Hang around Swington shoe-shiners and ask them the origin of the name Swington. They will spin you a tale. The tale that they will tell will end up with the Swington Estates having been named after a swing that was completely made of lead. They will chuckle as they tell you that that swing weighed a ton. The Swington Estates are actually named after Reverend Albert Swington, an early advocate of Protestantism. The New Swington Estate is a middle-class suburb.It has lush greenery and well-maintained tarmacked and marked interconnecting roads. It has well kempt hedges. The Swingtonites love their routine. They have low key weekdays and effervescent weekends. They love dog walking and strolling in the park. They call their neighbours’ by the first names. If push comes to shove, they could spit out the surnames. But routine can be dangerous. Routine can disappear-sometimes at 2 am on a Monday. The Rukus siblings were in the neighbourhood.
The Rukus siblings were among the immigrants that were relocated to the settlement. The Swingtonites know the settlement well. Not so long ago some of them inhabited what was once on the settlement on the other side of the tarmac road. They don’t like to admit it, but they now live on the New Swington Estate. The Old Swington Estate having been demolished to pave way for new high rise apartments. That did not happen, leaving behind an abandoned settlement. It currently houses rows and rows of reinforced plastic and wooden Prefabs. The government identified it for its illegal-immigrants relocation and temporary housing project.
This gave it the thinking space it needed. The immigrants had caught it offguard. They were discovered in a ship detained at the port for having false paperwork. This settlement also made for effective monitoring and tracing. The problem with bureaucratic thinking is that it takes time. It did not help that the flu pandemic was ravaging nationwide.