South Africa - People are Living Here
July 2003 – 25’00”
V/O
Lizzie Sileko is five years old.
The only home she knows is Johannesburg’s inner city.
Like thousands others, her mother Ellen has fled poverty and unemployment in rural South Africa.
She came to the City of Gold in search of money, education for her child and happiness.
But the mother and daughter have found little joy on the city streets.
UPS: ELLEN SILEKO
TITLE SLIDE: PEOPLE ARE LIVING HERE
Johannesburg is Africa’s only world class city.
Its inner city boasts infrastructure of about thirty billion rands and it’s home to some of South Africa’s largest and most important companies.
But over the last two decades crime and grime have steadily crept into the heart of Joburg…
Now, the council has declared war on inner city rot.
It’s launched an aggressive renewal plan spearheaded by inner city councillor Sol Cowan, process manager Martin New and regional director Yakoob Makda.
UPS MAKDA
UPS COWAN
Sunleigh Court in Braamfontein has been labeled one of the worst buildings in Joburg.
It’s one of 25 buildings that have been found to be unfit for human habitation in an inner city survey.
The landlord abandoned Sunleigh Court years ago. Over time, more and more people moved in.
Here, there’s no running water - and electricity is an unheard-of luxury.
The smell of raw sewerage is thick and sticky in Johannesburg’s summer heat.
UPS COWAN
Alan Wheeler is the city’s acting head of law enforcement.
He heads the team that’s conducted a massive foot survey of inner city buildings.
In Sunleigh Court, the lift shaft is used as a huge trashcan - and toilet. A willing tour guide, who introduces himself as Sam, points out the other dangers of life in a slum building…
UPS ALAN
UPS SAM
UPS MAKDA
In buildings like Sunleigh Court, run-away teenagers often seek sanctuary – only to learn the hardships of adult life…
UPS ALAN AND SAM
UPS COWAN
Sunleigh Court has also been a serious problem for the Police.
Two days after Wheeler’s visit, Hillbrow Police and the Defence Force raid the building in an unrelated operation.
This follows information of illegal firearms and numerous complaints of intimidation and robbery from residents in neighbouring buildings.
All the adult males – 85 in total - are taken to an identity parade.
Later, three are arrested and charged with armed robbery.
Not one of the men in Sunleigh Court holds down a steady job, residents say.
The only source of income for the women, is prostitution.
UPS MAKDA
Crime is one of the biggest stumbling blocks in the inner city rejuvenation.
But one of the most sophisticated camera operations in the world has helped to turn Johannesburg’ fight against crime in the Central Business District into a success story.
Nearly two hundred closed circuit cameras installed by the city and Business Against Crime Surveillance Technology monitor the streets.
Operators spot suspicious behaviour and alert the Metro Police and the South African Police Service. They share the control room in the Carlton Centre.
In this incident, a car smasher is spotted and followed by a camera operator. He changes his shirt, but can’t escape the Police who arrive within seconds.
The average response time is only one minute.
UPS PENBERTHY
Where the cameras have been installed, crime is down by a whopping 80%.
Now, they help to jack up city management. This includes traffic offenses, refuse accumulation and water leaks.
UPS PENBERTHY
A further 160 cameras will be operational by middle this year. There’s a marked difference in areas where they’re not yet up and running,
UPS PENBERTHY
In problem buildings like Sunleigh Court, the probing eyes of the surveillance cameras can’t reach. Here, crime still needs to be flushed out in police operations.
But the police can only react to criminal incidents.
They can not improve the living conditions of Joburg’s inner city residents.
That is a task that the council has taken on in its inner city upliftment programme.
AD BREAK
In April last year, the historical Drill Hall in Joburg’s Joubert Park was gutted by fire.
In recent years, the heritage site became a haven for many of the city’s homeless.
Five people were killed in the fire.
More than two hundred were left without a roof over their heads.
They were meant to move to Eikenhof and Vlakfontein outside Johannesburg.
But today, many of them are still living here. They’ve made Quartz street their home.
The ranks of the former Drill Hall people have been swelled by dozens of other homeless people. Every day, new people arrive – not only from rural South Africa, but from all parts of the continent.
