No festive cheer for ‘dumped’ shack dwellers whose mere survival remains a struggle

WHAT began as a temporary relocation for hundreds of families to Blikkiesdorp and Wolwerivier has turned into a life that’s filled with no excitement about Christmas celebrations for many families.

There are no special decorations in their cramped tin structures to welcome in the season of love, nor are there Christmas songs blaring on their radios.

All that is on their minds is how they will survive another day.

Most adults in these areas are trapped in a system of dependence on alcohol and drugs, while others live on handouts.

For community leader and parent Jerome Daniels, the festive season is a “constant” act of keeping an eye on children to ensure their safety while trying to organise a huge celebration for families to capture the feeling of Christmas.

Daniels’s family, like hundreds of others, were moved to the site in 2008 and many people are unemployed and struggle to make ends meet. Most depend on social grants.

The crime level is high and so is drug and alcohol abuse.

“This place is a hell-hole. I wouldn’t wish anyone to live a life like this,” says Daniels.

One of his main projects is to organise a Christmas party for children and senior citizens to help them “live a normal” life by reaching out to corporates and other organisations willing to help to keep the community spirit alive.

“Some don’t even get a decent meal on Christmas Day and depend on the goodwill of others. They’re lucky to even be invited to someone’s home. So to eliminate the feeling of resentment and bitterness in children, we try and make them feel loved and cared for,” Daniels said.

Most of the community members depend on the goodwill of others.

Alison Samodien of Think Yellow Projects, who provides soup and sarmies on weekends, extended the act of kindness to include holding a Christmas cheer event for children.

“It’s trying to provide equality in the midst of inequality. This year we went big and gave each child a toy. We wanted to let them feel acknowledged,” she says.

At the celebration many receive gifts of toys which could be the only gifts they receive until the next Christmas.

Samodien called for more help, adding that through one donation and one person at a time, much can be achieved.

A mother of four children, Mamusa Makapela, tries to make Christmas a memorable day for her children by preparing a special meal and buying them gifts.

To Makapela it is important to have a time of celebration, as “most of the time we live in fear of being robbed, attacked or a house break-in” as these are common.

At a local crèche, children were singing and dancing to songs played over the radio by their teachers.

But when the word “Christmas” came up, they knew what gifts they would like to receive – cars, dolls, bicycles and teddy bears.

The crèche is run by a Christian couple who pay the children’s fees and provide them with two meals a day and help the older ones with homework.

About 30km north of Cape Town CBD lies another temporary relocation area, Wolwerivier, where families were moved to in 2015.

Twenty-two-year old Bren- dan Mathses’s Christmas wish is to spread the love by sharing gifts with others in the community.

But all he can afford is what he can get from rubbish tips and bins from affluent suburbs.

“The last time I received a gift on Christmas Day was when I lived in a shelter. and that’s many years ago, he says.

Despite the hardships, he has endured living in the “bushes” in the past and now in the tin structure with his parents and an elder brother, he remains optimistic about a better change in the future.

“I don’t look at the past, I remain positive,” he says with a broad smile.

For his neighbour, Maria Arendse, 63, just the mere thought of Christmas brought tears to her eyes as she reflected on the how she used to spend it in the past.

“I don’t get any form of social grant, so our meal will depend on what my husband collects from the bin or as a donation,” Arendse says.

For other families in the area, it was difficult to talk about Christmas as many will not be able to celebrate it like others do – splurging on gifts and elaborate meals.