Hair salons are one of the most common forms of township enterprise. Most occupy the front yards of residential properties to save costs and are unauthorised. Competition is tough and prices are low, so earnings are modest. Survival is the name of the game.
This huge hostel was built to accommodate thousands of migrant workers in the 1970s. The building is no longer maintained, the basic services have collapsed and it has become notorious for overcrowding, squalor and violent crime.
Space is at a premium in the city centre because of accessibility to opportunities. This tiny unit consists of a man, a chair and little else. For people who are very hard up, he will exchange cash for their jewellery. The city centre has been transformed since the 1990s and is now home to many foreign African nationals and domestic migrants.
This is the city’s best located township – close to jobs and on a major public transport route to the city centre. People have grabbed any spare piece of land, including pavements and public spaces. Two-storey shacks are common here to use the land efficiently, but unusual elsewhere because they are unstable and hazardous if a fire breaks out. The lack of windows reduces theft but also ventilation.
This man recently moved into his new home, part of a successful rent-to-buy housing scheme of 400 small units, part-subsidised by the government. This is a well-managed working class neighbourhood where almost everyone has a job. Crime is one of the biggest problems.
This was the first phase of a less successful rent-to-buy housing scheme. Cost-cutting resulted in inferior building materials and techniques, such as flat roofs. People have complained repeatedly and the area has not improved over time as a result.