This week's rain wreaked havoc in informal settlements, with shack-dwellers in Zolani and Xolani squatter camps queueing up at the fire department for heavy duty plastic sheet as their homes collapsed in the floods. Xolani squatter camp resident Welekazi Ngqina, who lives with her boyfriend, received a rude awakening on Sunday morning when the walls of their lounge fell apart.
This week's rain wreaked havoc in informal settlements, with shack-dwellers in Zolani and Xolani squatter camps queueing up at the fire department for heavy duty plastic sheet as their homes collapsed in the floods. Xolani squatter camp resident Welekazi Ngqina, who lives with her boyfriend, received a rude awakening on Sunday morning when the walls of their lounge fell apart.
"We were asleep when we heard loud crashes. When my boyfriend got up to investigate, it turned out that the mud was falling off our walls," Ngqina said.
"My boyfriend tried to fix the walls, using zinc cuts, but the plan didn't work."
When Grocott's Mail visited the shack on Wednesday, piles of rubble lay where the front wall used to stand; the rooms were filled with mud and a cold wind blew throughout. One of the walls of the lounge was completely covered by a heavy duty plastic sheet. Ngqina said water was also leaking through the walls, but that they had drilled holes to let it out.
She said a concerned area committee leader had given them a heavy duty plastic sheet from the fire department to cover one wall.
"My child is still young to grow up under these conditions," said Ngqina. She has a toddler.
She also said it was not the first time rains had destroyed their lounge. The same thing had happened in 2009.
Zolani resident Rantyi Lose, who shares her shack with her five children, said the rain had made life difficult for her family. “We had to share a single bed, because there was mud all over their rooms,” added Lose.
Thulelwa Hloyi, who lives with her sister Thimna, nearby, said the slippery mud on the floor of their shack was the cause of her sister's broken arm. Hloyi said Thimna was preparing to go to school when she slipped and fell on the floor.
“The mud inside the shack is from water leaks and underground water shooting up through the floor,” she said.
Lulama Moni said after 20 years of living in the area, service delivery was still poor. “My house is always leaking when it rains and I have to take the water out using basins and buckets,” she said. “The municipality should do something, or build us houses. This is not how we are supposed to live.”
