa!
This is sooooo true, about us people and I don’t think it’s only about us black people, it’s about everyone out there. The pressures are just too much out there. Lately one can’t strike a decent conversation with someone or a group of people without getting to “So, What car do you drive? Even before they ask you what you do?” I mean people just think because you sound intelligent you should have a Range Rover Sport Supercharged parked outside. Almost every conversations get turned into material things, where do you live, what car do you drive etc? Jeez, at times it sucks being a grown up.
zk on May 22nd, 2009 at 3:43 pm
Very true what you said about life there. And I stole it to use it somewhere.
Phillipa Lipinsky on May 22nd, 2009 at 3:56 pm
Give her a break please. What she wrote here is very informative and very sad state of the society we live in. I know you are passionate about anything relating to Apartheid but please, this is not one of those posts. Even Lyndall Betty is behaving on this one. So please go drink your medication and take it easy.
Lyndall Beddy on May 23rd, 2009 at 3:07 pm
Oh! Lyndall, just when I thought you were behaving, now you’ve started, Phillipa, please let some post be peaceful, this post is so informative that I have send to a lost of my friend to read and now the 2 of you, Oh! 3, including white, old,paleface, woman are going to ruin it by politicizing it and racializing it? Jeez women, flip!, please relax all of you?
Old,female, paleface
For Phillipa there is no such thing as a good white or a bad black – they are symbols not people.
So like Mbeki!
And they were both “educated” under Russian communism!
I find it fascinating!
Lihle,
I feel you fully. I remember when I started working in 1997 after varsity. I was saddled with TEFSA student loans. It was a celebration at my home in Soweto because it marked a time were I a “bread-winner” at home. It was quiet sobering because, I had to assume financial responsibilities of the whole family- mortgage payments, groceries, clothing etc.
At the same time my job at one of the big 4 firms required that I had a car to go to clients. As a Sowetan or a black South African graduate, you are likely to start of heavily indebted anyway. Not because of you lifestyle, but because of the high cost of living and the fact that you are likely going to have student loans. Your family is likely not going to be in a position to assist you financially. You are one of the people that are entrusted with the challenge to lift the family you come from out of poverty into middle class.
Your mother somehow, is so proud of you that she expresses it in a form of wishing that you own property at a standard above the township houses. That is life. Take it as it comes. Because you are hard working, you will pull through.
Great post! Keep it up! My mother’s pressure on me was to produce babies, her younger sisters were grandmothers before her. I could never tell her that ,as a couple, we were infertile. The disappointment and pressure to “do something, see someone” would have been intolerable. Now I’m old and its great to live in a way that suits me without pretending that I’m something I’m not.
Shame, what about those who spend all their few thousands on rent, clothes, take-aways and booze? You open their fridges – there s a botle of water and one half onion. People who should stay up north are those with fat accounts who know their story very well. But I know the pressure of parents wanting the best for us, while some are driven by “my child lives in a surbub”. By the way Mandla Mthembu is the good example at the moment.
@Madoda on May 23rd, 2009 at 5:39 pm
Nice one, I can relate to almost everything you said there, you finish your studies and you have to “lift not just yourself, but your siblings as well out of poverty”, you have to build your family a home or extend it so that you don’t have anyone sleeping in the kitchen anymore etc. Sad state of how many of us the “Black diamonds” have to go through yet, you get some people out there who just pass judgments not knowing what they are talking about, as they never had to experience what a black person have to go through in this country even today, thanks to the burdens of Apartheid.
Hell I thought this was just an ordinary informative post but it is not, it actually to some of us takes us back to being disadvantaged due to our past. So yes Phillipa to a certain extend you are right and we can’t just walk away from the what the past has done to us.
I am 28 and I was 13 in 1994, but I still have to deal with what the past has done to my people as I am the one who has to try and lift not just my family but cousins as well out of poverty, else they are going to do crime. It’s funny how we keep complaining about crime but never deal with the root cause.
i guess you have to be black to understand the “thanks to apartheid” line.
one of the reasons i live in a “less desirable” suburb of cape town is because the houses are bigger. [tho, i could have bought a house with a much larger stand size for half the money -- but that would have meant i would have had to deal with really bad traffic.]
this is the point: the author is already willing to put up with the bad traffic from soweto to/from town for a house with a larger stand size that costs less money.
it’s *very* smart, actually.
i think she should buy — in soweto. if/when she wants to move to the northern suburbs, she can a) rent out the soweto house or b) sell it and upgrade
her mother is right on where she should buy, but wrong about the location.
—
phillipa:
everything i seem to say to you doesn’t make it past of the censors. i guess i’ll have to let other people respond to your inane blabber.
