By Everson Luhanga
Victims of the September Marshalltown fire have finally been moved to their new accommodation: small one-room zinc structures on land in Denver which had been planned as a pound when it was bought by the city of Johannesburg for R45 million.
Desperate mothers, some with their babies on their backs, small children and the elderly were shocked to arrive at the shiny city as their new home.
In the scorching heat, the new residents had their first taste of the conditions they would live in during this summer. There is no water and no electricity, and only a few bucket toilets stuffed in one corner of the premises.
With a police escort, the bus arrived at the supposed pound with a truck carrying their belongings.
Sibongile Majwababa said she arrived at the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department’s (JMPD’s) supposed pound without her three-year-old daughter.
She claimed those who were sent to take them from their temporary shelter in Bez Valley pushed them into the bus.
“I tried to tell them that my daughter had been left behind, but no one heard me. They drove off with us,” she claimed.
Sibongile said that city officials only told her and other Marshalltown fire victims at the last minute that they were moving to their new homes.
The City brought a bus which loaded them in and a truck that carried their belongings, including mattresses and bags.
“We don’t have our necessities, like bathtubs. We have children who need warmed-up milk. How are we going to do that with no electricity here? Why couldn’t they have waited to provide us with a proper place with electricity and water?” she questioned.
Sibongile said the shelter where they had been placed in Bez Valley was far better because it had electricity, flushing toilets and running water.
“They have dumped us here like dead animals,” she said.
Last week, the area was flooded.
While victims who are South African were moved to Denver, foreign nationals who were also staying at the Bez Valley temporary shelter were taken to Jeppe Police Station.
Speaking to Scrolla.Africa, Nigel Branken, of the activist group Kopanang Africa Against Xenophobia, said all the arrested will appear in court on Thursday.
Pictured above: Residents offloading at the shantytown.
Image source: Everson Luhanga
