The forgotten people of Silver Town

As you drive out of Setjwetla squatter camp on your far right lies clean looking shacks made out of silver corrugated iron enclosed by a fence with security protection.

First time I saw these homes I wondered what makes these people different to the people living in Setjwetla as these are also shacks by the Jukskei. Ellen Chauke answered, "This is a camp and we are meant to be moving...but it's been three years now."

Have these people been forgotten? Why are these people still here? Where do they come from? These are the questions I want answered and many more. I got court documents from the Ellen Chauke the community chairperson who has been at logger heads with the government for years. She showed me pictures of where she stayed before and the other community members. They did not stay in big expensive houses but they had decent homes far from a dirty river.

Silver Town does not have proper sanitation, the shacks are only big enough for one person with limited furniture and schools are far for most children. Nothing about Silver town says this is home but for the past three years the people living here have made it home not knowing if the proper homes they were promised will ever materialise.

Living next to the Jukskei river cannot be easy...the smell of the pollution, floods and the bad service delivery. One lady by the name of Margaret complained that it gets lonely as she had to send her grandchildren away as she no longer has space for them, "I am on pension and when you are alone you think too much...it's bad, really bad," she said.

Silver Town is going to demand a lot of my time because there is so much secrecy about it. The authorities throw you off and give you the wrong ward numbers when you ask them about Silver Town. I am going to spend some time going through the documents that Chauke gave me and choosing pictures that show where they come from and deciding on the type of pictures that show where they are now.

I have renewed energy for this project, especially now that I found a great story.