JOHANNESBURG, South Africa – Eight thirty Friday morning, and the suburb of Houghton, with its quiet and absence of traffic, bears a contrast to the city.

Big houses with well-kept gardens form the profile of Houghton.

Gardener Zamile Zobola and construction worker Leboko Raswiswi have come to work at the home of Houghton’s most popular resident – Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela.

Zobola has been working at the house for two years. “Ah, it’s nice,” he says with a wide grin. “Yeah, just nice,” he adds.

“As long as I am working here, everything is all right,” Zobola says, still smiling.

He sees Mandela all the time, Zobola says, but today, ‘the Old Man’ as many South Africans refer to him, is sleeping.

“No talk (when I see him) just look,” Zobola says in halting English.

Around the corner of Fourth and Twelfth Street to the other side of the house, Raswiswi is putting together some building materials. He has only been working there for three weeks now, and his smile equals Zobola’s.

Raswiswi uses only one Tswana word to describe working at Mandela’s house. “Keyarata,” he says. “I love it”.