A couple and their neighbour are relying on the kindness of the Mayville community after their shacks were allegedly torched by the eThekwini Municipality.
|||Durban - A couple and their neighbour are relying on the kindness of the Mayville community for shelter and clothes after their shacks were allegedly torched by the eThekwini Municipality.
The three residents of the Nsimbini informal settlement claim that their shacks were burnt by members of the eThekwini Land Invasion Unit, on Sunday morning.
They say they had just rebuilt their shacks - following recent torrential rains - when their homes were razed to the ground by municipal officials, using paraffin and an accelerant.
Asanda Madikizela, 32, and her partner, Muziwendoda Nxele, 39, and neighbour Nomusa Mpontshane said they had lost everything and their only possessions now were the clothes on their backs.
The actions of the Land Invasion Unit caused scores of shack dwellers, whose homes were demolished by the unit, to disrupt traffic on the south-bound lanes of the N2 in Durban, after the EB Cloete Interchange.
They littered the freeway and burnt tyres in protest.
Madikizela and Nxele, who had recently rebuilt their shack, said they heard gunshots outside their home early on Sunday morning.
“It was the land invasion unit. They were firing rubber bullets,” Madikizela said.
“The person who burnt the shack was a lady wearing civilian clothing. She was in jeans and a jacket, but she was part of those wearing the blue and black uniforms.
“She doused the house in paraffin and hacked the door down using an axe, and the next thing we saw there was smoke coming out of the shack,” said Madikizela.
A frustrated Madikizela also relayed how she was called stubborn and then shot on her leg with a rubber bullet when she asked members of the Land Invasion Unit to allow her to salvage some of her belongings from the shack.
“Just last week we were voting, in the hope of getting a better life that we are always promised. What good is it to vote, and what does this vote mean if they are then going to turn around and ill-treat us like this?” a seething Madikizela asked.
“I have ended up even regretting why I had gone to vote last Wednesday,” a frustrated Nxele added.
Nxele, a bricklayer, said his tiling certificate, business cards and working equipment, which he relied on to land construction jobs, were all destroyed in the fire, and he does not know how he will now make ends meet without these important documents and tools.
“Although we are grateful for the sympathy shown by our neighbours in giving us a place to sleep and a change of clothes, people will eventually get tired of helping us if this issue does not quickly get resolved.
“We have even opened a case at the KwaKito police station at Cato Manor, but we have not yet received a case number confirming the case has been opened,” Nxele said.
Police spokeswoman Captain Nqobile Gwala confirmed that an incident in which a shack had been set alight had occurred on Sunday morning at the informal settlement in Nubian Road.
“Cato Manor police are investigating a case of malicious damage to property, but no arrest has been made at this stage,” said Gwala.
Incoming ward 29 councillor Mveli Mthembu said that he had reported the issue to disaster management because they had the resources to handle such cases, but he stressed that when people were being evicted from an area, there was no need to ignite a fire.
Despite several attempts to get comment from the city, officials had not responded by publishing deadline.
Daily News