A Grahamstown woman and her children, who narrowly escaped serious injury after the roof of their shack caved in under the heavy rains last week, is still struggling to get help to rebuild her home almost a week after the incident.
A Grahamstown woman and her children, who narrowly escaped serious injury after the roof of their shack caved in under the heavy rains last week, is still struggling to get help to rebuild her home almost a week after the incident.
Nondumiso Veto and her family were lucky to escape unharmed when heavy rains and strong winds blew away the roof of their bedroom in the early hours of Thursday morning last week.
Veto says, despite reporting the damage to her home to the Makana Fire Department as advised, she hasn't been contacted or visited by anyone from Makana since that day.
The family of four was sleeping when they were woken by rain and the sound of the collapsing roof at about 4am.
Veto shares her bed with her two children, Sandisiwe and Lunje, and her grandchild, Ambonge.
Fortunately they all managed to get up in time to avoid being injured during the chaos.
"The roof started shaking and suddenly collapsed," Veto said.
Once they realised what had happened, the children and their mother started shouting out to neighbours to come and help, but the wind and rain made it hard for the neighbours to hear them.
Veto says she then frantically phoned her eldest daughter Maureen, who was sleeping in another house in Zolani.
The family remained trapped in the damaged shack until Maureen came and rescued them as they struggled to find the key to the front door.
"She came quickly and kicked the door open," she said.
When they were eventually able to get out of the house, Veto says they woke neighbours to come to their aid.
"They woke up and helped us move the household goods away from the damaged area."
The electricity meter box was barely hanging onto the wall when Grocott's Mail arrived at the damaged home.
Veto said they can't leave the property because they have to look after their household goods.
They squash together in an adjacent room at night. Veto says she even visited the municipal offices for assistance, but the response she got last Friday left her even more dismayed.
She claims an official told her that the municipality does not fix damaged houses, while a councillor, whom she approached shortly thereafter, told her that she was rushing to the clean-up in Ward 10 and didn't have time to listen to her.
Veto said, despite speaking to the mayor on the phone on Friday, nothing had been done for her by Wednesday this week.
She said the municipality doesn't care about its people.
"Even my ward councillor [Marcelle Booysen] doesn't care.
There is no care from the top all the way down in that municipality," said a frustrated Veto.
She said she witnessed with her own eyes the disregard the municipality has for its residents.
"I told them that this is the fifth time my house has collapsed. She also voiced displeasure about the fact that, in a meeting with Peter in 2013, the residents of Zolani were promised houses, but two years later nothing had come of it. The worst thing is that there are empty houses in Extension 10. They should give them to us because they are being vandalised," she said.
Meanwhile there was positive news coming from the disaster management unit head, Khuselo Qupe.
He told Grocott's Mail, "We are just trying to do everything in our power to provide immediate relief to those worst affected by the storm."
This includes Veto and her children.
Qupe spoke to Veto and he promised to provide her and another family in Zolani with corrugated iron so they could try and fix whatever they can in the mean time.
anele@grocotts.co.za
