{"id":237186,"date":"2022-09-15T00:47:20","date_gmt":"2022-09-14T22:47:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/a-small-patch-carpet-all-thats-left-his-home\/"},"modified":"2022-09-15T00:47:20","modified_gmt":"2022-09-14T22:47:20","slug":"a-small-patch-of-carpet-is-all-thats-left-of-his-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/a-small-patch-of-carpet-is-all-thats-left-of-his-home\/","title":{"rendered":"A small patch of carpet is all that\u2019s left of his home"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Dean Phiri stands where his shack used to be. In his hand is a piece of paper with his son\u2019s homework. Photo: Kimberly Mutandiro<\/p>\n

Dean Phiri stands on a small patch of carpet where his shack used to be on a field at the Alberts Farm Conservancy. Not much is left of his possessions after Johannesburg Metro Police Department, South African Police (SAPS) and a private security company tore his shack down on 30 August.<\/p>\n

He picks up a scrap of paper with numbers on it, from his son\u2019s homework. His ten-year-old son used to visit him and they would do homework together, says Phiri. But he no longer has a home where his son can visit.<\/p>\n

Phiri is one of 28 people who were living in the historic Alberts Farm Conservancy park next to Randburg. They have been battling against City of Johannesburg, SAPS, metro police and private homeowners in the area for over a year.<\/p>\n

Inside the park are old graves belonging to the Alberts family, previous owners of the land.<\/p>\n

The residents, who have been evicted twice without a court order, are now seeking constitutional \u201cdamages\u201d of R5,000 each from the City of Johannesburg for unlawful conduct. The case will be heard on Thursday. (Read about the court case<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Some have lived there for several years. They fetch water from a nearby stream to wash, and cook on open fires.<\/p>\n

Phiri, who previously lived in Newlands says he lost his mechanical engineering job four years ago and has not been able to find another one. Recycling is his new source of income.<\/p>\n

He says police took some new clothes which he was keeping for his son, toys and some things of sentimental value. Since losing his shack, he sleeps in the open.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like it here, it\u2019s peaceful and it\u2019s the only place l can be close to my son. The people we live with are friendly,\u201d said Phiri, adding that he and the others \u201cmeant no harm\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe place they destroyed was my mansion. I had everything there. What will l tell my son when he finds his things gone?\u201d<\/p>\n

Also living in the park is Russell Mpofu, originally from Zimbabwe, who is a waste picker. He used to work in the construction industry but it all ended with the pandemic. He had been living in his shack for six months when it was destroyed. In the shack he kept old phones, a laptop, clothes, toiletries and his mattress. Outside he kept his recycling material. He had gone to Westbury to visit his children when the demolitions took place.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had expensive clothes in my shack too, and some gadgets which l got from generous people I sometimes do gardening for. Now l have nothing,\u201d Mpofu said.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\u00a9 2022 GroundUp. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Source: GroundUp<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dean Phiri stands where his shack used to be. In his hand is a piece of paper with his son\u2019s homework. Photo: Kimberly Mutandiro Dean Phiri stands on a small patch of carpet where his shack used to be on a field at the Alberts Farm Conservancy. Not much is left of his possessions after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":237187,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9928],"tags":[28001],"class_list":{"0":"post-237186","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-groundup","8":"tag-groundup","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/a-small-patch-of-carpet-is-all-thats-left-of-his-home.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}