NEW SQUATTER CAMP AT MABOPANE

Semonyo family ouside their new home at Itsoseng

HOPE MOTAU

Mochacho Semonyo, his wife Elizabeth and their two children are happy to find a new home. Semonyo said that they were staying at Soshanguve block TT, but struggling to find their own home. The squatter camp has no neither electricity nor sanitation. “What we need in terms of basic services are toilets, because there is already water infrastructure which was implemented when people were staying here.

So we just need to connect our own water pipes to bring water to our yards. Currently we do not have toilets, people help themselves at the bush or use buckets at their houses and later throw at the bush” said Semonyo. He further said that there are rumours of the electricity implementation if they could fill that open space.

Residents, who have been staying at Itsoseng for a decade, were moved to the other part of the community in 2011 for them to be installed electricity.  They were asked to move so that they could fill the particular space, because they were staying far from one another where it was difficult for Eskom to implement its electrical infrastructure. They got the new yards for free together with water and electricity, however majority are still staying in the shacks.



Men are digging a stand pole of a new home.

 

Now people invaded of which is privately owned and they were threatened to be forced removed during the week, until community held a meeting on Saturday to call upon everyone who need the space to come through. They said that they would not move because their parents used to stay at the place for a decade in the past two years.

Victor Mhlongo who needs a space for himself said: “Our parents were convinced to move to the other side of Itsoseng to get electricity which is already implemented by now. As their children, we did not get our own place that is why we came back to our mother’s land, because I am old enough to stay with parents.”



Men building a shack for Geraldine Ndhlovu



Geraldine Ndhlovu is helping men who build her a new home

Geraldine Ndhlovu from Soshanguve Block LKK, who is studying Education at Tshwane University of Technology, also got her own place. She said that she is satisfied and wanted to be independent when she finishes her studies at the end of the year. “What we really need now is electricity and water because we go to fetch water from three families who were isolated when they did not want to move. Then I will dig my own toilet at the yard.”



Geraldine Ndhlovu is helping men who build her a new home

People from Soshanguve, Mabopane and surroundings are flocking to the open area to get their own apace and the community is expecting more to come.