Block by block, Hillbrow is being turned into a neighbourly place

Bafikile Mkhize, the community coordinator at eKhaya Neighbourhood, says she has been encouraged by the changes she has seen in Hillbrow. (Photo: Bridget Hilton-Barber)

By Bridget Hilton-Barber

21 Apr 2025

This part of Johannesburg’s inner city has a reputation for crime, drugs and hijacked buildings, but Bafikile Mkhize and the team at eKhaya are working to build a socially cohesive community in Hillbrow.

‘You can’t build a sense of community in a neighbourhood where people don’t know each other,” says Bafikile Mkhize, community coordinator at eKhaya Neighbourhood, an urban improvement project in the inner city’s toughest neighbourhood, Hillbrow.

With some 80,000 people living in high-rise buildings within one square kilometre, Hillbrow is a high-density, low-income area notorious for crime, unemployment, xenophobia, drugs, violence and hijacked buildings. But since eKhaya started working here in 2004, going block by block to uplift the area, pockets of liveable buildings and safe spaces have been on the increase.

Ekhaya means “at home”, and the project is a collaboration between property owners, building managers, tenants and the Johannesburg city council to “make a neighbourhood in Hillbrow”, says Mkhize, who has a degree in commerce, marketing and business management.

We meet in a loving pocket of Hillbrow, a building that is home to eKhaya as well as MES, a project for the homeless, and the Madulammoho Housing Association, which aims to provide social housing in the area for low-income people.

Next door is the Hillbrow Theatre, which is undergoing renovations and will reopen soon, and the back of the building opens onto the pleasant grounds of the Friedenskirche, or Church of Peace, a national monument built in 1912 that is known for its signature Bavarian bell tower. It is adjoined by the Outreach Foundation and feels like a haven of hope with its space for workshops, calm vibes and vegetable gardens.

Mkhize points to a colourful building behind the church roof. It used to be a hijacked building – “bad buildings”, as she calls them – and every year the church would have to repair its roof after the residents ejected tyres, bottles, old appliances and rubbish during the notoriously wild and violent Hillbrow New Year’s Eve revelries. Now those unruly and dangerous evenings are a thing of the past.

We walk to Edith Cavell Street and look down to Pietersen Street below. This is where eKhaya began, explains Mkhize: these two buildings used to be bad buildings. The Johannesburg Housing Company then reclaimed the one and Trafalgar Property the other. They fixed them up, organised managers and encouraged the occupants to get to know each other.

Breaking anonymity

Blocks of flats in Hillbrow An apartment block in Hillbrow that is once again inhabitable. (Photo: Bridget Hilton-Barber)

Shady park in Hillbrow The pleasant, shady grounds around the Friedenskirche (Church of Peace) in Hillbrow. (Photo: Bridget Hilton-Barber)

Bafikile Mkhize, a changemaker in Hillbrow Bafikile Mkhize, the community coordinator at eKhaya Neighbourhood, says she has been encouraged by the changes she has seen in Hillbrow. (Photo: Bridget Hilton-Barber)

“That was our approach – get to know your neighbour and their neighbour,” says Mkhize. “Break anonymity, build community block by block. Everyone in these two blocks now knows who their neighbour is.”

And judging from the amount of warm greetings and waving, clearly they all know Mkhize too. She and her family lived in Hillbrow for decades before moving to the south a few years ago.

“We realised that security was key to making a liveable neighbourhood, and so a private security company called Bad Boyz was formed, which continues to patrol and police the area.

“Ekhaya started with just two buildings, and now there are 84 buildings managed by the project, each with a housing manager who represents the tenants and with a network for security, community and things like trauma counselling and health advice,” says Mkhize.

“When you see changes you get encouraged. The success of eKhaya has been about responsible property owners making partnerships with community improvement districts, community policing forums, schools, churches, inner-city groups like Jozi My Jozi, ward counsellors, the city, NGOs.

“I get to meet very interesting people and I’m a connector – I put people together so we can call Hillbrow home and a safe place.”

Ekhaya Park in nearby Claim Street has been a huge achievement. Work on it started in 2008 and a “nuisance space” has been transformed into a playground where kids play, women walk and there is 24/7 security.

It’s also used by many high-rise schools in the area. There are soccer fields for young children where tournaments and events are hosted throughout the year. “We encourage the parents to come and watch soccer, then parents connect and there begins a process of social cohesion,” Mkhize says.

Later this year, El Kero Park will open on the corner of Claim and Pietersen streets. Previously a thoroughfare and crime hotspot, the space has been reimagined as a park specifically for women and children. It is another haven of hope in Hillbrow thanks to eKhaya and its partners. DM

Bridget Hilton-Barber is a freelance writer who writes for Jozi My Jozi.

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.

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Breaking anonymity