Mdantsane Is A Lovely Place - Isn't It ?

Tembisa Dema

" Mdantsane is a lovely place - isn't it ? ", Tembisa Dema said to me.

Tembisa is a friend of my friend Pelisa and we met on Nelson Mandela Day.

Mdantsane Is A Lovely Place Isn't It?

Tembisa took me on a ride through the neighborhood in her car. I had not asked. She just offered and I was more than happy to go with her. Sometimes I speak to a person for three hours and fill a small note book with useful and interesting information. I can truly say that there has never been a conversation that has not been interesting and stimulating for me. But sometimes it is just a single sentence that makes my day.

Mdantsane is a lovely place isn't it ?

Yes it is !

Mdantsane can be called idyllic.

It has a warm and positive spirit.

There is a lot going on.

It's friendly.

We started writing this blog to introduce our book and to allow the people whom we have met and who have given us so much of their time to see their pictures and to read their stories. 

But we are also writing it for the ones who have never been here. And very often they are close and could in fact visit the township. 

I met a very nice lady a couple of weeks ago who has been living in East London for 30 years but has never been to Mdantsane. She said, she always wanted to visit Mdantsane and was curious but the reason she had not was that she was scared.  What she told me can be probably called collateral damage inflicted through the Apartheid regime. Not only was the politic of suppression successful for a long time but the system did also estrange people. Today there is a different spirit.

I can only say Mdantsane is a lovely place and there is no need to be scared. Just come closer.

The people are as lovely as the whole township.

It is green. House owners have started everywhere planting little gardens or growing their own vegetables.

People like to be outside and a lot of socializing happens on the streets directly in front of your door and not inside your house which I think is so nice. 

Tembisa lives in NU 2 and is the proud mother of a daughter who has just been admitted to Hudson High School a well reputed school in East London. She has been working many years in the sector of HIV/Aids prevention but since June she is looking for a new job. 

" It is extremely difficult to find work ", she says. A statement that few people would want to object today. But still her spirit is strong.

MEET THE GOOD SAMARITAN

The Good SAMARITAN Child and Youth Care Center in NU 3

has not been given this name for nothing

It is a safe haven for abused, orphaned and HIV positive children and young adults.

When I started working with NGO's and self help initiatives in Mdantsane in 2002 one of the first people I was introduced to was Mazozo.

Or let me rather reformulate she introduced herself !!

Meet Mazozo!

Working as an independent consultant and trainer in her free time, being a single mother of now three adult children and a powerful woman, she is overseeing this institution since many years. 

It is my life, she says. There is no way you could not believe her.

The guard has changed but the institution is still there. 

But we are not allowed to take pictures of the children anymore, Mazozo says, because two employees of the Good Samaritan have conducted fundraising on their own websites for themselves with the children's pictures. 

It took seven years to finally get the funds to have the leaking roof repaired.

TO MAKE A LIVING

And again for others it is still more complicated. To make a living this man digs through the trash and garbage bins at a petrol station in search for food and other things that he can use .

I AM JOBLESS

Unemployment in South Africa is the plight of many.

After 16 years of independence the great majority of country's population has still a heavy burden to carry.

Waiting for a day job at street corners and close to traffic lights

seems for many the only solution.

WHAT DEATH ENTAILS

An advertisement for a funeral parlor, offering many services, painted on the cement wall of a bus stop shelter.

Death is a lucrative business in South-Africa due to the high HIV infection rate in the country and many secondary diseases that are closely linked to it like Tuberculosis.