Russian roulette in squatter camp

Life for more than 90000 people living in three Pretoria squatter camps is a grim daily game of Russian roulette - their homes are built on a 1940s artillery firing range.

Last month, the Schurveberg firing range claimed its latest victims - 37-year-old Amos Khoza and his four-year-old son, Njabulo.

After sweeping their yard they made a bonfire of the dried leaves they had gathered. But there was an unexploded artillery shell under the spot they chose.

The explosion killed Khoza and Njabulo. Khoza's widow, Bellina Matsane, is recovering in Kalafong Hospital after surgery to remove shrapnel. She also has a broken left arm.

"I cannot believe I survived the explosion that snatched the lives of my husband and our only son," said a tearful Matsane. Her body was full of shrapnel wounds.

Locals say the police collected about 15 explosives after the detonation.

The Schuverberg tragedy is not new. An estimated 10t of ammunition, including mortars, mines, tank shells, hand-grenades and bullets, are believed to have been dumped in trenches in the 1940s.

Residents say that, in summer, shells explode on a nearby hill and unexploded mortar rounds roll down the hill to the settlement when there is a mudslide.

The area is not fenced and there are no danger signs.

In October 1991, the SA Defence Force is said to have transferred the range to the Department of Public Works, which passed it on to Tshwane municipality.

Squatters invaded the land about a year later. Four years after that, the defence force and the police explosives unit removed unexploded ammunition after children were maimed while playing with a hand grenade.

But it seems the trenches in which the ammunition was buried have never been found.

Ndivhuwo Mabaya, a spokesman for the Department of Defence, said the department was examining the area to establish if it was a military zone.

"If it was [a military zone] then it has to be demilitarised and that is why the ministry has ordered an investigation," he said.

"What we hear now has to be investigated because this was a long time ago. Standards applied now did not exist then."

Bellinda Banda, communications manager at de-mining company Mechem, said the company sent a proposal on clearing the area of explosives to the Tshwane municipality in 2008 but had not received a reply.

"We are well aware of the situation in that area and we took an initiative to intervene. We do not know what happened to our proposal and we cannot just move onto someone's property without their permission. We are more than prepared to intervene if we are called on," she said.

Attempts to get comment from the municipality were unsuccessful. Municipal spokesman Brenda Mpitsang could not be reached and did not respond to e-mails.

Gauteng police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Tshisikhawe Ndou confirmed that explosives, including mortar shells, were often recovered from the area, but could not say how many.

Ward councillor Mokopo Makola said the residents would be relocated before the end of the year.

"Besides the bombs, the area is also dolomitic and shacks were sinking. They [residents] know that the area is dangerous, but there are agents provocateur masquerading as civic organisations seeking popularity and influencing them not to move," he said.

Makola said that people collected the ammunition to sell as scrap.

"They thought the bombs were inactive and it was only when some started going off that they got rid of them or called the police to remove them," Makola said.