This Eldorado no city of gold: Families squashed into intolerably cramped homes

For Eldorado Park resident Bianca Smith, the community's housing crisis can be summed up in the failure of her two marriages.

The mother of four blames the demise of her relationships on a lack of privacy in her cramped one-bedroom home.

"Most of us women are divorced because there is no privacy in these small places.

"They put you into these places when you are single and they (the government) promise you a bigger place - but [you get] nothing at all, absolutely nothing.

"I was married twice and had two sons from my first marriage and two sons from my second, and I've been single for nine years."

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Smith, 42, lives in Extension 2 in the notorious sub-township in the southern part of Soweto with her four sons, aged 11, 17, 19 and 21. All of them have to share the same bedroom because of their cramped quarters.

Her one-bedroom flat, which has recently been painted, is on the ground floor.

"There is only one entrance, the kitchen door. Take a few steps and you're in the bathroom, which has an old bathtub and no hand basin."

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There is no bathroom door so the family has put up a curtain to give some semblance of privacy.

Smith's first marriage, in 1996, lasted three years. Her second lasted a bit longer, from 2001 to 2008.

"The worst part is that your children have grown up. Your children are having children and we are all living together.

''So picture this. You have five kids, those five kids are having kids.

''Where are we sleeping?

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"Every day we pray that our kids will have a better future. You hope they won't struggle the way we're struggling, selling sweets and chips," said Smith, with tears in her eyes.

Although protests in the area abated yesterday, residents say they will continue to fight for better living conditions.

Since Monday, residents of Eldorado Park and nearby Ennerdale have been demanding land on which to build houses.

Others want to know where their names appear on the municipal housing waiting list.

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Smith, who survives by selling food to schoolchildren , said her savings helped her to survive when the schools were closed.

She said money had divided the community because there was a clear separation between the "haves" and the "have nots".

"Money separates us. If you have more money than me, you mingle with wealthy people.

''Some walk with a chip on their shoulder ."