Slovo Park waiting for freedom and services, 10 years later

Despite the landmark Melani judgment 10 years ago, in which the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg ordered the City of Johannesburg to apply for funding under the Upgrading of Informal Settlement Programme (UISP) to improve services in Slovo Park, very little has changed in the community.

As the country celebrated 32 years of democracy in April, for the community of Slovo Park, the fruits of freedom have yet to materialise. Slovo Park was partially electrified in 2018, and since then the only major infrastructure development according to residents has been the recent installation of the “smart pole” project.

At the launch of the project last month, which saw the installation of street lights that include WiFi and security cameras, MMC for Transport Kenny Kunene told Slovo Park residents that access to the internet was a human right.

“Bringing the internet to you and access to the internet is bringing dignity to you because without the internet, you have no access to the outside world. Our children have no connection to learning material,” Kunene proclaimed at the launch on Saturday, 7 March.

But since the launch more than a month ago, residents are still waiting for the WiFi to be connected with cables still sticking out of the ground at some of the trenches that were dug, when Our City News visited last week.

That is what makes Slovo Park such a powerful measure of the distance between promise and reality. Established in the early 1990s, the settlement has for decades been the subject of plans, assurances and political attention.

Yet more than 10 years and 10 mayors later, residents are still describing a place where the most ordinary acts of daily life remain shaped by the absence of basic services.

Residents still have to collect water with buckets at taps interspersed throughout the township. But even then, the taps often remain dry throughout the day. No proper sanitation exists in the township, with most stands having a pit latrine outside that is shared by the many people living on each stand. When there are heavy rains, it is common for the waste to spill out into the dirt roads.

Uncertainty of life in Slovo Park

For Susan Mkhwanazi (47) those failures are felt most deeply in the ordinary demands as a woman caring for her home and raising children. The uncertainty around water, toilets and safety shapes her daily life. She says water often only flows late at night, forcing residents outside with buckets after 11pm or midnight. “It is a challenge even to go out at night and fetch water,” she said. “It is because most of us as women, we are single mothers. We are staying with our kids alone.”

Mkhwanazi said it is sometimes difficult to accept how little has changed over the decades. “I’m also angry because of the life that we are living. I started following these things when I was 17, following my mom around when she was attending the meetings. […] We are still fighting the same fight, the same fight that my mother and other people were fighting.”

“I wanted to see this place being developed, because this is my home. There’s no other home,” she said.

Tshepang Lesie (30), who was born in Slovo Park and returned three years ago after attending school in the Free State, said it has been difficult for him to adjust to the quality of life he has in the township. “Especially for someone who has been to varsity, it’s been so difficult being back here because I was not used to this kind of life, living in a shack and having to fend for yourself for everything. It’s been very difficult,” he said.

Despite obtaining a law degree, Lesie has been unable to find work and instead works making basic furniture and soft furnishings in a little workshop founded by residents of Slovo Park to create opportunities and provide skills development.

Lesie rents a one-room shack on someone else’s property in Slovo Park, and in the quiet, difficult months when he doesn’t earn any money he relies on his grandmother to send him money from the Free State. Lesie says he often feels hopeless because of the dire situation for many in Slovo Park, with the lack of proper access to water and sanitation making life really difficult.

“You feel hopeless, because the court judgment and the promises are things that are supposed to bring hope to us and restore our dignity, but we are nowhere there,” he said.

Dan Moalahi (50), who is part of the Slovo Park Community Development Forum and has lived in the township for about 30 years, echoes Lesie’s words about remaining hopeful. “I remember, everybody was overjoyed at the time of the judgment because we won. But a year later in 2017, that’s when we really started seeing the challenges that are still to come.”

He said it has often been very demoralising dealing with government officials. “They come here and make it as if they are in negotiations with us. We talk and talk and talk, and then a year is gone and nothing happens and then we see new officials coming.

“Officials are not ANC officials or DA officials or IFP officials. They are officials hired to do their work, and they are supposed to do their work without favour. But unfortunately that doesn’t happen.”

Hopeful but still waiting

Thato Masiangoako, a researcher at the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa, which has litigated on behalf of the community, said they were also hopeful when the judgment was handed down that the City would use Slovo Park as a pilot project and learning experience on how to upgrade informal settlements under the UISP.

“But 10 years since the judgment, a number of things that are fundamental to improving the quality of life in Slovo Park remain outstanding, for example addressing the urgent water and sanitation issues. That is something that the community has had issues with for decades,” she said.

“Timelines for the infrastructure work that is supposed to be rolled out continues to be pushed out, and Slovo Park waits indefinitely. The water and sanitation is a really important issue, but the other issue is that the City hasn’t been able for whatever reason to secure the additional land parcels that are necessary for the de-densification process.”

VIP toilets and communal taps

Nthatisi Modingoane, spokesperson for the City of Johannesburg, was not available to comment and referred questions to the Department of Human Settlements. The Gauteng Department of Human Settlements highlighted the electrification of 1,076 stands over the past decade as one of the ways it has fulfilled the terms of the judgment. It added that VIP toilets and 18 communal taps were installed; access roads were graded and re-gravelled; and a community hall refurbished. It also highlighted the recent installation of the smart masts.

The department said additional water infrastructure development was at the procurement stage, but it was unable to provide any timelines for the completion or finalisation of the project. DM

This story was produced by Our City News, a non-profit newsroom that serves the people of Johannesburg.