Tin House in Gamalakhe Tin Town

By Alex in Travel on Jan 27, 2010 at 5:14 pm


Tin House in Gamalakhe Tintown in Margate

If you’ve seen Neill Blomkamp’s movie District 9, the tin house above should be familiar. Indeed, the slum that housed the alien prawns is similar to the Gamalake township in South Africa, down to its purported "temporary" nature.

John Gore of 360 Cities wrote:

“This is a typical Tin House after which this area of Gamalakhe township got its name: Tin Town. Originally erected as temporary housing for these displaced people, these tin houses have become permanent residences for over 20 years. This home owner has been fortunate enough to now have a brick house as well, but the old tin structure is still used as a residency.”

The poverty is palpable – the spartan house has bare walls and floor, and as far as I can tell, open windows (no glass panes). Yet, it’s not completely devoid of technology though the choice of what appliance to have is strikingly logical: a refrigerator. (Compare this to the poor in United States where 91% own color TVs!)


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  1. jazz on your face (female)
    Jan 27th, 2010 at 5:40 pm

    thats a pretty sweet pad, id chill in it.

  2. (OvO)
    Jan 27th, 2010 at 6:13 pm

    It’s worth noting that, with one exception, all of the shacks filmed in District 9 were also real homes that exist in a portion of Johannesburg. The original residents were evacuated and relocated to supposedly better government housing – much like events depicted in the film itself.

  3. jazz on your face (female)
    Jan 27th, 2010 at 11:58 pm

    the more you know

  4. dodo
    Jan 29th, 2010 at 3:49 am

    THIS IS SPARTA!

  5. security-six
    Jan 29th, 2010 at 11:40 am

    Holy eff, the color tv! Why, the have COLOR tv in them prisons! Has anyone seen a black and white tv for sale in the past twenty years? And poor people have cars? When’s the last time you saw public transportation heading down gravel back roads? You cannot make one-for-one across-the-board comparisons of wealth or living standards. Every country is different, every region of every country is different. I have seen some homes in the US that could easily be described as Third World-esque.

  6. John Gore
    Jun 10th, 2010 at 2:59 pm

    Hi Alex, glad you found my 360 of this Tin Town shack useful. :)

    This really is how many people live in South Africa.

    Its not all bad though, if you look in the back corner of the room you will see a bucket, where this guy was brewing his own “Zulu beer”. Very popular in South Africa!

  7. Alex
    Jun 10th, 2010 at 3:01 pm

    Thanks John Gore! Please let me know if you’ve got more neat stuff to feature :)


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