Mystery of roaming caravan
ALEXANDRA – The Eskom engineers used to come and take him drunk as he was to go and help them, says Mopasi.
There is a mysterious white caravan that has been roaming the streets of Alexandra for several years now.
According to Alex historian Thabo Mopasi, the mystery caravan has been moving around from ward to ward presumably looking for a permanent place to stay to be used for rental by migrants.
Mopasi, who has been tracking the story of it since it first surfaced, said the caravan first came to light in the 1990s at No. 35 – 12th Avenue when it was sold but it resurfaced again in 2012 when the township turned 100 years old, at No. 27 – 13th Avenue and the community in that street chased it away and it moved to the Helen Joseph Women’s Hostel.
“I then lost track of it and I guess it went to KwaVezunyawo Transit Settlement and now I see it appearing again in the TB Settlement just over the Jukskei River. This is quite an interesting tale of the caravan. I guess if it was human, it would tell us a tale.”
Mopasi said the first owner of the caravan was a man known by the name of Cyril Duma, who used to help Eskom engineers in the 1980s and they would come to his No.35 – 12th Avenue home, seeking his engineering expertise.
“It was a team of white people wearing white overalls. As children then, we thought they were doctors. Duma was good at engineering but never went to school to further his engineering studies.
“Duma used to carry lots of money in a briefcase while going to drink beer in the taverns in the 1980s. The Eskom engineers used to come and take him drunk as he was to go and help them. I grew up knowing him and his family and unfortunately, he passed away in the late 1990s.”
Anyone with information around this mystery caravan is asked to contact Thabo Mopasi on email: thabomopasi@gmail.com
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