Simmons Student Learns Harsh Realities of South African "Shack Dwellers" : Spotlight on Simmons : Simmons College

This summer, Simmons Communications Lecturer Dan Connell took 11 students to South Africa to explore the changes since that country's first multi-racial democratic elections, and the extent to which the society reflects the goals and values of its post-apartheid constitution. As journalists, the students observed how individual South Africans perceive and experience the differences in status, identity, aspiration, and opportunity for formerly excluded groups, with attention not only to political rights but also to economic and social rights. Below is a story written by Simmons junior Lucia Cordon about the tragic experiences of a shack dweller she learned first hand.

All photos by Dan Connell/The Image Works
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By Lucia Cordon

KHAYELITSHA, SOUTH AFRICA - Strategically placed pots, cups, and plastic containers collect raindrops that fall through the ceiling. Peach-colored paint drip down the cardboard walls above the dirt floors.

But the four-room shack is all that Jwana Mfanana, his pregnant sister, her son, and his uncle have for a home. The shack was built in 2002, less than three days after a fire destroyed everything they had. This year, his tragedy was repeated when dozens more villagers lost their homes - and at least 17 lost their lives - to fire during a record cold snap.

"No one was working at the time and we were struggling to even bury my sister. I struggled to go to school, and we only had one bedroom and a few dishes and cups," says Mfanana through a translator on one a late winter night in June, recalling his loss after the fire took away his sister and his home.

The uneven distribution of electricity in South Africa's rapidly growing squatter camps is leading many shack dwellers to seek alternative heating methods, resulting in hundreds of deaths each year through the mishandling of open fires inside their ramshackle homes.

Carved, rusty oil drums exhale puffs of smoky burnt wood and coal near many dwellings. Huddling side-by-side, families take in the mild warmth that quickly dissipates into the cold night wind. Such unsafe heating systems are common during the icy cold months of May and June.

Mfanana says he remembers coming to Khayelitsha from the Eastern Cape in 1990, accompanied by his father and his 17-year-old sister.

"It was five o'clock when they lit up the fire in a metal barrel outside. At eight o'clock they brought the drum into the living room to make themselves warm before going to bed," he says.

Mfanana recalls the night he awoke to a blazing fire that blocked the path to the door. As he and his father escaped the inferno, he realized his sister was still inside. They fought past the flames, which had engulfed the house, but they were too late.

His sister died three days later at a nearby hospital.

Mfanana sits stoically in his battered armchair, looking at his hands as he tells this story. Father and son would find themselves with no place to sleep and little hope of their lives recovering.

Meanwhile, unexpected winter weather this May set new record low temperatures in major South African cities. Johannesburg and Cape Town had temperatures averaging 37 degrees Fahrenheit. Because many of these improvised shacks are not adequately prepared for this extreme weather, reports continue to come in from all over the country of people dying in fires or freezing to death.

South Africa's Bill of Rights promises everyone the right to have access to adequate housing, but the government has not kept up with the growing demand. Thousands of people have moved from rural areas into the outskirts of major cities. Some people may wait on lists for more 15 years before receiving a home.

Consequently, piracy of electricity has become common in these rapidly growing shantytowns - termed "informal settlements" - where people splice their own connections to passing wires. The hookups can result in accidents causing serious injuries and death.

Individuals are able to purchase fixed amounts of electricity through the pre-paid electric meters. But many cannot afford to buy enough electricity to provide heat and lighting for their homes. Local officials addressing the problem argue that privatization and the pre-paid electric meter system are the causes for electricity cut-offs and unequal distribution.

"There's more inequality in South Africa now than under apartheid," claims Trevor Ngwane, head of the Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee. "Most of the resources are being monopolized by fewer and fewer people."

It is difficult to separate the issues of housing and electrification from the problem of poverty. More than 48 percent of South Africans lived under the poverty line in 2002, according to the National Labour and Economic Development Fund. Most of these families simply cannot afford to buy enough electricity for heating. The UN Integrated Regional Information Network reported more than 17 fire-caused deaths in Johannesburg after May 24, 2007.

Seven months later after his sister's death, Mfanana's father passed away. Mufanana, who had since returned to school and was entering the ninth grade at Sinethemba High in the town of Phillipi, was forced to quit school in order to seek a job and provide a regular income that would allow him to bury his father and build a new home.

Today, Mfanana works as construction contractor. His menial income must support his pregnant elder sister, an uncle, and a brother who recently moved into the small shack from the Eastern Cape. The three of them sit around Mfanana, listening somberly as he recalls the tragedy.

"Now we are scared of doing the fire again, so we are using a paraffin stove, a small one, so when we are getting cold we will just light it and then we will sit by it. Then we will switch it off and we will go to bed," he says.

The installation of low-capacity fuse boxes in most poor households makes it impossible to use energy-intensive appliances, according to the 2000 Human Rights Commission report. The fuse box can be replaced for a relatively modest sum, but it appears that many families are not aware of this fact, the report added.

A government-sponsored initiative to prevent fires proposed an educational workshop that focuses on children who might be victims of fire accidents during the winter. As part of the campaign, colorful scenes depicting children's rights are sewn into a mural in the Junior Education Center of Constitution Hill, part of a national museum linked to the constitutional court in Johannesburg. Fifty-five children from different informal settlements are chosen during the winter to participate in the fire prevention workshop.

"Kids are by themselves at home when their parents are at work," says Z.B. Nkabinde, a worker at the site. "When it's wintertime, it's getting darker earlier so they try to light a candle, but they forget when they light a candle; you find they forget and start to play. The candle isn't looked after, and there is a fire in the house."

This year, black children from Freedom Park, white children from White Ridge in Newlands, and Indian and what locals call "colored" children from Denver (a Johannesburg suburb) are invited to the workshop with their parents. Transportation is provided by the center to ensure children's opportunity to attend.

The Bill of Rights says that the government is committed to providing the basic services for all. Last year, Parliament passed the Electricity Regulation Amendment, which requires the government to extend electric service to all municipalities. Yet millions of people remain without electricity today, according to the South Africa Development Fund, a Boston-based charity that has been working with communities in South Africa for more than 20 years.

South Africans are not prepared for low temperatures, and if the government is not able to provide the necessary services, individuals will continue to have to seek alternative methods, which are harmful to themselves and their families.

Organizations such as the Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee, the Anti-Eviction Campaign, the Anti-Privatization Forum and the Orange Farm Water Crisis Committee work on a local level, fighting for the right to basic services. They represent people living in informal settlements who do not have a voice.

Meanwhile, people such as Mfanana are working to adapt and rebuild a home and family, although it might take years of work and struggle.

"Ever since the accident happened, you can look around. There's nothing right. If you want to look around, you can look around," says Mfanana.

"There's nothing right," he repeats.

» Simmons Student Learns Harsh Realities of South African "Shack Dwellers"

Simmons Student Learns Harsh Realities of South African "Shack Dwellers"

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