The Cape Flats has always been associated with crime, poverty and gangsterism. RYLAND FISHER revisits his childhood neighbourhoods and reflects on how things have changed

When people ask me where I grew up I normally say on the Cape Flats. When pressed to be more specific, I say: Athlone, Bokmakierie, Silvertown, Kewtown, Bridgetown, Bonteheuwel, Elsies River, Surrey Estate, Hanover Park, Primrose Park and Mitchells Plain, among others. At the time of my birth, my family lived in a corrugated iron and wood house (not a shack) at the corner of Aden Avenue and Lawrence Road, Athlone.

We were forced to move when the landlord told us he was selling the house when I was about six or seven years old, and we could no longer stay.

This began a journey throughout the Cape Flats for me. My family of seven struggled to find a place to rent which could accommodate all of us, so my father took my two brothers while my mother took my two sisters and me. We lived separately until we were offered a council house in Hanover Park and the family could live together again.

But, by the time I was about ten-years-old, before we moved to Hanover Park, we lived in small rooms with other families throughout the Cape Flats. This was an uncomfortable situation and lasted at most a few months at a time, before our host families became fed up with having another family within their space.

Our house in Hanover Park was our first real home and it was the first time that there was some stability in our family. I went to visit the site of our house in Athlone the other day and was amazed at how little has changed, while so much has changed at the same time. This was not the first time that I have been back.

I have been back several times in the past few years, primarily because when I went back the first time, almost 30 years after we were forced out, I noticed that the site was still empty. Our old house had been demolished, but no-one had built anything on the site. I tried desperately to track down the owner of the site so that I could speak to him/her about the possibility of buying the site from them.

Now finally, the site has been fenced in and, it appears, it is being used as a parking area for a suite of offices that faces Beverley Street, which is parallel to Lawrence Road. The site is quite close to what is known as the CBD of Athlone, which ironically used to be a thriving area in the days of apartheid. Now that we can all shop where we want to shop, black areas such as Athlone are suffering.

Of the old buildings that were around in my youth, I recognised only Braude's Chemist in Lawrence Road. The other buildings and businesses are all fairly new.  On what used to be the Athlone Hotel site, there now stands Lewis, Beares and Russells stores, among others.

There is a Multichoice building across the road from my old house, and, across the road in Aden Avenue, there is now a huge building housing, among others, the Africa Unisex Salon, and the law firm N J Yekiso and Associates, where until a few years ago, I believe, someone called Bulelani Ngcuka used to practise.

This building stands on the site that used to house someone called "Kool", who used to be very influential in the Cape Coon (or Minstrels as they are now called) industry. For a few months a year, leading up to New Year, one or other Coon troupes used to practice at this house. As youngsters, we used to eavesdrop on the practices and knew all the songs, word for word, that this troupe was going to sing in competition.

Next door to the site of my old house is a corrugated iron and wood house in the style that our house used to be. It has not been painted in years and is displaying its age. I wondered whether this was the house where a character called "Dile", who used to look after me when I was a baby, took me and gave me African beer to drink, which of course made me sleep, if you will excuse the pun, like a baby.

As I looked at what is now a parking area, I could still see the house that I used to call home. I could see the many dogs, cats, chickens and pigeons, among other animals, that we had on the property. I wondered what happened to all these animals after we had to move out. I also wondered what would have happened if we were not forced to move out and I had spent all my formative years in Athlone.

Would I have turned out a better, or worse, person? Would I have had the rich life experiences I have had? Would I have been able to return to a...