BillingZ™ is a Registerered Trademark in South Africa.

In South Africa, a township is a neighborhood on the outskirts of a town or metropolis that has traditionally been utilized to maintain racial segregated housing. The apartheid political system, which was in place from 1948 until the early 1990s, is when the township system was initially established. Any groups of people who were not legally categorized as white were prohibited from residing in cities under that system. Instead, they had to live in townships. Townships often had subpar housing conditions and were overcrowded. With a focus on security and population control rather than infrastructure and resources, the territories were purposefully impoverished.

Townships still exist in South Africa. Since 1994, they have been desegregated, and some of its residents have experienced increased affluence, including the emergence of a middle class. Nonetheless, many South African townships still lack necessary infrastructure, and a large portion of the population resides in poverty. Some townships are unofficial settlements where the bulk of people live are migrant laborers or refugees who have recently immigrated to the nation. In South Africa, townships are home to about 11.6 million people, yet accurate census data isn't always available to identify these neighborhoods.

It is essential to start by looking into apartheid in order to comprehend what townships are in South Africa. Apartheid, one of the main languages in South Africa, is defined as "apartness" or "separation" in Afrikaans. Racial segregation served as the foundation for the apartheid rule in practice, and separating racial groups from one another became one of its main precepts. Townships in South Africa played a significant role in upholding the segregation system by creating physical barriers between the residential regions of various ethnic groupings.

A system of racial classification that was the foundation of apartheid was unique to South Africa and may appear odd or eccentric to modern eyes. Legally speaking, people could belong to one of four racial groups: white (or European), black, indian, or colored. Those who were mixed-race, those from some Asian countries (other Asian populations classified under the "Indian" label), and those from some minority mixed-race ethnic groupings in South Africa might all be referred to as "colored."

Segregation characterized township life in South Africa during the apartheid era. It was severely against the law for people of different races to marry, and it was also against the law for Black people to reside in an Indian or Colored township. Moreover, schools were segregated, with white schools receiving superior funding and educational resources than schools serving other populations. Many residents of townships commuted daily across long distances to their places of employment in the metropolis. Children of mixed-race couples were effectively proof of criminal behavior because inter-racial marriage was forbidden; many of them were forced to lie about their family structure in order to stay safe.