Residents from abandoned slums nearby come here to seek company and escape their problems in mbamba, a lethal home-brewn alcohol.
Ellen and Lizzie Sileko survived the Drill Hall fire, but have had no home since then. By day, Ellen begs for food and money with her child. At night, she seeks shelter under any available roof – quite often, it’s in Quartz street.
Every day poses a struggle to maintain some dignity.
UPS ELLEN
They all have families somewhere, the people of Quartz street say – many even boast of wealth and of children who’ve become doctors and lawyers.
They can go back to these families any time, they then claim. But few ever do.
Judy Bassingthwaite has heard all the life stories.
On the inner city streets, they call her Mother Theresa.
She’s worked with the homeless for thirteen years. Its to her that they come with their problems – but also their tales of love found on the streets and precious moments of happiness.
UPS JUDY
Phumzile Hlongwane doesn’t remember her father. He died in prison while she was still a baby.
In her short five years, she’s had little protection from the tough weather conditions on the street.
She’s had even less protection from the harsh realities of the adult world.
Among the vulnerable in Quartz street, hardened criminals often come and look for easy targets – and there’s none easier than a child.
UPS JUDY
Phumzile’s mother, Nthabiseng, has all but given up hope.
UPS NTHABISENG
Phumzile has little hope of going to a creche or even a school in a year or two.
Nthabiseng keeps her daughter with her on the streets – that way she can get more sympathy from the people she begs from, she believes.
They sleep in nearby Milton Court. The building is a serious health and fire risk and council has already issued eviction orders. Nthabiseng hasn’t heard of the eviction order. She has no other place to go, but says she’ll simply have to find another abandoned building.
For her, things can hardly get worse than this old storage room they call home.
But, like many of the other Quartz street people, she has resisted being moved out of Johannesburg to Eikenhof and Vlakfontein.
UPS COWAN
UPS JUDY
UPS Yakoob
The people of Quartz street say they often get sick.
Water from a fire hydrant supplies in all their sanitation needs…and often the street serves as bathroom, kitchen and toilet.
Many suffer from malnutrition and meat scrounged from a butchery’s dustbins is a luxury.
UPS YAKOOB
UPS
Late last year, council got tough against slum lords. The target: Armadale Place.
UPS COWAN
Nearly two thousand residents were left homeless in the largest eviction order ever carried by city officials. But council’s increasing strong-arm tactics have drawn fire.
UPS COWAN
In the Paballo Ya Batho outreach project, a group of volunteers try to restore dignity among the inner city’s homeless. It’s in her work here that Judy has picked up rising anger against the council and its methods.
She’s heard more and more stories of how people on the streets are being intimidated, abused and threatened – allegedly by Metro Police.
UPS JUDY
The city’s destitute are already defenseless. They have little to lose.
Promises of a better life are meaningless unless they’re given something tangible.
UPS MAKDA
Council insists that the rejuvenation programme is no pipe dream – and this building is proof.
Dudley Heights was a so-called bad building. It’s been cleaned up after council ordered the owners to do so.
Alan Wheeler says the city wants to see more buildings like Dudley Heights and less slums.
The building is under strict management. Only South African residents are allowed. All residents are registered on a fingerprint system.
Visitors have to leave their identity books at reception and can collect them when they leave.
More and more young professionals are seeking these stringent security measures.
Here, everything is properly maintained.
The building’s managers are keen to show Wheeler the accommodation on offer for about a thousand rand per month.
The people of this flat may soon also have access to a private park and entertainment area.
Council plans a precinct in Braamfontein with such facilities for residents of adjacent good buildings.
UPS YAKOOB
This is Joubert Park in the heart of the inner city. Until recently, it was a no-go area: filthy and dangerous.
Today this park bears testimony to the success of the council’s renewal plan.
But the poor and the destitute can’t be wished away and people can’t simply be cleaned up like parks.
Any inner city plan is ultimately about people: People like Ellen and Lizzie Hlongwane.
They need to know what’s in it for them. At this point the city’s plan only means that they lose the only home they know.
The dilemma of Ellen and Lizzie Hlongwane and the many others like them is the biggest problem city officials have to solve.
