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- Residents of Snake Park in Soweto say their houses are collapsing.
- They say the government continues to deny them land titles and urgent improvements to their homes.
- If they have land titles, they can apply for loans to improve their own homes.
Collapsed walls, sewage seeping into houses, dangerous loose cables, and sometimes snakes.
These are some of the myriad problems that residents of Snake Park, Soweto have been grappling with for decades, as they say the government continues to deny them land titles and urgent improvements to their homes outside of Johannesburg.
“It was a dream come true when the government assigned these houses to us after more than 15 years of living in a shack,” said Nkosinathi Khumalo, a resident of the suburb known as Snake Park because of its sliding visitors.
His home was built on wetlands, including a corrugated roof that is blown away by high winds and water damage to the walls.
Khumalo, 35, who is currently unemployed, said:
The sad part was when I realized that we were being abandoned here. We have been suffering for so long.
Comprised of five smaller municipalities, Snake Park is home to some 50,000 RDP properties.
According to official statistics, about 14% of South African households, or 2.3 million properties, are subsidized by the government.
‘It is a challenge to stay at home’
The houses are assigned to low-income families and people with disabilities, although several families in Snake Park told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that they waited at least a decade to get their homes.
Now residents are angered by the rapid deterioration of those homes and say the government took shortcuts when it built them so close to a wetland, making them susceptible to flooding, cracks and landslides.
Those dangers have come to light in recent months, after the government ordered South Africans to stay home during a strict six-month lockdown to stop the spread of the new coronavirus.
Thabiso Toti, a 53-year-old unemployed Snake Park resident, said:
It is obviously a challenge to stay indoors and indoors if your home floods.
Residents have 90 days from their home assignment to sign a so-called “happy letter” confirming that they are satisfied with the quality of the property, said Edward Makwarela of the Gauteng human settlements department.
After that, any issues should be referred to the National Home Builders Registration Council for repair, the project manager said in emailed comments.
Makwarela noted that the Snake Park homes were part of the government’s Popular Housing Program, in which communities actively participate in the construction of the properties.
“Another problem could be poor workforce … driven by the community itself, and they weren’t trained,” he said.
Repair costs
Residents said they would like the opportunity to fix their houses themselves, but most cannot afford it.
And bank loans are out of reach, they added, because they do not have property titles, which banks often require as collateral.
Makwarela noted that while all of the houses in Snake Park have water, sanitation and electricity, the area still does not have roads or storm drains, which, he said, is slowing down the title distribution process.
A SAPS officer gestures to a man pleading for the release of a protester arrested for violating lockdown regulations on May 13, 2020 during a protest in Snake Park, Soweto.
“My grandmother, who lived next door, passed away last week waiting her entire life for her land titles,” said Khumalo, a Snake Park resident.
“If we had property titles, we would try to get loans and build for ourselves,” he added, stepping over the drainage ditch he dug around his house to try to stop the water coming in when it rains.
Dirty water
Housing and land are contentious topics.
About 2.9 million to 3.6 million people live in informal settlements, according to the most recent census figures, although experts say this number is likely to be much higher.
Residents of Snake Park say that in addition to structural problems in their homes, they have also complained to authorities about water from burst sewer pipes flowing into their homes, streets and nearby water sources.
A protester is arrested for violating lockdown regulations after joining the residents of Snake Park in Soweto in a rally against power outages on May 13, 2020.
Environmental activist Tiny Dhlamini explained that there are smaller tributaries in Soweto that flow into the Vaal River, one of Gauteng’s main water sources.
The Upper Vaal Basin, along with some other water sources, supports more than 13 million people, according to the Johannesburg-based nonprofit Center for Environmental Rights.
Dhlamini, standing by a small dark brown river in Soweto, said:
There is a lot of contamination from the sewer pipes. When they burst, they go to the stream of our river and we, as poor people, are forced to use this dirty water.
‘Large accumulation of infrastructure’
As Johannesburg struggles to adapt to its growing population, problems like faulty plumbing are spreading beyond Snake Park.
In other suburbs, including more affluent areas, residents report leaking pipes, exploding sewers and sewage bringing condoms, tampons and feces into their kitchens.
Isaac Dhludhlu, a spokesman for Johannesburg Water, which is responsible for the city’s water and sanitation, said the organization has to monitor 11,000 km of sewer pipes throughout the city.
With such a large sewer network to monitor, the government body relies on residents to report any problems immediately, he said.
Adding that aging infrastructure, illegal water connections, and foreign objects in the water system all contribute to broken pipes, Dhludhlu said:
There is a large accumulation of infrastructure with a repair cost of more than R10 billion.
“We can’t update the infrastructure every year, but we have maintenance crews on the ground that should be able to unblock pipes and troubleshoot,” he said.
‘Nobody cares’
In Snake Park, residents pointed to crumbling foundations, misplaced pipes, cracks in the walls and, as confirmed by Google Maps, a complete lack of street names.
Dhlamini, the activist, who also lives in the neighborhood, said:
It’s like Snake Park doesn’t even exist, nobody cares.
If someone is sick, he explained, they have to be taken to the nearest main road some 400 meters away, because without street names ambulance drivers cannot find their way through the neighborhood.
Residents of Snake Park, Soweto carry their groceries across the site of a rally against power outages on May 13, 2020.
Despite the challenges, residents have tried to make Snake Park their home, planting roses and vegetables and cleaning the nearby wetland when it fills with trash.
They are hopeful that land titles will bring a sense of permanence to their neighborhood, bringing more economic opportunity and stopping fears of possible future eviction.
“It all comes down to land titles,” said Toti, an avid gardener.
“We would help fix this place. I would take out a loan, improve the house and even add an extra room,” he said.
“I would know this is my house and I would believe it.”
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