Things were better then

During the implementation of the Group Areas Act in South Africa in the early 1980s, coloured , black and Indian South Africans were forcibly removed to residential suburbs constructed for this purpose. This research was conducted in Belhar a suburb assigned to house relocated coloured people from the Cape Metropolitan and Peninsula areas of the Western Cape Province. Belhar for this reason was historically categorised as a coloured community during the implementation of the Group Areas Act. At the time of data collection the community of Belhar was known as an intensely gang-infested area. From preliminary research done by myself at a senior citizen centre in Belhar, the high incidence of violence was a recurring theme throughout discussions with older people. In fact when I posed the question Why do you come to the centre five days a week? to a group of older people they answered without hesitation It is unsafe for an older person to be alone during the day. Answers like these to many of the questions that I posed would almost always be followed with Things were better then.