A CROWD of 200 quietly formed in a semi- circle around the main shack. They remained silent for about 45 minutes, apart from one woman’s exuberant cries of yebo when she heard something she really liked.
They were listening to the interview with Agrinette Madwayi (40) and two other senior members of the residents’ committee. The two lieutenants prefaced any interjection with the words, “May I add?”, while Madwayi gently regained control of the conversation with the words, “I will continue”.
Their settlement, Agrinette Hills, is one of the forlorn, anonymous collections of shacks which line a stretch of the N1 highway linking Johannesburg and Bloemfontein.
It is the product of one of Gauteng’s most recent land invasions. Ironically, the land, owned by the provincial government, was earmarked for an RDP housing project. The invaders eyed the land for about a year while backyard residents in the local township.
They approached the local council to discuss appropriating the land, but the negotiations never bore fruit. At one stage the council insisted the land was privately owned.
Amid confusion over ownership Madwayi and her advance team struck: “So we invaded. We wanted the solution to who owns this land.”
The 370-shack settlement was formed on the night of March 20 when Madwayi led three women and four children on to their chosen patch of land. “It was very late and there was darkness,” she said. They put up a plastic tent in which they were bombarded by mosquitoes: “We didn’t sleep really. We just prayed that God might give us this land. The next day the people came here.”
By the afternoon they had mapped out, with whitewash, plots for 25 shacks, leaving room for roads, a school, a creche, a playground and a community hall. And a soccer pitch on which the Agrinette Hills youth team beat the neighbouring Kanana (Promised Land) camp’s side the day before the M&G’s visit.
As new residents streamed in the homeless and unqualified surveyors, architects and builders – whom Madwayi calls “the technical team” – mapped out additional stands.
As for services, there is a clinic half-a- kilometre down the road which recently invited all mothers to bring their children for polio vaccines. Police only enter the settlement to visit their friends. Residents fetch their water in buckets from a serviced camp across the road. There are no toilets.
Madwayi said many of the children do not go to school, although there is a creche in the camp run by a resident.
She said it was unlikely they would be evicted. “It must be OK as the land is the government’s. We love our government.” In fact, the provincial government now tacitly accepts the new camp and monitors it.
Residents have applied to the government for housing subsidies with guidance from the South African Homeless Peoples’ Federation, which also helps train the “technical team”. The non-governmental organisation enjoys financial support from the government. It has been criticised by Gauteng Housing MEC Dan Mofekeng for being involved with land invasions. But Madwayi says the federation has little to do with the choice of land – only its development .
Agrinette Hills’ residents are not fans of South Africa’s housing programme: “The government cannot accommodate us. If we followed the right channels and procedures we wouldn’t be here,” said Madwayi.
Agrinette Hills has started a social security kitty, which is fed by R1 or 50c contributions from all the residents. The money, stashed in a bank account, provides start-up cash for small businesses or just to help residents “survive”.
After the interview Madwayi asked, “Can we sing a song”, at which her audience broke into melodious singing. The chorus was, “Amandla imali nolwazi [Power is knowledge and money].”