/ 16 May 1997

Waiting for the caterpillars …

LORRAINE SITHOLE, a mother of three, looked up at the sky and sighed, mumbling, ”I’m sure God will help us”. She does not know how long her corrugated iron shack will remain on the dusty Pretoria hillside.

In January Sithole – who is ”not sure” how old she is – and 2 800 other families invaded private land on the outskirts of Mamelodi East, a township outside the city.

Last month they received a final eviction order, giving them until Thursday last week. ”But the caterpillars did not come, maybe they’ll come tomorrow,” she said this week.

The invaded land, perched on a steep hill, has been christened Bohlabatsatsi (Where the sun rises) as its residents believe they are the first in Pretoria to greet the sun each morning.

But neighbours in an adjacent squatter camp which is both developed and legal prefer to call it Shushumela (The place into which people have crawled).

Bohlabatsatsi is ruled by a committee which some would call a ”land mafia”: it makes residents pay R70 a month for sites, plus a R20 ”legal fee” and R5 for the water hijacked from the pipe serving the neighbouring camp.

One of the camp bosses, Fana Konyane, denied that he charges rent but acknowledged the legal fee: he believes it justified because of the eviction threat.

He insisted that all the residents are locals – mostly from backyard shacks in Mamelodi. But when committee members’ backs were turned, residents admitted to the presence of illegal immigrants, some of whom have paid handsomely for their sites.

The committee rules Bohlabatsatsi with an iron hand.

Visitors are immediately escorted to their headquarters housed in a shack.

The planning of the settlement has been sloppy: sites are not plotted to a uniform size and no slots have been left for schools, soccer pitches or community halls. The committee insisted this was the spin- off from a desperate rush to claim the land.

Konyane sings the right song: ”We are true citizens who have voted for the ANC,” he said. ”All we’re begging for is living space, just a small place to dwell.”

The camp has become a political football, kicked energetically between the local ANC branch politicians who back it, and the ANC-controlled Pretoria city council which says it stymies development. For now, the council appears to have lost interest.