Minister of human settlements spends a night in a shack to see what it's like, and gets unpleasant surprise

Sexwale paid Mashamaite for the accommodation and left to brief Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, head of the government’s anti-poverty campaign.

SHOOT: Sexwale seems the perfect man for the job. Prepared to get his hands dirty, prepared to move out of his comfort zone, ready to get involved.

clipped from www.sowetan.co.za MINISTER of human settlements and billionaire businessman Tokyo Sexwale has described his night in a cramped shack as an eye-opener. The minister spent Monday night in Joyce Mashamaite’s shack in Diepsloot Extension 1, north of Joburg, to see the plight of the poor for himself. “It was very difficult getting to sleep (because) it was quite cold. I slept for less than three hours,” said Sexwale, who got up at 6am. Sexwale said as a child he had lived in a shack in Orlando, Soweto, but the experience of being exposed to such squalor again was a “real eye-opener”. After discussions with community leaders at a local restaurant, Sexwale was accompanied to the shack on Pearl Street by two police vehicles and his protection team, who took their positions as he retired for the night. Early birds heading to work leapt over puddles of sewage unaware that Sexwale lay in a bed metres from their path. The minister said he was surprised that Diepsloot children did not suffer from hyperthermia.