Lwandle/Nomzamo is a small township in the Helderberg basin just outside Strand in the Western Cape of South Africa. Both Lwandle/Nomzamo names are sometimes used interchangeably referring to both places. This may be attributed to the fact that Nomzamo was born as a result of overpopulation in Lwandle area which initially designed as a cheap accommodation for "single male workers" during the apartheid years.Brief history of Lwandle/NomzamoBefore Nomzamo was established as a first township in the area in the early 1990s, Lwandle was conceived in 1958 to accommodate single male workers. Before then the area where Lwandle is located was a farm which was owned by CPJ van Vuuren and sold to the Stellenbosch Divisional Council of South African government in 1956 for approximately £14500 (British pound) because the land was no longer profitable due to winter rains which drowns his crops and the farm also became desolate. It was established in terms of Government Notice no. 71 of 1958. Unlike other areas where black people live mostly in the outskirts of the cities such as Langa, Khayelitsha, and Gugulethu, Lwandle was not developed as a Township but as a hostel type accommodation. In term of the Group Areas Act of 1950, which specify residential areas according to one’s race Lwandle was designed in the centre of white areas surrounded by Gordons Bay, Somerset West and Strand. This was unusual for black area to be in the centre of white areas and Lwandle was unique in this sense and referred to as the black spot of Heidelberg. (Use the link below to view the area in 1940) http://htonl.dev.openstreetmap.org/50k-ct/#15/-34.1170/18.8636/c1940The actual hostel structures were built in 1960 to accommodate about 500 male migrants who mostly came from the former homelands in the Eastern Cape such as Transkei and Ciskei. These men were mostly black Africans coming from the former homelands of Transkei and Ciskein in the Eastern Cape working in farms and fruit canning industry and other surrounding areas. Whether these male migrants were married or not, they were not allowed to bring their family member including wives and children into the hostels. As such they were referred to as single males and the hostels were referred as batchelor’s hostels.(Use the link below to view the area in 1960)
