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 Delft squatters banish memory of evil
    April 08 2008 at 02:25PM Get IOL on your
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Along with the shrubs and desiccated undergrowth, Delft's "Bush of Evil" was cut from people's thoughts a long time ago.

Even Delft squatters sleeping on the ground that was once a hotbed of child rape and murder have shoved the sordid memories, like that of six-year-old Kim Abrahams or six-year-old "Little Rock" who survived after being abused and set alight, to the back of their minds.

But for Esmeralda Josephs, the mother of Kim Abrahams, it is difficult to forget.

"Most people don't know what it is to lose a child, you never get over it," she says, gently rocking the pram of her son, Waslie.
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'Most people don't know what it is to lose a child'
She keeps him close, not letting him out of her sight for even a moment.

Every few seconds, she looks up at the faces of the other squatters standing in the food line, and while she knows most of them, she trusts very few.

She was pregnant with Waslie, she says, when Joey died just two years ago.

Her three-year-old daughter was lured from her home by a stranger offering her 50c. Her half-naked, battered body was later discovered just 3km away, concealed deep in the bushes near Leiden, Delft.

Now, this same piece of dune-like land has, ironically, become a safe haven to hundreds of families who were forcefully removed from unfinished N2 Gateway houses in February.

'It feels like a refugee camp'
Josephs is just one of many with a heart-wrenching story to tell.

"When they evicted us, I just lost it. Those same policemen couldn't arrest my child's murderer, but they can kick us poor people out of the only houses we have."

As she edges further towards the front of the queue, Josephs tries to recall how many times she has moved but eventually gives up, saying: "There's too many times to count."

She has set up a makeshift "hokkie" towards the back of the Section One camp.

It is positioned on the very spot where Joey's body was uncovered.


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