Table Mountain in the distance over the seemingly endless townships

South Africa is a beautiful country with abundant natural resources. Unfortunately, the government is struggling to address the lingering effects of years of neglect. By law, the government is required to provide services (water, electricity, sanitation, etc) to squatters on federal property - hence these spreading townships. I don't think I have ever so many satellite television antennas in one place.

A shabin (undocumented brewery) in Langa Township - yes, I sampled it. I wouldn't recommend it....

This kind woman runs a makeshift children's home in her home - on less than a shoestring

Van taxi station - most of the buses do not run

Drumming lesson in the Langa cultural center

This mosque is called Al-Masjiduth Thaalith. It took a minute, but I get what they are trying to say. Evidently, whoever named it likely cannot read/write Arabic. If you vocalize the words as written, it is easy to understand that they mean "the third mosque." There is also a "second mosque" with the same transliteration issue. In Arabic, it would properly be rendered as al-masjid al-thalith. The L in the seond al- would take the sound of the following letter (Arabic is funny that way - half the letters utilize this feature) and it would be pronounced al-masjid ath-thalif. What they have done is attach the definite article to the previous word. Yeah, too much information....

 

Museum in a former detention center in Langa Township