Objects
Esther Kibuka-Sebitosi

Esther Kibuka-Sebitosi, 2018, Townships, suburbs of South Africa. © Esther Kibuka-Sebitosi 2018

A story of Addressing Inequalities in a New Democracy

Building a shack at the side of a highway is risky business in modern day South Africa. But it happens. The Township cities demonstrate the growing inequalities in present day societies 25 years after the democratic transition from apartheid in 1994.

 

Today, shacks reveal the inequalities as they are small, hot in summer and very cold in winter, lacking basic services. They allow unemployed and low-paid workers to live near a city, in the centre of rural-urban migration. They are crowded in poverty-stricken areas. Yet, along the highway the magnificent affluent homes of their masters line up, employers, owners of offices or factories inlcuding mines. The combination and occurance of township shacks alongside modern day houses reveal  the contradictions of democracy; the freedom without economic freedom that has characterised many political parties' manifestos calling for radical economic transformation. The consequence is a false sense of security of the rich who surround themselves with high fences on one hand and the shattered dreams of a prosperous future on the other. Paradoxically, the laughter, the music, church services, big fat weddings and everyday life goes on in around the shacks - even watching the Manchester United Football match in the UK via television.

 

Marketing by big companies combined with consumerism  makes people pay exorbitant monthly fees for satellite TV channels to stay up to date with news and entertainment while living in the shacks - showing that inequalities and social class stratification in society  is still rampant. But life goes on.