INSTITUTIONALIZED CHILD CARE IN URBAN SOUTH AFRICA

candy house, a pair of women’s shoes crafted from cardboard, and the most elaborate
item, a boombox made by the teenage boys. The latter item worked and played music
from an mp3-capable smartphone via an auxiliary cord or bluetooth signal, and even
featured an LED light. Although the product was impressively developed, the investment
pitch proposed spending R1000 on developing each item, and a R900 selling price.
Safety is Always an Issue
Another significant concern for the children living at the center is safety, and this is
a major concern from the beginning to the end of a child’s time at 5Cees. Johannesburg is
a city with a reputation for high crime, and most people living in Johannesburg I
encountered had anecdotes to support that impression. Furthermore, 5Cees’ location close
to the Central Business District put it within two of the biggest hotspots for criminal
activity, Berea and Hillbrow. Crime rates were also particularly high in areas surrounding
townships, meaning that for many of the children coming from such an environment,
criminal activity was already very familiar.
Safety is always an issue in Hillbrow, for every age group. Sadly, stories I heard of
violent crimes in the area often included victims as young as five or six. Sexual violence
was also disturbingly common. For the youngest children, safety was mostly a matter of
care mothers keeping a close eye on a group while they were offsite, making sure
everybody stayed together. For older teenagers, fifteen and up, managing their own safety
came almost instinctively and they were my best consultants on whether or not it would
be safe to go to a certain place during certain times of the day. It was in between these
two stages of childhood where most of the adaptive learning takes place. Children who
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