Township trends

WE OFTEN use the extent of transformation, meaning the empowerment of black people, in our society to demonstrate how far we have come since apartheid.

Apartheid logic dictated that the best of everything, from suburbs to amenities, was reserved for whites.

So it was not surprising when upwardly mobile blacks left the townships in droves to live in affluent, former-white suburbia.

But the formerly blacks-only townships are showing an upward trajectory. According to recent data townships are becoming viable nodes of growth and the property boom is very much under way.

It is in this spirit of seeing much hope in areas designed to breed despair that we told the story of Soweto woman Jackie du Preez (yes, she is white), who has lived in various townships for 20 years.

Way to go. That is a story of transformation.