africa.15a

KHAYELITSHA, South Africa -- An estimated 7.3 million South Africans lack proper shelter, a problem dating from the apartheid era, when blacks were confined to the fringes of the economy. The bulk of shacks are spartan, one-room structures of wood, corrugated iron and plastic, hastily nailed together at minimal expense.

Amid these, however, are some remarkable displays of ingenuity. The leather panels in one man's home are covers torn from old diaries he found in a rubbish dump.In other shacks, colorful wallpaper is fashioned from pages torn from old magazines, plastic bags weighted down with rocks are used to waterproof leaky tin roofs and scrap metal is welded together to create artistic divisions between tiny dirt yards.