Pretoria (South Africa): Let the dead bury the dead

August 11, 2010

How’s this for life in Pretoria? A squatter community is using a slimy, algae-filled pond to wash their clothes, the Sowetan newspaper reports.

Jacob van Gardeneren, of Lawyers for Human Rights, said: “The surrounding neighbourhoods used typical excuses to justify their involvement in these evictions – such as that the informal settlement hosts criminals. The reality is that this informal settlement hosts their gardeners, domestic workers and construction workers, who are often paid so poorly they cannot afford to travel home every day.”

The squatters are threatened with eviction because the land had been allocated for the expansion of a nearby cemetery. Thus the dead have more rights in life than the living.