Somerset East is a small town in the Eastern Cape Karoo. Here, as in many other towns around the country, apartheid planning is on full display, with the town centre in the valley, and its ‘workers’ in peripheral townships (although work is now hard to come by).
By restricting black and ‘coloured’ working-class people to the hillsides, apartheid protected an image of the city as ‘white’, ‘wealthy’, ‘safe’ and ‘clean’. Anything that was considered ‘dirty’ or ‘threatening’ was ‘removed’.
In other words, in the history of South Africa, it is not only waste that has been removed and dumped, it is also people. It comes as no surprise then that Somerset East’s dumpsite, and its sewage plant, are both right next to Aeroville township – the newest, and fastest growing informal settlement, built on the outskirts of town.