July 2003 – 25’00”
V/O
Lizzie Sileko is five years old.
The only home she knows is Johannesburg’s inner city.
Like thousands others, her mother Ellen has fled poverty and unemployment in rural South Africa.
She came to the City of Gold in search of money, education for her child and happiness.
But the mother and daughter have found little joy on the city streets.
UPS: ELLEN SILEKO
TITLE SLIDE: PEOPLE ARE LIVING HERE
Johannesburg is Africa’s only world class city.
Its inner city boasts infrastructure of about thirty billion rands and it’s home to some of South Africa’s largest and most important companies.
But over the last two decades crime and grime have steadily crept into the heart of Joburg…
Now, the council has declared war on inner city rot.
It’s launched an aggressive renewal plan spearheaded by inner city councillor Sol Cowan, process manager Martin New and regional director Yakoob Makda.
UPS MAKDA
UPS COWAN
Sunleigh Court in Braamfontein has been labeled one of the worst buildings in Joburg.
It’s one of 25 buildings that have been found to be unfit for human habitation in an inner city survey.
The landlord abandoned Sunleigh Court years ago. Over time, more and more people moved in.
Here, there’s no running water - and electricity is an unheard-of luxury.
The smell of raw sewerage is thick and sticky in Johannesburg’s summer heat.
UPS COWAN
Alan Wheeler is the city’s acting head of law enforcement.
He heads the team that’s conducted a massive foot survey of inner city buildings.
In Sunleigh Court, the lift shaft is used as a huge trashcan - and toilet. A willing tour guide, who introduces himself as Sam, points out the other dangers of life in a slum building…
UPS ALAN
UPS SAM
UPS MAKDA
In buildings like Sunleigh Court, run-away teenagers often seek sanctuary – only to learn the hardships of adult life…
UPS ALAN AND SAM
UPS COWAN
Sunleigh Court has also been a serious problem for the Police.
Two days after Wheeler’s visit, Hillbrow Police and the Defence Force raid the building in an unrelated operation.
This follows information of illegal firearms and numerous complaints of intimidation and robbery from residents in neighbouring buildings.
All the adult males – 85 in total - are taken to an identity parade.
Later, three are arrested and charged with armed robbery.
Not one of the men in Sunleigh Court holds down a steady job, residents say.
The only source of income for the women, is prostitution.
UPS MAKDA
Crime is one of the biggest stumbling blocks in the inner city rejuvenation.
But one of the most sophisticated camera operations in the world has helped to turn Johannesburg’ fight against crime in the Central Business District into a success story.
Nearly two hundred closed circuit cameras installed by the city and Business Against Crime Surveillance Technology monitor the streets.
Operators spot suspicious behaviour and alert the Metro Police and the South African Police Service. They share the control room in the Carlton Centre.
In this incident, a car smasher is spotted and followed by a camera operator. He changes his shirt, but can’t escape the Police who arrive within seconds.
The average response time is only one minute.
UPS PENBERTHY
Where the cameras have been installed, crime is down by a whopping 80%.
Now, they help to jack up city management. This includes traffic offenses, refuse accumulation and water leaks.
UPS PENBERTHY
A further 160 cameras will be operational by middle this year. There’s a marked difference in areas where they’re not yet up and running,
UPS PENBERTHY
In problem buildings like Sunleigh Court, the probing eyes of the surveillance cameras can’t reach. Here, crime still needs to be flushed out in police operations.
But the police can only react to criminal incidents.
They can not improve the living conditions of Joburg’s inner city residents.
That is a task that the council has taken on in its inner city upliftment programme.
AD BREAK
In April last year, the historical Drill Hall in Joburg’s Joubert Park was gutted by fire.
In recent years, the heritage site became a haven for many of the city’s homeless.
Five people were killed in the fire.
More than two hundred were left without a roof over their heads.
They were meant to move to Eikenhof and Vlakfontein outside Johannesburg.
But today, many of them are still living here. They’ve made Quartz street their home.
The ranks of the former Drill Hall people have been swelled by dozens of other homeless people. Every day, new people arrive – not only from rural South Africa, but from all parts of the continent.
