Selina Boyani’s Soweto shack, which she shares with four children, is a little larger than a single bed. It is dark, cramped and poorly ventilated, but it has one crucial advantage: it’s only a 10-minute walk to school for Nombulelo (17), the oldest child. That means no expensive taxi fares and no long hours spent commuting. These are important issues for a single mother supporting four children with the money she earns doing domestic work two days a week.
Selina Boyani could be living in a flat at the disused Durban Roodepoort Deep mine, waiting for a government house. But she would rather stay in her shack in Zone 2, Diepkloof. Motivated by her desire to be near Nombulelo’s school Selina Boyani has moved three times in the past three years.
When Selina Boyani first came to Soweto from the Eastern Cape 13 years ago she lived in the Mandelaville informal settlement, in Diepkloof. Conditions there were not good. The area was overcrowded and there was no water or proper toilets. But, importantly, the settlement was close to schools, taxi ranks, shops and (Chris Hani) Baragwanath hospital. Selina Boyani and her children lived there for 10 years.
But in January 2002 all that changed. On their return from a visit to the family home in the Eastern Cape, the Boyani family found the 25-year-old settlement in the process of being demolished. Officials and security guards were dismantling shacks, and trucks were standing by to take families to Durban Roodepoort Deep mine land, one hour’s travel away by taxi.
Selina Boyani was comparatively lucky: her shack survived the first day’s demolitions. The family had time to gather some of their belongings, and find another place set up their home. Selina Boyani was determined she would not go to Durban Deep: a one-way taxi fare there is about R7,50 a person, a cost she could not afford.
The family salvaged about half the building material from their shack but had to leave items such as beds and wardrobes behind. They moved to Diepkloof, Zone 5, where Selina Boyani’s cousin let them build a room in the backyard of her house. Still within walking distance of her school, Nombulelo continued her studies.
Searching for more permanent accommodation, the family went from house to house. They found space in the back yard of a house in Orlando, where again they built a room. They had no electricity and rent was R120 a month. But after six months the family moved on. It was too far for the younger children to get to crèche and the landlord wouldn’t let them play in the yard. For Nombulelo, it took an hour to walk to school.
It was then that they found the yard in Zone 2, Diepkloof, a few blocks from Nombulelo’s school. Once more Selina Boyani erected a shack, where they have been living for the past two years. The home, made of corrugated iron and mud bricks, is one of four shacks, each containing a family, wedged into the back yard of a two-roomed house. The Boyanis’ shack accommodates a single bed, which the family shares. Their clothes hang on the wall above. Along the opposite wall is a dresser that holds a few bowls, a two-plate stove and a small TV.
Selina Boyani has laboured hard to find this space and is happy to pay the landlord R140 a month. It will allow Nombulelo, now in grade 11, to finish school. Nombulelo’s walk to school is 10 minutes. But many of her friends from Mandelaville who went to Durban Deep no longer attend her school and she hasn’t seen them since last year. A few are managing the 28km-a-day commute, and some are also living in backyard rooms around the school.
Selina Boyani is adamant that things are better in Zone 2 than in Durban Roodepoort Deep. ”It’s not safe there … People are dying there slowly.” The area is located within the wasteland of a disused gold mine, past slag heaps, slime dams, shaft heads and abandoned buildings.
The Mandelaville residents were initially settled in disused mine flats, houses and hostels on the understanding that they would receive new houses at Braamfischerville within a year. Three years on families are still staying in cramped conditions, isolated from surrounding developments by stretches of dusty mine land. Members of the Mandelaville crisis committee estimate that there are 1 700 families in the area now known as Sol Plaatje.
Not far away are some of the sports facilities belonging to the mine. But residents of Sol Plaatje don’t have access to these. Daniel Dabula of the crisis committee says: ”It means we are living in a prison here.” Studies show that unemployment in the area is 98%, compared to 51% when people were living in Diepkloof. ”Some people lost their jobs at the time of eviction. Others can’t afford the travel costs.”
Just as Selina Boyani feared, schooling has been a problem for many families. There are very few schools in the area and most have limited capacity. There is extensive poverty among residents and money for commuting to schools in other areas is in short supply.
Supported by Wits University’s Centre for Applied Legal Studies and Education Policy Unit, residents have campaigned for free scholar transport and a temporary container school. In July this year a container school was placed nearby, towards the outer reaches of Braamfischerville. Other demands have been for electricity, upgrading of the facilities in and around the hostel and a time frame for providing houses for the residents. Dabula says: ”Minister [of Housing Lindiwe] Sisulu says she’s going to deliver houses. I hope she doesn’t forget us.”
And what of the former Mandelaville settlement in Diepkloof? All that remains is an empty piece of land. Apparently there are plans for a shopping centre on the site, but nearly three years after the evictions there is nothing to be seen.
Residents who managed to evade the eviction have scattered around in the vicinity, trying to hold on to the advantages their location offered them. The others are still waiting on the other side of Soweto for a better life to come.
And what of Selina Boyani? She is waiting for Nombulelo to finish matric. Then, she says, she will go back home to the Eastern Cape.
Additional reporting by Msizi Myeza