“It is what I call poverty pornography,”

“They said they wanted to see how we are living,” Ms. Matshega said. “Can you imagine?”

The Hewitts moved into the shack for the month of August as an experiment in radical empathy. Could a white middle-class South African family make it on $10 a day in the kind of living conditions that millions of black South Africans endure every day? “It is one thing to know from an academic perspective what divides us,” said Mr. Hewitt, who also blogged about the experience. “But what is it like to actually live it?”

In most countries, a family slumming it for a month would hardly be news, but in South Africa, where deep racial divides strike at the core of the nation’s identity, the Hewitts’ experiment made headlines and spurred heated debate.

While some people praised the Hewitts, others where not so welcoming of their experiment.

But their experiment also poked at some of South Africa’s sorest spots. Were they white slum tourists who had come to gawk at black poverty? Was this simply a publicity stunt, aimed at getting a book or movie deal — or worse still, a reality television show?

And even if their motives were noble, did they inadvertently confirm what many here suspect: black poverty gets little notice until a white person experiences and highlights it?

Some critics took to Twitter with outright nasty, even violent responses."You know what? Hope the paraffin stove falls over and you people burn in that shack. Bye!” tweeted someone going by the handle @Keratilwe.

The Hewitts, in their own words...

So we're causing some major upsets.... We are trying to understand and have empathy. Don't want to make a mockery of life in the townships
— Ena & Julian (@mamelodi4amonth) July 31, 2013

New York Times

Video of the Hewitts explaining themselves after "read more"