User:Jamaicad87

207095001 R J Mokgotho

Alexandra Township
Background

Alexandra Township, the township which is situated in South Africa, Gauteng near Sandton city. today the area posses some of the name Dark city because during apartheid era, black people were not allowed to have electricity where they lived so it would be dark at night. another name being Dusty city for the same reason as there was no tared road infrastructure so the area was always dusty, the place has always been over populated which means there is always movements from cars to people and other domestic animals as well. for more background history about Alexandra township please read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandra,_Gauteng#Early_history. Today Alexandra has sections, we have the old Alexandra which is called by Avenues, the modern or high class Alexandra which is called East Bank and the new Alexandra which is called Tsotsomane, tooday there are still developments happening in Tsotsomane. The township has two shopping malls, the new one called Alexandra mall and the old mall called Pan Africa Shoping center

Influential People 

There are a number of influential people who are from Alexandra and other have lived in Alexandra like the Legendary Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela Kgalema Motlanthe and many more including the youth of Today like Brian Baloyi, Lebogang Manyama

Learning Area

Alexandra is also a place that is used for learning by big corporate to conscientise their students with reality when it comes to Socio-Economic Development by taking their students on a trip to Alexandra Township so that they are in touch with reality of the Socio-Economic Developments that black people are facing. There other projects in Alexandra that assist in bringing sustainable solutions to the communities socio-economic. For example there is a foundation called Linda Thwala AmaAfrika which assist the community from giving them free food and also giving career guidance and cancelling to those who need it.

Television

Alexandra is one place that plays a huge role into the history of South Africa from politics to sport to entertainment the list is endless hence there are a couple of TV series that are shot in Alexandra to show case the lives of the previously disadvantaged. One of the big Movies that was shot in Alexandra is Tsotsi which made it to the international world. We have other local TV dramas that are doing very well in terms of playing a positive influence into the lives of South African in general that are shot in Alexandra like Soul City.

Entertainment and Tourism 

As much as Alexandra is one of the places with poor living conditions, people from outside of the township and those elites within the township do get the time to relax and chill. The area has some tourism hot spots like Nelson Mandela Museum, Alexandra male hostels, Alexandra Female Hostels to name a few. You get to go to places where you can get good food and drinks like Spotong https://www.spotongmag.co.za/index.php/tag/alexandra%20township?page=3 and Joe's Butchery https://web.facebook.com/JoesButcheryAlexandra/.

Life today 

Alexandra Township still a growing township, it is increasing in size as the government still have housing development projects happening. The Government is trying so hard to try and resolve the population within the township however there more they build the houses the more there is a need for housing because the poor living conditions of the people living there do not change, there is still high unemployment rate particularly the youth, Crime rate is high and sources of information are very minimal and not well resourced to provide the necessary information to the entire community which will uplift and empower the community

Outcome of Overpopulation

The township is overpopulated and the overpopulation keeps on increasing which results in the overpopulation of rats as well which is a living hazard to the public from financial to health perspective. Rats do destroy and they destroy valuable items like cars and roofs and ceilings of houses which results to continuous maintenance which is costly. living with rats is not healthy for anyone especially that this rats do not have a care giver they are a part of the community, so they can eat anything from any household and not only food but also people's feet which sometimes causes real health problems.

References