Khayelitsha /ˌkaɪ.əˈliːtʃə/ 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 Our New Home. It is reputed to be the fastest-growing township in South Africa.
Cape Town initially opposed implementing the Group Areas Act passed in 1950 and residential areas in the city remained unsegregated until the first Group Areas were declared in the city in 1957. When Cape Town did start implementing the Group Areas Act, it did so more severely than any other major city; by the mid-1980s it became one of the most segregated cities in South Africa.
Plans to build Khayelitsha were first announced by Dr Piet Koornhof in 1983, then Minister of Co-operation and Development. By 1985 the suburb Site C had 30,000 people. Khayelitsha was one of the apartheid regime's final attempts to enforce the Group Areas Act and was seen as the solution to two problems: the rapidly growing number of migrants from the Eastern Cape, and overcrowding in other Cape Town townships.
Today Khayelitsha has a population of 391,749 (as of 2011) and runs for a number of kilometres along the N2. The ethnic makeup of Khayelitsha is approximately 90.5% Black African, 8.5% Coloured and 0.5% White, with Xhosa being the predominant language of the residents. Khayelitsha has a very young population with fewer than 7% of its residents being over 50 years old and over 40% of its residents being under 19 years of age. In 2011 around 62% of residents in Khayelitsha where rural to urban migrants, most coming from the Eastern Cape. In the communities of Enkanini and Endlovini over 85% of the residents were born in the Eastern Cape.
About 75% of residents identify themselves as Christian while about 20% follow traditional beliefs; a small minority of residents identify themselves as Muslim.
