August 30, 2005
By Ndaba Dlamini
A SCRAWNY dog stretches lazily on the dusty road. A metal sheet shack spews dark smoke in to a neighbouring yard, where a tight circle of men, a mass of beer cartoons scattered around them, tucks into a non-descript meal. Welcome to Freedom Park.
Sandwiched between the suburb of Naturena and the commercial area of Devland south of Johannesburg, from a distance the informal settlement of Freedom Park looks like a multi-coloured quilt on this sunny but windy day.
A horse clatters along the streets, drawing a cart loaded with coal. A man with a blackened face shouts from the top of the load to announce his presence. His cargo, though, has not been in demand since last year: most residents now have electricity to provide their energy needs.
Many of the home are made of metal sheets
Across the street from the men, under a lean-to, three huge pots simmer on a coal fire tended by a young man. Close by, two men cut away on cows' heads, otherwise known as skop or smilies. It is one of the few butchers and meat restaurants in the informal settlement, where some of the residents' culinary needs are met.
Despite the haphazard structures that characterise the settlement, Freedom Park is firmly on its way to being established as a formal township.
It comprises several sections - Ruth First, St Martins and Mountain Park. There are about 7 000 households in the settlement. Then there are Freedom Park Extensions, where reconstruction and development programme (RDP) houses have been built.
The houses - the residents don't take kindly to their homes being called shacks - come in all different materials, sizes and colour. Some structures, mostly one-roomed affairs, are hardly tall enough for a grown man to stand in.
"The advantage of most of our houses is that they are portable. When you want to change the position of your house within the yard, you merely call strong men and move it to another location within the same yard," says Vusi Thokozani Masuku, one of the first residents to set up camp at Freedom Park.
Building a house is all in a day's work in Freedom Park. All you need are four walls - these can set you back R3 000 to R4 000 "from a reputable dealer" - a roof and a floor, and you have yourself a home. Setting up a such a structure usually takes less than an hour, Masuku explains.
Material used to build houses in Freedom Park is not standard. It can be wood or brick, but mostly it is sheets of metal. Some of these structures are a fireman's nightmare. One, built out of all kinds of tinder material, stands out at on a corner, surrounded by a picket fence.
On average, a stand accommodates two to four shacks. There is usually the main house, which can be any one of the shacks when one considers size, where the owner, or mastandi, lives. In most cases it is the biggest and most aesthetically pleasing dwelling in the yard.
Tenants rent backyard shacks for R100 a month, though some landowners charge more, "depending on quality of accommodation provided", Masuku says.
"People no longer pitch up tent anywhere, anyhow here. We have formal stands that are registered with the City of Johannesburg. Actually, Freedom Park is no longer a squatter camp as most people usually refer to the settlement. It's now like any other township in Johannesburg," Masuku says proudly.
In 2002 the City made plans to rid Johannesburg of informal settlements and land invasions. Plans are also under way to make way for serviced stands owned by people who have title deeds to their properties.
Two years later, in 2004, the City of Johannesburg approved a consolidated list of 189 informal settlements and housing projects, the first step towards achieving its target of formalising informal settlements within the next three years.
Already, electricity has been installed in all households and bulk sewerage and water infrastructure is in place. "We are now waiting for work to begin for the council to build reconstruction and development programme houses for us but we are not sure when," Masuku adds.
However, not all of Freedom Park's homes are made of metal and wood. A house that would be at home in any affluent suburb in Johannesburg, complete with carport and satellite dish, looks lost amid the tiny shacks.
Masuku remembers settling in the area in 1998, when Freedom Park was "an empty tract of land". "It was a life full of hardship and pain. There was no water, electricity or toilets. But now we have toilets, even though they are not adequate."
Rows of chemical toilets line the streets, serving approximately five households each. A sanitary truck comes once a week to empty overflowing toilets.
Plastic containers of all sizes line the walls of most dwellings. They are used as storage for water, which is delivered for free by tanker four times a week. Residents use the water for washing, bathing, drinking and cooking. Masuku says he uses eight 25-litre containers between deliveries.
"When we first arrived in Freedom Park we used tents and then built ourselves these shacks. There were white farmers who used to live in old houses in this area but they left when we moved in. We used to live in Soweto where my family rented a room. We heard that there was a free tract of land where homeless people could live and we jumped at the chance," Masuku recalls.
A community leader, identified only as Willie, became the "councillor" for the squatter camp. "He was responsible for measuring and giving out stands to people in need," Masuku adds.
He is proud to say that life has changed for the better since he arrived in Freedom Park. Construction of tarred roads began in 2004, though this has been shelved for the moment.
Freedom Park now also boasts a primary school, officially opened by former president Nelson Mandela. It has a media centre with 35 computers, and a library. Social amenities are being established. A Rhema Church and a sponsored crèche have been established.
Entertainment is not scarce at Freedom Park, either. There a plethora of drinking holes, where one can get a mug of homebrew for R1. Clear beer can set you back R6 but the most commonly drunk liquor is opaque beer, which comes in cartons. Some taverns run 24 hours a day, according to Masuku.
He now owns a popular spaza shop, known as "JVS Sambo Mini Market". Most Freedom Park residents rely on spazas for their groceries, "but those who want to buy bulk usually go to near-by Devland," Masuku explains.
Shadows are lengthening as the afternoon draws to a close, and a smoky haze has began to gather over the informal settlement. Braziers blaze in most yards and there is animated activity as people prepare for the night - Freedom Park is not very safe at night.
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