@old, female,paleface:You sound disturbingly xenophobic. I never meant ALL whites; when I said that Apartheid acclamatised them to luxury. There are somewhites who were humiliated and ill-treated by that government-mostly because they took a moral stance against it. Think Ronnie Kasrils,Bram and Molly Fischer, Joe Slovo, Ruth First even that titan of intergrity and wit;Nadine Gordimer. These people should always be honoured, not “liberals” like Helen Zille, Helen Suzman, Tony Leon or F.W. deKlerk.
@ Lihle: A lot of “commentators” on this blog are overly emotional about nothing. For my part, I hope you don’t think I was trying to “patronize” you,as they say. I admire you far too much to do that. I notice on this site that most bloggers are men and it’s nice to see such an intelligent woman writing. Plus, I admire the fcat that you slept in refugee camps after the xenophobic attacks.
I know that you don’t think Apartheid was a good think. It’s just that the way you said it sounded as if you were.
@mundundu: Thank goodness for Thoughtleader editors. If “everything” you tried to say to me was blocked it is because you need to learn to communicate without the use of invective (and don’t threaten to chase me with a machete, please, that is stricly forbidden).
You can do as much arse-kissing you want to win the favour of monied whites here but don’t insult other (black) people in the process-and here I’m referring to your previous articles. I would strongly recommend a good dose of Fanon’s “The Wretched of the Earth” or the prolific Ngugi wa’ Thiongo’s “Decolonising the Mind”. If you’ve read these books (which I doubt), for your own good revisit them. They will help restore (or establish) self-acceptance and self-love.
Warm Regards,
Phillipa
Stuff the old ladies, I for one love pieces like these as it gives me slight insight into my African-African brothers and sisters, and I do personally feel that knowledge gives me a idea of the different angles in this diverse society of ours. Keep it coming Lihle!
Hi Lihle
Welcome on board. Don’t mind the cranky/bitter/judgementals on here.
Keep speaking your mind.
Nice thoughtful article; something of a change. I seem to remember seeing research showing that “township” houses showed the best improvement in value in recent times. Maybe one would be a better investment than something with a better address?
I’ve long thought that Phillipa’s patronising and racist rambles should be ignored.
tlanch:
you make a good point. my father and his siblings all excelled at school specifically to escape their poor upbringing; my father still has the shack that he grew up in on the grounds of his property to remind him of his roots and how far he’s come.
your post actually brings up a point as to why so few black diamonds are in political parties other than the anc: if the anc has a hand in so much, and many people are obligated to bring their families out of poverty, joining and/or being an open supporter of certain other political parties could possibly put one in the position of jeopardising his/her ability to continue to bring the rest of their families out of poverty.
phillipa
my father grew up in a shack in that decrepit country called the united states.
holding black people to a high standard is not an attempt to curry favor with whites — it is holding black people to a high standard. that you neither know nor understand the difference underscores the ignorance on your part.
speaking of which — i have a big problem with fanon, senghor, and any other “pro-black” activist man who does *not* marry black. the message this sends to black *girls* is horrible. is in IMPOSSIBLE for a black man to credibly talk about black empowerment while in a relationship with a non-black person. period. fanon: married to white woman. i burned his books after discovering this.
lihle:
apologies for the distraction.
if you have the means to buy a place in the township, you should. the capitalist system is largely based on property rights and levering such rights to acquire goods, services and more property. with the right property/goods balance, you can passively earn enough money from your side gigs that you will be able to work in a line of work that you want, even if it doesn’t pay that much: if salaries elsewhere are any indication, you don’t go into journalism for the money.
the *best* time to buy, actually, is during a recession, so if you have your money and credit right, by all means pick something up now.
something that goes generally unnoticed by all except the shrill left wing [who, like a broken analog clock, is occasionally correct] is that during times of recession the rich literally do get richer while everyone else gets poorer; the rich buy up the assets of the distressed middle class.
if you can afford to join the south african properly ladder, then by all means do so. but the best way to see if you can afford it is to do the maths with regard to your bond payment with the interest rate 8 points higher than they currently are. [yes, they're about to go down, but you should plan for them to go *up*.] if you can still afford it then, BUY.
PL
Why should ‘liberal’ whites such as Zille and Suzman not be honoured?
I think 99.9% of people who read the line ‘Thanks to Apartheid’ saw its a line apportioning blame to apartheid, rather than gratitude. For example: thanks to the wind my umbrella flew away. In that sentence you aren’t actually expressing gratitude that the wind blew away your umbrella (unless of course you didn’t like the umbrella, but lets not digress in case you get confused) you are apportioning blame to the wind for blowing away your umbrella. Tricky thing this English that the monied whites are so fond of.
Let’s be real, who wants to live in the Townships? I’ve considered it but townships are really neglected and under-serviced. I don’t know about Soweto but I’ve seen Alex and Thembisa and I don’t want to live there. Bottom line, if I had to choose between paying low rent and having to travel long distances to work and shopping malls and staying in the convenient suburbs, I’d choose the suburbs any day.
