Delft is a township on the outskirts of Cape Town

Cape Town

Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...

, South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

. It is situated next to the Cape Town International Airport

Cape Town International Airport

Cape Town International Airport is the primary airport serving the city of Cape Town, and is the second busiest airport in South Africa and third busiest in Africa. Located approximately from the city centre, the airport was opened in 1954 to replace Cape Town's previous airport in the suburb of...

, Belhar

Belhar

Belhar is a suburb of the City of Cape Town in the Cape Flats area.It is known for being the place where the Belhar Confession was formulated....

, Blue Downs & Site C, Khayelitsha

Khayelitsha

Khayelitsha is a partially informal township in Western Cape, South Africa, located on the Cape Flats in the City of Cape Town. The name is Xhosa for New Home...

. It is known for its high crime rate, substandard schools, lack of jobs, and numerous government built housing projects such as the N2 Gateway

N2 Gateway

The N2 Gateway Housing Pilot Project is a large housebuilding project under construction in Cape Town, South Africa. It has been labeled by the national government's former Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu as “the biggest housing project ever undertaken by any Government.” Even though it is a joint...

 .

History

Delft was established in 1989. It is a rapidly expanding community found within the Eastern District of the City of Tygerberg local authority. This community was originally established as an integrated service land project for 'coloureds' and 'blacks'.

Geography and Demographics

Delft is situated approximately 34 km north east of Cape Town, and approximately 7,5 km from Bellville. It was established to be one of Cape Town's first mixed race township including 'coloured' and 'black' residents.
In 2000, it had a population between 25 000 and 92 000 inhabitants.

According to the 2001 census, Delft is currently 73% Coloured and 25% Black African with almost no Whites and 1% Indians. The most prominent languages are Afrikaans

Afrikaans

Afrikaans is a West Germanic language, spoken natively in South Africa and Namibia. It is a daughter language of Dutch, originating in its 17th century dialects, collectively referred to as Cape Dutch .Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch; see , , , , , .Afrikaans was historically called Cape...

 and Xhosa

Xhosa language

Xhosa is one of the official languages of South Africa. Xhosa is spoken by approximately 7.9 million people, or about 18% of the South African population. Like most Bantu languages, Xhosa is a tonal language, that is, the same sequence of consonants and vowels can have different meanings when said...

 while English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 is in wide use as a second language. The majority of residents have not finished their matric. Official unemployment levels are at about 43% (although unofficially, this might be much higher).

Delft is subdivided into six sections namely, The Hague, Rosendal, Voorbrug, Eindhoven, Leiden and Delft South. The first three sections are predominantly 'coloured' while Eindhoven is partially inhabited by 'coloureds' and blacks and Delft South and Leiden are predominantly 'black'.

Much of Delft consists of government housing projects. The newest projects are the Symphony which is the main part of the N2 Gateway Pilot Project as well as Temporary Relocation Areas (TRAs) such as Tsunami and the Symphony Way TRA.

Subdivisions

Delft is a big Township. It is divided into 7 places(divisions) namely Delft South (Suburban), Voorbrug, Leiden (Delft Central),Eindhoven, Roosendal, The Hague & the new Symphony section. Delft South also known as Suburban which is predominantly populated by Xhosa speaking people, Leiden (Delft Central) is a mixed community of both Xhosa speaking and Afrikaans speaking people. Voorbrug, The Hague, Roosendal & Eindhoven is predominantly populated by Afrikaans speaking Coloured people.

In the news

Delft recently became newsworthy because of the controversial N2 Gateway housing project. The shackdwellers of Joe Slovo Informal Settlement in Cape Town have publicly refused to be forcibly removed to Delft. Also, in December 2008, backyard dwellers occupied over 1000 N2 Gateway houses in the new Symphony section of Delft. DA Councillor Frank Martin who was accused of inciting thousands of poor people to occupy these houses. Eventually, the families who occupied the houses were violently evicted by police who used rubber bullets to put down the protest. News of the violent repression reached international news with some people saying that it has severely hurt South Africa's reputation.
. Evicted residents are now living in makeshift shacks on Symphony Way across from the houses. They have vowed a permanent sit-in on the road.