Mooifontein Cemetery next to Vusimuzi, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Vusimuzi settlement is in an interesting position. It protrudes like an isthmus between a fetid stream, a huge cemetery, and two slightly wealthier suburbs. High above the shacks, high-tension power lines carry electricity to other areas of Johannesburg, but not Vusimuzi. As one resident put it (in an article written in 2013), "Electricity flows above, but not below".
Between Ehlanzeni and Vusimuzi, there are over 30000 people living in approximately 8500 shacks, on the margins of the former township of Tembisa, Gauteng. Service delivery, including sanitation, electricity, policing, and education, is extremely poor.
Contrasted to the greater province of Gauteng, Vusimuzi is an anomaly. Gauteng is the richest province in South Africa, and Johannesburg is the richest city. Gauteng contributes almost 1/3 of South Africa's total GDP, and is rapidly modernizing into a world-class city.
Yet the image speaks for itself. On the day I was there, a wind whistled through the power lines and the faint drone of a jet, high above, were all that was audible. The graves and the shacks, side by side, were extremely eerie to me. I imagined that the ghosts of one haunt the ghosts of the other.
Informal vs formal settlements in Tembisa, Johannesburg, South Africa. (2016)
The same location as above, 2018.
The Mooifontein cemetery extends like an isthmus between Tembisa and Kempton Park.
An endless sea of shacks and homes in Tembisa, near Johannesburg, South Africa.
Patterns in the built environment. Tembisa, South Africa.
