By Everson Luhanga
After surviving the deadly fire that gutted their neglected building in Marshalltown last September, the same residents find themselves in danger of being swept away by floods.
The blaze that claimed the lives of 78 people in the Joburg inner city displaced many survivors, who have since been housed in a shantytown in the industrial area of Denver, where heavy rain is flooding their shacks.
The residents were moved from a temporary shelter in Bezuidenhout Valley two months after the fire to a site that had been bought by the Johannesburg Metro Police Department for R45 million. The intention was to turn it into a vehicle pound, but that never happened.
Instead, the City of Johannesburg built over 200 one-room zinc shacks and moved the Marshalltown fire survivors to a section of the site.
On Friday, residents were forced to stand the whole night as water levels kept on rising inside their shacks. The heavy rains causing havoc in many parts of the city did not spare the Denver residents.
Olwethu Sibiya, 19, said she stays in her one-room shack with her two-month-old son. “It was a strong hailstorm accompanied by persistent rainfall,” she said.
“The water levels kept on growing and I thought I would be swept away. All I could care about was my son and I held him in my arms to make sure he was safe.”
When the Scrolla.Africa team arrived at the shantytown many people, both men and women, were seen washing clothes which had been soaked by the floods. Mattresses were left in the sun to dry.
But their worry came again as clouds gathered in the sky with the threat of more rain.
Thobeka Buyela, 24, who stays with her 11-year-old daughter and eight-year-old son, said she is considering taking her two children to her relatives in Alexandra for their safety.
“It becomes more painful to see my children suffering whenever it rains. This was not the first time high water levels got into our homes,” she said.
She said the residents have put bricks under their beds to prevent their bedding from getting drenched.
“The problem with that is that when you put the bed up, it is near to the roof of the shack and on a dry day, the shacks get too hot.”
Bongiwe Sithole, who stays with her 15-year-old son, said there is no privacy. “We live like animals here. We wish government officials could see what we go through every day. I don’t think they would put their families through what we go through.
”It’s very sad to be poor,” she said.
Pictured above: Nqobile Lamula says her shack was flooded on Saturday.
Image source: Everson Luhanga
