‘A roof over our heads’

MAHALA: 70 HOMELSS FAMILIES RELOCATED TO TEMPORARY COTTAGES

While de-densification is ‘good in principle’, it’s also reminiscent of apartheid forced removals.

Over three years, Isaac Mbatha grew accustomed to the suffocating summer heat and icy winter drafts that pierced the canvas walls of his tent in Wilgespruit, a township on the hilly outskirts of Johannesburg.

He also came to terms with the lack of space, running water and electricity in the makeshift home he shared with his wife and three children. But he never got used to the rain.

“When it’s raining you can’t even sleep,” said the 38-year-old, recalling the deafening sound of water splattering against the flimsy sheets and the constant fear of flooding.

“Life is very difficult if you don’t have a roof over your head.”

Coronavirus brought unexpected respite to those wet sleepless nights.

Thanks to the pandemic, 70 Wilgespruit families have been relocated to wooden cottages nearby – free of charge.

“No more rain inside your home, no more cold in the morning,” Mbatha exclaimed. “Our life will be better now.”

Wilgespruit is one of the country’s 2 700 so-called informal settlements.

A section of it, known as Plot 323, came into being in 2017, when hundreds of squatters were evicted from a nearby property where they had been living in shacks for over a decade.

Thrown onto the streets, they were allowed to settle on the government-owned Wilgespruit hill – its name in Afrikaans means “stream of the weeping willow” – living in donated khaki tents.

Most scrap a meagre living from informal recycling of plastics.

Such bubbles of extreme poverty are a legacy of the apartheid regime, whereby black South Africans were stripped of land ownership and moved to subpar neighbourhoods away from inner-city areas.

More than a million families continue to live in these informal settlements more than 25 years after the end of whitemajority rule.

The townships, usually only remembered by politicians when its election season, were dragged back to the government’s attention by the coronavirus outbreak.

Amid fears that overcrowding and squalor would hinder efforts to stem the disease, authorities rushed to boost access to sanitation

We will celebrate when all are in brick houses

Pictures: AFP HARD LIFE. Lucky, 55, brews some tea to warm up in the bitter cold in Wilgespruit, Johannesburg. Families who have been living in the tented camp for years, have now been relocated.