RESETTLED COMMUNITIES AND THE PROCESS OF ADAPTATION
Plate 7.4 Mrs Mntambo and her daughter cultivating small plot
7.3.5 Rebuilding housing
All the displaced families lost housing. For some displacees, the loss of housing and shelter was only temporary. Other relocatees however have been compelled to live in temporary
relocation shelters, which were used as a fallback solution. These "tins" however have turned out to be their permanent homes.
Due to the extended families and the unhealthy environmental conditions in the corrugated iron tin houses and plastic tents however, a number of housing development efforts were initiated in the Dinabakubo community. This includes the building of samples of formal houses by developers - a project initiated by the Ngcolosi chief to express his concerns about the slow adaptation of "his people" in this area. For various reasons discussed in section 7.4 the community destroyed these sample houses. It must be noted that this formed part of the attempts to upgrade this community to a formal township.
Only a very few householders have built well-structured formal houses made of blocks, cement and corrugated iron. It therefore did not surprise the researcher to hear the name ''tin town" being used by outsiders. The settlement is not well ordered and as such shares many characteristics with the illegal squatter settlements.
The majority of households in Dinabakubo supplemented temporary shelters with additional houses immediately on arrival. These however were and are shack-like additional houses made of mud and corrugated iron. Plate 7.5 below shows an example of such an initiative.
Plate 7.5 A "tin" house supplemented with a 3-room mud house in Dinabakubo
In Ntuzuma G, some households who were losers in the government compensatory housing scheme have recently started putting up formal housing structures in their yards.
This is evident for the Thabede and Mntambo households who have joined the Masakhisane housing scheme in the late 1990s. According to Mrs Mntambo, meetings were called in to discuss housing problems in the community. Developers were called in, and they were all too expensive until Masakhisane scheme appeared. While households displaced by the dam are using this scheme, it was however initiated to assist everyone in Ntuzuma G. The scheme is called "The Housing Scheme for People Living in Informal Settlements" and is known in the community as Umfelandawonye. This is a privately owned scheme, not a government project.
Householders wanting to join the scheme pay SOc on a daily basis until they reach the total ofRSOO. Once the total amount has been reached, it therefore serves as security, and on the basis of it, a household is given a loan of RIO 000. The organisation administering the scheme buys the material (cement, blocks, windows, doors, asbestos/zink). A four-room house with the toilet and bathroom inside is then built. The house is quickly built and finished by other households who are members of the scheme and who are in need of housing. The household is then obliged to pay R120 on a monthly basis as the means by which it is repaying the loan (Ms. Mntanibo, pers. comm., 19 December 2000).
Inherent in this type of housing scheme is the belief that people can do something together.
Participation of households themselves in the construction process empowers them and creates a sense of belonging. This constitutes a group coping strategy, and may help improve the quality oflife of some members.
Plate7.6 The Thabede family in Ntuzuma G has now moved to the Masakhisane house
Families like this have bridged the gap from a densely populated tin house to a less crowded four-room Masakhisane house. This is true for Mr Thabede who is looking forward to installing electricity once his Masakhisane house is completed.
Households in Matikwe seem to have adapted well to this area. This could among other things be due to the fact that their movement to this area was voluntary (see Chapter Four for more details). Of the three households visited in Matikwe, each homestead has more than one house. These are houses, which householders built on their own from their own resources.
Fredville is a resettlement area that has been plagued by violence. Of those who survived and resisted further relocation (because of violence) in Fredville, there is evidence of families who have battled to reconstruct their houses. Some families are still living in tin houses that were supposed to be temporary shelters. Others however have managed to build well-designed houses made of concrete, blocks and corrugated iron.
From the discussion in this section certain patterns can be seen with regards to reconstructing loss of access to the tangible assets. The following table provides a summary of the current situation of the three relocation areas in terms of access to water, energy resources, land and housing.
Table 7.5 Qualitative comparison of eleven households in Dinababubo (D), Matikwe (M) and Ntuzuma (N)
Variables
Categories Housing Land Water Energy Number ofhouseholds
appeatiIi2jn .(}atej!ories
Excellent 0
Good Ml, M2, M3, 5
N2,N4
Acceptable NI, N2, Ml, Ml, M2, M3, Ml, M2, M3, 19 M2,M3 Dl, D2, D3, NI, N2, N3,
D4, N4
Bad Dl, D2, D3, 12
Dl, D2, D3, D4, NI, N3
D4, N3,N4
Very bad NI, N2, N3, Dl, D2, D3, 8
N4 D4,
The table combines the information presented in this chapter, into one table. The ranking is based on a combination of interview material and observation.
According to the categories used in table 7.5 there is still much that needs to be done, as most households are still falling between the acceptable and very bad categories. A number of constraints exist that have always hindered and are still preventing these families moving to the good and excellent positions. The following section examines some of these constraints to effective adaptation in the relocation areas.