The sun has not set, yet Mavis Sebola (37) keeps the door ajar with a brick to let light into her one-room shack.
Sebola and her two daughters, Mathapelo (15) and Shoni (8), live in Diepsloot Extension One where there is no electricity.
Once a domestic worker, Sebola has been without work since her elderly employer died four years ago.
The family relies on Shoni’s monthly R240 grant and the R150 Sebola sometimes gets when she manages to rent out the shack next door. The shack is unoccupied but she is expecting someone to move in next month.
Sebola’s shack, in the informal settlement north of Johannesburg, is made of zinc and wood. Plastic bags shoved between roof and wall are used to keep out wind. There are no plugs, so Sebola charges her cellphone at a house in Extension Two. It costs R5.
She is among the many people in Diepsloot who charge their cellphone batteries there.
”So sometimes because of the long queue your phone doesn’t get completely charged.”
The family relies on a small paraffin stove to prepare meals. There is no fridge, so meals usually consist of tinned food. If Sebola buys meat she cooks it all the same day or else ”it gets rotten very quickly”.
After six, when it starts to get dark outside, a single candle is lit.
”We are usually in bed by 8pm but sometimes Mathapelo stays up later because of homework,” says Sebola.
Mathapelo, who is in grade 10, does her homework on the floor. Her mother says she complains and asks when they will get electricity.
There is not much to do in the dark, says Mathapelo. ”Sometimes just before we go to bed, we sing church songs if we are bored.”
Shoni says she wishes they had a TV because ”I want to watch Generations and a movie.” She relies on her friend to update her on what’s showing on SABC.
The girls sometimes watch TV next door. ”But I don’t want them to disturb people, so they usually peek from outside,” says Sebola.
During the school week Mathapelo wakes up at 5.30am to heat water collected by her mother from a tap near the public toilets. Then she pours it into a metal tub so her little sister can bath first.
Going to church offers an escape from the darkness.
”When I am around other people with problems, I realise that our problems are not that bad,” says Sebola. Mathapelo agrees.
”I love church because when I am there I can think about other things.”
