Freedom Day is a bitter joke for Thanduxolo Sicwebu, one of the about 150 people left homeless and destitute after fire raged through the Marikana informal settlement in Cato Crest, Durban.
One person, Nomasamson Dlamini, 38, was killed by the flames last Sunday.
Sicwebu, whose son Cebo Piliso, 16, suffered severe burns to his hands and head, accused the city of failing to extend assistance to the 49 families affected or provide basic services, such as electricity.
“We vote, to avoid falling back into the same situation,” he said.
“How can we be South African citizens and not vote? Over the years, hope has kept me returning to the voting stations because I believe that there is still hope for a better government. But today we feel used by the government.”
Sicwebu said politicians paid attention to the community only on public holidays and during elections.
“Many residents are left with only the clothes they had been wearing when the fire broke out,” he said. “We couldn’t even pull out our blankets.”
Sicwebu said he lost two rings in the blaze — he had been planning to give them to his partner, the mother of his children, and ask her to marry him so the whole family could take his name.
“My plan was to … make her my wife. But now this has gone up in smoke.”
Leeto Motloung, a friend of the Dlamini family, said they were devastated by the death of Nomasamson, who moved from Lesotho seven years to find work and support her children.
The number of families who lost their homes during a fire in December
— 70
“But now they can’t even begin funeral preparations because they don’t know when they will be able to transport her body back home,” Motloung said.
“She was burnt badly and the morgue told us that her relatives need to physically identify her with documents, which were destroyed in the fire.”
He said Dlamini had tried to make a good life for her children, but despite working hard she had not been able to escape poverty.
The Cato Crest informal settlement has suffered its share of hardship, said ward councillor Muzi Ngiba.
The number of children supported by Funani Dlamini who was electrocuted in Cato Crest this week
— 4
“These fires are rapidly increasing in the area. This must be the fourth or fifth fire this year. The situation this time is very bad, but we appreciate that reconstruction of their houses is under way.”
Last month a fire in the settlement destroyed 17 households and in December another fire left 70 families homeless.
Ngiba said municipal officials recorded the names of the affected families, who were told they would be assisted in rebuilding their homes.
Mqapheli Bonono, deputy president of the political movement Abahlali baseMjondolo, said Freedom Day meant nothing for residents of informal settlements, who the government continued to ignore.
“It is a terrible tragedy … As a community they are being subjected to the harshest forms of living. We continue to plead with the municipality to install electricity and water for Cato Crest,” Bonono said.
“With winter coming, these [services] will be essential because most of their problems stem from illegally connected power and water pipes.”
Two days after the fire another woman, Funani Dlamini, a mother of four, was electrocuted by an exposed cable in an alley.
eThekwini spokesperson Musawakhe Mayisela said relief was offered to the affected families to rebuild their homes.
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