Townships were created during apartheid by the white South African government as a way to group the majority black population in to densely over-populated living quarters outside white-only living areas. This was a strategy of control and domination. During apartheid, the black majority, approximately 87% of the population, was forcibly removed from their homes and confined into less than 15% of the land. The apartheid government would not allow people in townships to have their own businesses, and they trapped the population into these areas with little to no infrastructure. The government built these townships near white city centers, so that they could utilize the population to work in the mines or to provide service the white population, such as domestic workers or gardeners.

Apartheid, which means apart-ness or separateness, was a system of legal racial segregation put in place by the white-only South African government in 1948 and ended only in 1994. The apartheid system governed every aspect of people’s lives, and their fate was determined by their racial classification. Segregation was extended in schools, living spaces, public amenities, and occupations. White South Africa, who were in the minority and composed only 13% of the population, were allowed access to the best living conditions, educational systems, and job opportunities.  Blacks, Indians, and so-called “coloured” persons of mixed race were violently and psychologically suppressed by the government. They were given only minimal educational opportunity, lacked freedom of speech and freedom of movement, were confined into impoverished and unsafe living conditions, and restricted in their employment options. In 1958, the apartheid government removed citizenship for all Black South Africans, lumping them into artificially created ‘self-governing’ homelands. Members of all races and ethnic groups joined together to oppose apartheid, which finally ended in the first democratic election in 1994.

Unemployment statistics are complex in South Africa, since official statistics include only those people seeking employment in the formal economy. These figures do not include people who are unable to work due to age or disability, people who have given up seeking employment, and people who are working in the informal economy as subsistence farmers or street venders. The statistics also do not include the growing number of migrants from other African countries. These migrants have faced extraordinary discrimination and violence from people who fear they are taking jobs from citizens.