“How do you move me from a house to a shack?” asked Gladys Skhosana, 85, as she wept watching some of her neighbours prepare to move to a new home they have been allocated by Mogale City local municipality.
Gladys is among hundreds of people who have been staying at plot 77 in Nooitgedacht, outside Krugersdorp, west of Johannesburg.
They are being relocated to a new area called Video, almost 2km from their current location, to make way for a housing development.
Gladys who was born and raised at the plot, said she never thought she would see the day where she had to be moved.
I’ve built my whole life here. I’m very attached to the plot. Both my parents and other loved ones are buried here. How do I leave that entire life behind?
— Gladys Skhosana
She gave birth to all of her six children and raised them at the plot. Her children also grew up and built their own families there.
“I’ve built my whole life here. I’m very attached to the plot. Both my parents and other loved ones are buried here. How do I leave that entire life behind?” she said.
Her parents worked for the previous farm owner and she too ended up working as his domestic worker.
As the years went by, the farmer allocated her parents a portion of land. This arrangement, however, was made verbally and no documentation was ever signed.
“We were shocked to hear that the farm has now been bought and we have to move,” she said.
Gladys’s current home has three big rooms. The house is full of furniture. Pictures of her family hang on the walls, showing the memories captured over the years.
Gladys told TimesLIVE Premium she had no problem with moving, but she would have preferred to be moved to a place with conditions almost similar to the ones she’s living under now.
“Where will my belongings fit in those small shacks they have allocated us? I have a lot of furniture and belongings as you can see. There’s no way that they will fit in a shack,” she said.
TimesLIVE Premium visited the allocated site and found that shacks were being prepared for families. The shacks have two rooms, with the exception of a few that have three.
Mobile toilets were also already placed, but there was no sign of water tanks or electricity supply.
Gladys said their local councillor promisedthey would be provided with water tanks but could not commit to anything regarding electricity.
“Here we have all of that. There’s water and electricity, but they want to send us to a desert where we are going to suffer,” she said.
Next to her modest house lives her brother, Masilo. The 54-year-old is also facing relocation but is very opposed to the move.
Masilo told TimesLIVE Premium he built his four-roomed house in 2017. He was adamant he did not see himself living in a shack.
“I built this house for myself because I was tired of living in a one-roomed shack. Now the government wants to take me and put me in a shack, while I had worked so hard to save money so I could build this house. I’m really heartbroken,” he said.
A handful of residents at the plot were already moving to their newly allocated place, but the majority said they didn’t want to move to Video settlement.
“We want to be moved to a place where we will stay permanently and where we will receive services. The place they want to send us is dusty, there are no proper roads and we don’t see ourselves moving there,” Maria Sibanda said.
When TimesLIVE Premium visited the area last week, there was a high private security contingency around Plot 77 and the situation seemed tense.
The developer, Arthur Bezuidenhout of Maxx Living, said he was trying his best to make the relocations as comfortable as possible. He said he had made sure he had provided all the affected families with structures.
Buizedenhout admitted there were no services at the new settlement and said some of the services were supposed to be provided by the Mogale City local municipality
He said after marathon negotiations, they had agreed he would give financial compensation to Gladys, who turns out to be the only eligible beneficiary from the plot because she was born there and lived there her whole life.
“We would have loved to build a house for her, but unfortunately we can’t build a house for her at the current location where they will be relocated because Mogale City said we can’t build any houses until they put services in the area,” he said.
Bezuidenhout said as uncomfortable as any change could be, he had tried his best to ensure that those being relocated were in a comfortable situation.
“We have provided transport for all of them and also made sure that we supply them with meals daily,” he said.
Bezuidenhout said he bought the land from the previous owner in 2015 and had an eviction order granted. He, however, said he chose to not enforce it as he wanted the relocation to be peaceful and done in the most humane way.
Violet Kwapeng, one of the residents who were recently relocated from the plot to the new settlement, said she was happy and settling in well.
“I’m happy that now I have a place that I can call mine, unlike when we were living at the plot. That stand and shack that I have been allocated are mine and I’ll build my own house when I’m in a better financial position,” Kwapeng said.
She is also employed at the site where the construction of the new development is taking place and said the development was a blessing because she managed to get employment.
Bezuidenhout said he employed about 50 people who were staying at the plot and said once the project was complete, between 300 and 1,000 direct and indirect jobs would have been created.
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