Namakgale

Province

Namakgale is a suburb and former Township of the city Phalaborwa in the Limpopo Province in the north- east of South Africa, 14 kilometers from the Kruger National Park.

Economy

The region is among the poorest in South Africa. The 36 365 inhabitants are dependent on the workload in the surrounding mining companies on copper, phosphate and vermiculite as well as the farms. Many people live for decades in precarious conditions below the subsistence level; unemployment is high.

The employment opportunities are concentrated in decades mainly on mining companies as Foskor and the Palabora Mining Company. End 1965 7247 blacks were employed in the mining industry of Phalaborwa, but of which 3878 were used only as temporary workers.

The former Township Namakgale was built around 1966 on the site of an already known area of social unrest in the former Makushane reserve at the instigation of the Department of Bantu Administration and Development new.

Social Situation

Most drawn by unemployment is the age group of 16 to 30 year olds. Especially children, young people and single parents - in most cases, women - are affected by infrastructural and social disadvantages.

In 2009, the administration of the municipality Ba - Phalaborwa stopped the drinking water supply of 24 schools in Namakgale because the water consumption of the past 5 years has not been paid. The setting of the service took place before the annual exams, which led to significant protests among students and parents. The Human Rights Institute of South Africa criticized the decision of the Municipal Administration due to a violation of constitutional rights of those affected.

Since many young people to see only a small prospects for the future, is their motivation to get a good education, low. This situation led in 2010 to excesses of violence at a school where angry students sat the school building on fire after a student meeting in two classrooms. Students rated their learning situation at this high school as particularly problematic and feel the climate of the tense situation as a hindrance.

In 2011, a teacher in front of students and colleagues of a primary school was critically injured by her husband by two shots.