Rosetta Afrika, 44, lifts two wooden boards in her backyard to reveal a hole in the ground, which is to be her toilet for the next six months.
Afrika and her neighbours in Malawi Camp, on the corner of Modderdam Road and Stellenbosch Arterial, have no electricity, running water or toilets. They either have to relieve themselves in buckets in their homes or dig holes outside to use as toilets.
She was one of the residents from Malawi Camp and the neighbouring Freedom Park who took to the streets in a service delivery protest on Wednesday.
Nceba Ngongoshe, a Freedom Park community leader, said they wanted an investigation into the allocation of new houses in Delft to residents who they said had only lived in the area for a few years while those who have been on the waiting list for 20 years are still waiting. He said they were “fed up” and would continue protesting till they got answers.
Across the road lies Malawi Camp, where Afrika and her neighbours, spurred on by what they saw in Freedom Park, also started protesting.
Gordon Khudunyane, a community leader in Malawi Camp, said they also wanted to know why their water had been cut off a month ago.
The tap a few feet from Afrika’s house is not working, neither is one a few metres down the road. They have to walk a long way to get water.
She shares her two-roomed shack with her husband, three children and her three-year-old grandson.
Afrika showed the Cape Argus a document from 1996, which showed she’s on the housing waiting list.
She is still waiting, while newer arrivals get houses, she says.
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