The Saint of Sondela
The picture above is of a woman that I met while conducting the second leg of the Rustenburg Backyard Shack Survey in Sondela last weekend. She did not share her name over the course of the interview, but did share enough of her own story to paint an intriguing and rather piognant picture of life in the backyards.
She is a widow and the owner of a low cost housing unit in the township. As she lead me down the thin alley that divides the main house from the backyard shacks (which is a bit of a misnomer since they are made of brick and morter) en route to secure an interview with someone living in the backyard, she patted the walls of the shacks to draw attention to their sturdiness and said to me, "The women in this area deserve an award. You know I built these rooms with only my sewing machine...and that young girl you met when you came to my door, she is my daughter and she is in University...how do you think I pay for that?"
She is one of many women that rely on the income generated from the rent earned from migrant mine labourers, a practice that is for all intents and purposes illegal in the eyes of the government. But this is no criminal. Far from it. She struck me as a saint, and I promised her that I would share her story.
