Susan Smit, 52, is one of over 100 people who were evicted from Soetendal farm in 2015. Two years later they continue to live in substandard conditions where drugs are easy to come by, crime is relentless and unemployment levels are staggering. 23 May 2018. Photo: Leila Dougan

In 2015 Susan Smith, now 52, was evicted from a farm in Wellington on which she had lived for almost three decades. When she and others were dumped in an informal settlement called New Rest, their lives took a turn for the worse. As President Cyril Ramaphosa talks about land restitution without compensation, evicted farm dwellers who are forced to endure substandard living conditions in informal settlements continue to suffer the consequences of the past.

For the past three years Susan Smith has lived in a corrugated iron shack in one of the most impoverished areas in the Drakenstein Municipality where the average income is R14,000 per annum. Work is scarce, crime is rife and families fight the odds daily to eke out a living.

When it rains, water seeps through the iron and thin plastic sheeting and collects in large puddles under her bed, turning her floor to mud. Filthy communal...