The Cape Flats

The Cape Flats refers to a large, sandy, low-lying, flat area south and east of the Cape Town central business district.

It is popularly known as "The Cape Flats" or "The Flats", and as "Die Kaapse Vlakte" or "Die Vlakte" in Afrikaans.

Historically the Cape Flats was partly covered in wetlands, particularly during winter and was long uninhabited. However in the 1950s it became central to the race-based legislation of the apartheid era, with non-white people being forced out of more central urban areas designated for white people and moved into government-built townships in the Cape Flats (e.g Langa, Mitchell's Plain and Khayelitsha), or into informal settlements elsewhere in the Cape Flats.

The Cape Flats have therefore played an important role in many facets of South African history, including political resistance during the struggle period in the one hand, and the South African art and culture scene on the other - with writers, singers, performers starting their lives and careers there, and finding their themes and characters in the rich complexity of the Cape Flats history and society. Sadly this also includes the role played by gangsterism and drug-dealing in these communities - a matter of growing concern after the 1994 emergence of the new South Africa.