Page 42 - Heritage Streets of KwaMashu 2025

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HERITAGE STREETS OF KWA-MASHU
During apartheid, women were not allowed in the hostel, especially women wearing pants. There is a belief that the hostel is only for the strongest, as occupants constantly have to ward off black magic. It was believed that weaker people would “just fall and die” because of all the muti (traditional herbs and portions). Until today there is a belief that if you are a weak woman, you will meet an untimely death if you enter the hostel, and pregnant women entering will suffer a miscarriage. Today, many Sangomas (diviners) and Nyangas (traditional healers) still live in the hostel.
Up to today, fighting and shooting in the hostels are common occurrences, and even the police are too fearful to venture in. For the men living in the hostels, life is tough, but protect themselves against being shot through rituals and using muti.
Each hostel room has four beds. Men who occupied the rooms were more often than not strangers from each other. The beds provided were made out of bricks, with the base being made of wood (similar to a wooden door). The owner of the bed could store his clothes and food underneath the base – almost like
a bricked-in cupboard, but they had to share a kitchen. Each apartment in the hostel had 2 rooms - a kitchen and a bedroom. Ablutions were shared. To be allowed to live in the hostel, a person had to register and apply for it through someone they called the “block chairman”. Many people who live in the hostel today have inherited the beds from their fathers who stayed there before but had either passed on or have retired and gone back to the rural areas. Most people who stay in the hostel are from rural areas and come to the city for job opportunities. Many maskandi artists reside in the Kwa Mashu Hostel (even famous Maskandi Mfazomnyama honed his skills in this hostel). The famous igoso of ingoma (a Zulu dance style), Gadla Nxumalo (Sangena) is also from Kwa Mashu Hostel.
After 1994, new good family blocks were constructed at A-Section, but they are dwarfed by 1000s of informal settlements inside the hostel.