Coming to grips with poverty

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‘Trade union Solidarity estimat
South
that at least 450 000 white y line’
All Photos: Scott Smith

Africans…live below the povert


Unemployed, unhoused and unhappy
Whites toe the
By Scott Smith
poverty line
L
ife is busy in the early morning
here in the small settlement of
Coronation Park, in Krugersdorp
on the outskirts of west
Johannesburg. Cats lick themselves in
the warm sun and everywhere can be
heard the sound of a sweeping broom
brushing up the fresh fallen leaves. There
is hammering in the distance for home
repairs and children start bouncing a
ball in the pot-holed street. But this is no
regular suburban scene. Technically, this
is an illegal settlement, or what is more
commonly called a squatter camp.
Coronation Park is municipal land; the
residents pay no rent and they eke out an
existence in this popular picnic spot under
the shading pine trees through sheer
determination to survive in a country they
feel has abandoned them. The residents
are white, poor and largely Afrikaans.
During the apartheid era a scene like
this was unthinkable. Under apartheid
impoverished whites enjoyed subsidised
housing, sheltered employment, and
other general protections. But all of that is
now gone.
Irene Abbott, the self-declared mother
of Coronation Park and maker of the rules
says: “Once in life, the black were black
and the white were white. Now they are
white and we are black.”
The protection disappeared with
the 1994 democratic election and the
implementation of affirmative action
policies. Since then, the number of poor
whites has risen steadily and the Institute
for Security Studies reports that white
unemployment nearly doubled between
1995 and 2005.
“It affected the white people terribly,”
laments Abbott. “There are no jobs for the
white people. The black people are cheap
labour.”
Trade union Solidarity,which largely
looks after the interests of white
Afrikaners, estimates that at least 450 000
white South Africans — 10% of the white
population — live below the poverty line.
With nowhere else to go and with the
‘We are here
to stay. The
municipality
cannot touch us’
—Irene Abbott
perception that they are excluded from
government housing schemes based on
their skin colour, many poor whites end
up in places like Coronation Park.
“They [the government] won’t give us
houses. We are not black. And that affects
the policy towards us,” claims Abbott.
“When we came here some four years
ago, it was terrible. Some people were
only in tents, some just under blankets on
the ground, some were pregnant women.
When we started here we asked for
donations and then got caravans and then
moved the people in there.”
Kobus Oosthuizen, a Christian minister
Culture: | Photo essay
who helps where he can at another
white settlement called Sonskyn Hoekie,
north of Pretoria, says there are over 70
such settlements around Pretoria alone.
Some are on private land but for those
on municipal land, there is the constant
threat of removal.
In 2009, the Mogale city council called
for the squatters of Coronation Park to
relocate to a site near Munsieville, a black
township north west of Krugersdorp.
Residents refused to move and the
municipality filed a court case which they
subsequently lost.
With the current building of a
cement and stone church, it is clear the
residents of Coronation Park consider
this permanent. “We are here to stay.
The municipality cannot touch us,” says
Abbott confidently.
“We build things,” she adds. “One day
the people’s eyes are going to fall out of
their heads. They won’t believe what we
did with Coronation Park; they always
say there are druggies here. Everyone can
say what they want, but you can’t judge a
book by its cover.”
The camp is indeed well kept and
home improvements seem to be the main
activity. “I consider this a permanent
place,” says another man, who has been
in Coronation Park for over five years and
was tending the small vegetable garden
outside his shack.
Currently there are some 230 people,
including 54 children in Coronation
Park. Given that there were 430 people a
couple years ago, it is clear not everyone
25 The Big Issue 10 Sep 10 - 1 Oct 10
 cture that is now home
A child plays near the stru

‘There was a time when white people used to help us…

but now nothing comes in’
—Irene Abbott

26 The Big Issue 10 Sep 10 – 1 Oct 10

 Culture | Photo essay

considers it permanent. “Some people find

work and then they move out, but many
find that things don’t work out on the
outside and they come back,” Abbott says.
But for some, South Africa has no more
to offer them. Martin Vos, in his late 50s,
used to work in the mines earning a good
salary, but after he had a stroke and was
retrenched, he and his wife had to sell
everything. His well kept home, with a
neat garden and clean bath, is testament
to a former affluent life. But as he looks
out on the camp with his arms folded over
his chest, he says ruefully: “It is quite hard
to move from R20 000 a month to R2 a
month. It isn’t really something you get
used to. You never get used to it, but you
adapt.”
Vos sits outside his home, addressed
“D1.H.Vos”, delicately chipping slivers of
wood to prepare the fire. “This time of year
the wood is wet,” he says, “and we need to
make smaller pieces to make the fire take”.
Such scenes are testament to just what it
takes to live here. There is no money for
fire-lighters. “All day is about making fire
and preparing the wood,” he says.
Electricity was turned off by the
municipality over a year ago and, although
the water is still running, most of those who
live here need to go to the main ablution

‘During the apartheid era a scene

like this was unthinkable’

Best foot forward:

Irene Abbott says
little help for the there is
residents of Coron
ation Park

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 blocks to fetch their water or to one of the
taps dotted around the site — a remnant from
when this was a popular camping site before
the settlers of Coronation Park claimed the
land.
Abbott says, “Every morning I get up at
4am and I make pap for the children. At 6am
the schoolchildren come and eat pap and the
rest is left for the little ones before they go to
their school. In the afternoons I make lunch
for them. If there is enough I make food for
the whole park — sometimes three times a
week. We get the food from people outside.”
Who from the “outside” still gives them
donations is not explicitly said. “There was a
time when white people used to help us and
I could cook every second day for the camp
but now nothing comes in. They give to the
blacks but not to the whites…There is only
one person looking after us now and that is
God.”
South Africa’s transition from apartheid
is an adaptation that many of those living
in Coronation Park feel alienated and
betrayed by. A dog house in the centre of
the settlement with the words “Jacob Zuma”
painted on the side makes it clear what the
majority of residents think of the leadership
changes. But with some 2 000 much larger
and, arguably more impoverished, black
squatter camps dotted around the country
it is clear that poverty — both in black and
white communities —isn’t something any
post-apartheid government has come to grips
with.

*For more of photojournalist Scott Smith’s work,

visit: www.scottsmith.co.za

Cut out for better

28 The Big Issue 10 Sep 10 – 1 Oct 10

 Culture | Photo essay

Martin Vos had to adapt to a reduced lifestyle

‘It is quite hard to move from R20 000 a month to

R2 a month. It isn’t really something you get used to’
— Martin Vos

29 The Big Issue 10 Sep 10 – 1 Oct 10