@mercurious
I don’t know about Soweto but
that’s your problem right there. one of the reasons there were very few “xenophobic” attacks in soweto is because all of the woes that you just mentioned are at a minimum there. and that is a large part of lihle’s point, actually. i have the same services and goods here, plus my family and friends are here — why should i move?
now, if it were alex or tembisa or soweto-by-the-sea or large parts of kwamashu or mdantsane or guguletu… you’d have a point. but if it’s a choice between soweto or, say, parktown or melville or rosebank… than soweto would probably win.
[people in both tembisa and alex -- and justifiably so -- complain that soweto gets *everything*, which isn't far off from the truth.]
Hola di-Mamza! Kasie, neh. Having been born and groomed there, I still think it was the best school of life environment I was ever exposed to. What you praat, recall the days of “stop nonsense: slab fences; oh, the competition about who carried more at school, dressed in new clothes(that we will show them mentatity. Jislaik, this even went as far as how much one carried in cash for lunch to high school. Poverty and competion(wannabe-ness) was part of what the system of oppression foisted on the down-trodden. Then there was then a move to Selection Park, and all the Phase Ones and so on houses. Naturally, this led to the status of taking our children to C-model schools; lest we all forget, the June 1976 revolution devastated learning and students were carted off in droves to jails and torture chambers; teachers were arrested and and that eventually no schooling took place. But, schools in Soweto and elsewhere had school uniforms, school colors and blazers, too. Local high schools had classroom libraries, and labs, woodwork, school gardens, etc. Competition was part of a life-style under Apartheid rule and law. It seemed better to see oneself one notch up from someone else. Today this is called “Ba shapela hodimo”; same gig. It is stange that people still have the gall to say that you would never live in the townships because they are really negelcted, ad infinitum. Huh, go Figure. The Sowetos of South Africa
Cont.
were the back rooms of cheap and slave labor for the cities like Johannesburg and so on. Once ignorance is bliss, ’tis a folly to be wise. That’s the problem, till you live in Soweto and are somewhat known by its dwellers, refrain from such abuse of Sowetans and their domicile. I know to some it’s just a boogey-man to avoid. Just like our brothers and sisters who trekked to the suburbs and schools, they have the right to do so so long it advances them. It’s good to see that those who did so, the are still coming back to the Lokishi and take care of their bretheren. Salute to you di-Mamza and your cohorts. Strange enough, the very people in the Townhouses spend their holidays and weekends in Soweto. I came back Emzini(Kasie) to build my home. The question posed to me by the “top shayela” was, why not buy a Townhouse; why did you by the old Toyota Camry. Answers, because I have a title deed and I can buy the old big lumbering Camry cash and won’t pay any installments:by the way, I grew up in London that is:(Orlando East). The change in our country is about the development of our downtrodden Mense. Growing up in Kasie taught me how to hustle and overcome the system. I do not like the title of your Readings, Capitalist Nigger. That one Sucks. We need to teach our people prioritizing
Our mom took us out of our township house after she and my dad divorced and somehow I see value to it. Maybe if I would’ve stayed longer in that house I still refer to as my home (I was born there, as in born in that house) life wouldn’t have been an adventure because the past of how my parents used to fight would’ve stayed a burden for long. I do admit that now I’m living in what I call The surburbs but have a problem mentioning it because people start asking for money or test your response. Sometimes life could be so great in the township, that is, living with “your people”, knowing your neighbours even to a personal extent or even having a spaza shop next door, but also life could be torture as well because of the things you have to tolerate such as having Sipho living opposite your house robbing you on your way to school and him going to your house later to ask for sugar. Such things may appear to be small but they can be a dropback and sometimes there’s advantages in growing up in a much more protected and “confined”space (as loxion people call it). And going to the townships feels a bit foreign and “noisy” and it’s the life I cannot adjust to now and when I look at my old neighbourhood, I just don’t know how we survived!!!
The best advice I can give anyone planning to buy: find the most up-market area. Turn your back on it and buy on the other side of the city but outside the city borders. You’ll find good housing prices, less a.m.-p.m. traffic and less pricey places to do your shopping.
I’ve lived in suburbs that were never popular (at the time): lower Glenwood (Dbn), Gardens and Plumstead (CT), Yeoville, Joubert Park and Klopper Park (Gauteng) and now, back in Dbn, Umbilo. But the house is now fully paid for and worth roughly 10x as much as when I bought 10 years ago, at a good price.
We have always had friendly next-door neighbours (good for my son) and have never had to keep up with those Jones (who were originally from the UK, but probably went over on the Mayflower).
Find somewhere with good schools nearby and reasonable public transport, preferable with a bus stop within 100m (you never know what the future holds).
Our cultures differ. I would buy, sell and move on. You are more likely to accumulate houses and rent them out later. Which is why careers in real estate are less popular among (black) Africans.
But the moment there is someone to benefit from your death, real estate is not a bad place to put your money.
Good luck!