The term “township” refers to old, new, formal and informal human settlements that are predominantly African, Coloured and Indian. Commonly characterised by high levels of poverty, unemployment and low incomes as well as distance from the main centres of economic activities.
During the apartheid era, black people were evicted from properties that were in areas designated as “white only” and forced to move into segregated townships. These townships were also known as “locations” or “lokasies” in Afrikaans, the slang term “kasie”, is a popularly short version of “lokasie”.