I live on the West Rand in a place called Fleurhof. The area is still a mine dump and in the neighbouring informal settlement zama zamas (illegal miners) still dig for gold.

Before I came to Fleurhof I lived in Chiawelo, Soweto. In 2014 my mom got a call from the department of housing to tell her that the house she registered for in 1996 was finally hers. After 18 years of waiting she now had an RDP house.

She was so excited and on the 26th of May a big truck came and took us and our belongings to our new home. I was happy to be moving to a new place, but my mom got a big shock when we arrived. It wasn’t a house but a small three-room flat and it was right next to the old hostel. She decided she didn’t want to stay and went back to Soweto.

She wanted a proper house, not a flat. In Soweto she also had family and neighbours she had known for a long time. The community was familiar. Here she felt like a stranger. So my brother and I took the flat, where I still stay today.

People from Soweto had been allocated these RDP flats, and the people from the hostel were not happy. They felt the government wasn’t fair. They had been in the area for so long. It was their area and they would not allow people from Soweto to take their place.

There were protests and for a while I lived in fear. There were a few of us from Soweto and the hostel dwellers treated us like foreigners. At one point they threatened to break in and take all our belongs.

In 2016 things got ugly. People who were staying illegally in the hostel were informed that they must move out or be evicted. Some moved into the flats by force, so the council sent in the Red Ants to move them out.

Today there are still people living illegally in the hostel. They are not prepared to leave until the government gives them houses. Things are relatively quiet but tension between RDP flat people and hostel dwellers remains. They still feel it’s their place. We were moved here from Soweto so they see us as outsiders.

But despite this, I like it here. I have fixed up my flat nicely. I have a place of my own. It’s just a few people who are spoiling things. I try to make the residents take care of the place. In Soweto we would sweep the yard. Here people throw rubbish outside and the municipality doesn’t clean up. So I started a clean-up campaign. If we don’t do it ourselves no one will do it for us. I clean it because I love it here. Brian and I are the only ones cleaning up. If I complain, some people say, ‘You are not from here. You are from Soweto. You can’t tell us what to do.’

With Brian, and my neighbours Thabang and Jananda, I have planted a vegetable garden where we grow chillies, morogo (wild spinach), peas and carrots.

Anthony Mafela

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Tell us: How can this kind of conflict be overcome, do you think?