Township Houses

Today I went along to a meeting for single mothers in the community called the Hand in Hand group. The meeting took place in one of the ladies’ homes in the township so I was able to see how people really live for the first time.

The house was very basic – essentially a single storey wooden shack with two rooms. The wooden frame was clad with wooden slats and on the inside, plastic sheeting covered the walls to help keep the rain out. The roof also had a wooden frame, which had cardboard laid over the top of it and more plastic sheeting laid over the top of that. The plastic sheeting was held down with stones and nailed to the frame in places. Each room was about 4 metres long by 3 metres wide. The house had electricity but no running water. The first room was a bedroom and just had in it a bed, a cupboard, a TV and DVD player. The second room was a kitchen which had a just a hot plate for cooking on, a table, and another bed. There are no taps in the house and the toilet is an outdoor pit latrine. The people who live there walk to the dam to get their water every day and although this isn’t far, it’s still hard work.

It was a very humbling experience. Such a hard way of life when compared to my cosy little existence back home, and such a contrast to the air conditioned malls and plush bars and restaurants which can be found just a 10 minute drive away in Knysna town centre.