BP Singh reading an extract from his novel, When The Chalk Is Down: An Odyssey
The township of Buffelsdale in Tongaat, initially referred to as ‘Silvermine’ after the construction company that built it, was the second formal low cost housing settlement for Indians in KwaZulu-Natal, after Chatsworth. It had been planned as a series of semi-detached houses terraced in rows. Interspersed with these single-storey rows were huge blocks of flats comprising of thirty six units each. The unplastered houses were very basic units, with the outlines of bricks clearly distinguishable through the thin coat of paint. The individuality of the houses was lost as a result of the standard red walls and black tiled roofs. The neglected state of the surroundings, the absence of home improvement and extensions, and the dusty gravel roads that marked the access to the houses depicted clearly the poverty-stricken status of the inhabitants.
