Photograph taken in Soweto, South Africa

After years living in squalid shanty-town conditions, without any electricity, proper sanitation or potable water this gentleman is photographed tilling his garden plot at the front of a newly built social house that he has recently moved into.

The inhabitants of the Soweto "iinformal settlement" Motsoaledi, campaigned for years to become a permanent settlement, with decent housing and facilities, but their pleas fell mostly on politician's deaf ears. With the South African government falling short of its target to eradicate such shanty-town settlements completely by 2016 the inhabitants of Motsoaledi had become resigned and dispirited.

However, in 2015 there were some signs of hope as large concrete drainage pipes were moved onto adjacent vacant land. Some houses were built, but progress was slow, due it is said, to inefficiencies of local government and contractors.

Last year however, building work picked up, with drainage infrastructure being laid and housing construction continuing. At last, a few of Motsoaledi’s families began to move into their new-builds - even though some of the basic facilities such as mains drainage and electricity had yet to be connected.

In 2017, building has continued at a pace, with an impressive new connecting road being built. Rows of new houses are now completed, although many are not lived in, as service facilities are still to be connected; their garden plots grown over.