Happy Valley does not remotely live up to its name. A shabby collection of makeshift homes that is half township, half rubbish dump, its crime-ridden alleys erupted into violence this week as part of a nationwide wave of rioting that threatens to engulf South Africa.Across Cape Town, township residents have been fighting with riot police armed with rubber bullets, tear gas and stun grenades in scenes that echo the anti-apartheid riots of the 1980s. This time, though, the focus of anger is the ruling African National Congress and its failure to push through improvements long promised since the end of white rule.
Happy Valley is a drenched wasteland. In pouring rain, roofs fashioned from planks and plastic sheeting leak like old taps. There is no refuse removal or medical care and there are no lavatories. Residents must relieve themselves in the nearby bush, but not at night: last Thursday night a man was stabbed to death and earlier last week a woman was raped.
"When Nelson Mandela was released 15 years ago, I thought we'd be living with more dignity by now," says Noluthando Valela, who lives with six people in a one-room shack and took to the streets with tens of thousands of fellow protesters last week. "How can they name a place Happy Valley under such conditions? It's absolutely appalling."
President Thabo Mbeki, who won a second term last year after he pledged improvements in the townships, admitted that the riots would destabilise the country. "The riots seek to exploit the class and nationality fault lines we inherited from our past," Mr Mbeki told parliament. "If ever they took root, gaining genuine popular support, they would pose a threat to the stability of democratic South Africa."
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