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South Africa: 'We vote. Why?', Ask Marlboro Evictees
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Photo 1 of 9Credit: Greg Nicolson/Daily MaverickDozens of police vans lined the entrance to Marlboro. They walked in groups past the debris of 110 shacks. The tactical response team arrived and forced the shack-dwellers behind a police line, away from not only their former homes but the belongings they could salvage. I know deep in their hearts they cannot be proud of themselves, said one Marlboro resident. They ushered in a bulldozer in the morning. They came in force to prevent a repeat of the June shootout. -
Photo 2 of 9Credit: Greg Nicolson/Daily MaverickKhosonathi Khumalo, 30, has a wife and a daughter. When he returned home from his part-time job he found it had been demolished. Most of the contents in his shack were stolen. He found his ID and a stack of garbage bags. He opened a bag and packed what was left pillows, bread and eggs. -
Photo 3 of 9Credit: Greg Nicolson/Daily MaverickWhen the former residents were allowed back on the corner of 2nd and 4th, they searched the rubble for their belongings. Some wanted their IDs. Others packed food into garbage bags. No one seemed to know where they were going. One man walked the obstacle course to his ruined home to find his Zion Christian Church uniform. He couldnt find the shoes. -
Photo 4 of 9Credit: Greg Nicolson/Daily MaverickJohannesburg Metro Police spokesman Wayne Minnaar said a court order wasnt needed to evict the residents. The land was privately owned and they were trespassing, he said. Metro cops saw a brick wall was being built around the property and decided to evict the residents, again. He argued that because police were only enforcing the by-laws, it was not necessary to give residents notification or temporary shelter. -
Photo 5 of 9Credit: Greg Nicolson/Daily MaverickLook, the children are coming back from crèche and school, said someone from the crowd that watched people collect salvageable scraps of their broken homes to build anew. Men asked in broken voices, Where will my wife stay? What can I do for my children? -
Photo 6 of 9Credit: Greg Nicolson/Daily MaverickSello Maphalle, 28, overlooks the shack he moved into three days ago. He paid R1,500 for it. Debris prevents him from getting whats left, but only a family portrait remains undamaged. Many of the former residents are from other provinces and pay shady landlords for a small plot, then make basic improvements to their homes. No one seemed to know they were staying on private land. The police havent seemed to explained either. -
Photo 7 of 9Credit: Greg Nicolson/Daily MaverickMen who returned from work to find their shacks demolished were obviously unhappy. They taunted police and smashed windows of a factory next to their former home. They gathered around a fire and planned to march to the local councillor's house to demand somewhere to live. They taunted cars; they marched with planks of wood and the building tools they used to salvage material from their house. They called each other comrade and shouting amandla. -
Photo 8 of 9Credit: Greg Nicolson/Daily MaverickBut the men didn't march to the councillor's house. Their protest didn't eventuate, not this time at least. They dispersed on the way, with the main group meeting friends at shacks on a small piece of land, much like the one where they used to have homes. The men found a shovel, began clearing debris from a patch of land and started to erect four walls from whatever they could find. -
Photo 9 of 9Credit: Greg Nicolson/Daily MaverickPolitical party positioning is resolving around who can claim to represent the poor. But no parties nor the trade unions appeared on Thursday. "We vote. What for? asked Glen Raseala, 23. The ANC comes before elections. Then what? This is what Im really angry about. We voted. But where are they now?
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