Cape Town - It is somewhat incongruous that from Thozoma Qobongwani’s new house, just off the N7 between Morningstar and Melkbosstrand, there is an almost picture perfect view of Table Mountain.
She lives in Wolwerivier, which is just 30km from the city centre but for its residents, who were moved there three weeks ago, it may well be a million miles away.
For decades the community of Skandaalkamp near the Vissershok landfill site used to scavenge just to survive.
Now they have gone from extreme poverty to an even more desperate situation.
Relocation of the community was a condition of approval for expansion of the landfill and has been on the cards for several years, despite opposition.
Residents say they feel as if they have been abandoned in a barren wasteland with no means of finding work or food.
“Yes, we are away from the dumpsite and that smell and yes we have electricity but it doesn’t help if you don’t have money or any way of getting a job,” explains Qobongwani.
The dumpsite provided food and an opportunity to make a living through recycling.
Now, Qobongwani says, to go and look for work, people have to pay for a taxi, which can be anything from “R20 to Dunoon and R35 for a return to Table View”.
“And people don’t know if they will get work.”
Nikki Pretorius, the manager of the Save Foundation and founder of Sunshine educare, which has operated in the informal settlement for six years, said it broke people’s spirits to have to rely on others.
She said an “old man, whose wife died two years ago, had always worked hard chopping wood” to make a living for his three boys. For the first time he has been forced to ask for help.
Councillor Benedicta van Minnen, the city’s mayoral committee member for Human Settlements, said this was the start of a process to build a better life for the community.
“For example, they will now receive services and have been moved from their dangerous and dilapidated structures to safe and dry structures.”
The city maintains that the two-year process has been open, transparent and inclusive.
But Pretorius says the children of the 250 families who were relocated three weeks ago are sitting at home because buses haven’t been provided to take them to school.
“We had an official from the Department of Social Services suggesting they walk to the N7 and wait for a bus. I mean, who would let their six-year-old walk 3½ kilometres?”
Mayoral committee member for Social Development and Early Childhood Development Suzette Little said the city’s Social Development Department, together with the provincial department of Education, were urgently looking at the placement of pupils in nearby schools in the vicinity of Atlantis as well as transport to these schools.
Students have also been affected. Manuel van der Berg, 29, who has a bursary to study office administration at the West Coast College used to board a bus from Dunoon.
“But I can’t afford a taxi every day to get there now.”
The new 24m2 houses are constructed of galvanised steel and have a tap inside and outside, with a flush toilet in a separate room.
But Azola Sotshononda said he’d rather have his old place back which was bigger and, more importantly, had privacy.
Now his brother shares the house with him, his girlfriend and their two-year-old son Avuye.
Some families said 11 people were packed into a single house.
Van Minnen said that larger families were allowed more space if they applied to the city. “The communities are aware and have been aware of this arrangement. Primary and secondary families were divided and each was allocated a unit based on their indicated needs.”
She said Wolwerivier had cost about R50 million and would see the accommodation of a maximum of 500 families.
It is a permanent development which the city refers to as an “Incremental Development Area”.
Van Minnen says the area was being developed with the intent of being upgraded on an incremental basis.
Cape Argus