Residents from abandoned slums nearby come here to seek company and escape their problems in mbamba, a lethal home-brewn alcohol.
Ellen and Lizzie Sileko survived the Drill Hall fire, but have had no home since then. By day, Ellen begs for food and money with her child. At night, she seeks shelter under any available roof – quite often, it’s in Quartz street.
Every day poses a struggle to maintain some dignity.
UPS ELLEN
They all have families somewhere, the people of Quartz street say – many even boast of wealth and of children who’ve become doctors and lawyers.
They can go back to these families any time, they then claim. But few ever do.
Judy Bassingthwaite has heard all the life stories.
On the inner city streets, they call her Mother Theresa.
She’s worked with the homeless for thirteen years. Its to her that they come with their problems – but also their tales of love found on the streets and precious moments of happiness.
UPS JUDY
Phumzile Hlongwane doesn’t remember her father. He died in prison while she was still a baby.
In her short five years, she’s had little protection from the tough weather conditions on the street.
She’s had even less protection from the harsh realities of the adult world.
Among the vulnerable in Quartz street, hardened criminals often come and look for easy targets – and there’s none easier than a child.
UPS JUDY
Phumzile’s mother, Nthabiseng, has all but given up hope.
UPS NTHABISENG
Phumzile has little hope of going to a creche or even a school in a year or two.
Nthabiseng keeps her daughter with her on the streets – that way she can get more sympathy from the people she begs from, she believes.
They sleep in nearby Milton Court. The building is a serious health and fire risk and council has already issued eviction orders. Nthabiseng hasn’t heard of the eviction order. She has no other place to go, but says she’ll simply have to find another abandoned building.
For her, things can hardly get worse than this old storage room they call home.
But, like many of the other Quartz street people, she has resisted being moved out of Johannesburg to Eikenhof and Vlakfontein.
UPS COWAN
UPS JUDY
UPS Yakoob
The people of Quartz street say they often get sick.
Water from a fire hydrant supplies in all their sanitation needs…and often the street serves as bathroom, kitchen and toilet.
Many suffer from malnutrition and meat scrounged from a butchery’s dustbins is a luxury.
UPS YAKOOB
UPS
Late last year, council got tough against slum lords. The target: Armadale Place.
UPS COWAN
Nearly two thousand residents were left homeless in the largest eviction order ever carried by city officials. But council’s increasing strong-arm tactics have drawn fire.
UPS COWAN
In the Paballo Ya Batho outreach project, a group of volunteers try to restore dignity among the inner city’s homeless. It’s in her work here that Judy has picked up rising anger against the council and its methods.
She’s heard more and more stories of how people on the streets are being intimidated, abused and threatened – allegedly by Metro Police.
UPS JUDY
The city’s destitute are already defenseless. They have little to lose.
Promises of a better life are meaningless unless they’re given something tangible.
UPS MAKDA
Council insists that the rejuvenation programme is no pipe dream – and this building is proof.
Dudley Heights was a so-called bad building. It’s been cleaned up after council ordered the owners to do so.
Alan Wheeler says the city wants to see more buildings like Dudley Heights and less slums.
The building is under strict management. Only South African residents are allowed. All residents are registered on a fingerprint system.
Visitors have to leave their identity books at reception and can collect them when they leave.
More and more young professionals are seeking these stringent security measures.
Here, everything is properly maintained.
The building’s managers are keen to show Wheeler the accommodation on offer for about a thousand rand per month.
The people of this flat may soon also have access to a private park and entertainment area.
Council plans a precinct in Braamfontein with such facilities for residents of adjacent good buildings.
UPS YAKOOB
This is Joubert Park in the heart of the inner city. Until recently, it was a no-go area: filthy and dangerous.
Today this park bears testimony to the success of the council’s renewal plan.
But the poor and the destitute can’t be wished away and people can’t simply be cleaned up like parks.
Any inner city plan is ultimately about people: People like Ellen and Lizzie Hlongwane.
They need to know what’s in it for them. At this point the city’s plan only means that they lose the only home they know.
The dilemma of Ellen and Lizzie Hlongwane and the many others like them is the biggest problem city officials have to solve.