Misery as shantytown burns, then soaks

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http://www.sundaytribune.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=3413389

August 27, 2006 Edition 1

HUNDREDS of families were left destitute on Friday when a fire razed more
than 400 shacks at the Siyasokola informal settlement near Seacow Lake,
Durban.

And to add to their misery, most residents had to spend Friday night in the
pouring rain that lashed most parts of the province just hours later.

“The flame is a demon that has destroyed our lives,” said 6-year-old
Nkosinathi Zulu yesterday, as he scrambled for a spot under a single tent
set up by the eThekwini council for the families.

His mother, Bonisiwe Nxele, said she had thrown him out of their burning
shack. “All I have now is the clothes on my back and my son,” she said with
tears in her eyes.

Nxele said the fire had started in the early hours when one of her
neighbours had left a paraffin stove unattended.

“I was awoken by screams and next thing I saw flames in my house. I threw my
son outside and when I tried to go back and fetch my clothes, I got severe
burns on my ankle and back,” said Nxele.

She said many other families had suffered a similar fate.

“I don’t have a job and I don’t know how I am going to survive the next few
days,” said Nxele.

Community leader Nhlanhla Mbili said the heavy rain had added to their woes.

“The council said that they would put up only one tent because the last time
(they had provided tents for shelter) a tent had been stolen. Everybody
tried to squeeze into one tent. It was pathetic,” he said.

He said they were grateful to the Red Cross which had brought them blankets,
clothes and food parcels. “Without the Red Cross, many people would be
walking around naked, without food,” said Mbili.

He said the name of the settlement, Siyasokola, which means “we are in dire
need”, could not have held more true for its residents.

By late yesterday several men, women and children were hard at work
rebuilding their shacks with whatever scraps of metal and planks that they
could find.

“In December 2004 there was a fire disaster similar to this one. Somehow,
rebuilding our shacks has become a part of our lives,” said Mbili.

Asanda Miya, whose shack also burnt down, expressed her anger with tears
clouding her eyes. “Nobody cares about us poor people. We don’t have water
or electricity and when we need to use the toilet we have to go to the
bushes. When will this end?” she asked.

Earlier this month in the Kennedy Road Settlement, a 70-year-old man was
burned alive in a fire in his shack.

President of the Abahlali Basemjondolo movement, S’bu Zikode, said the
family of Zithulele Dhlomo could not afford funeral expenses and would wait
for the state to give him a pauper’s burial.

He said that after the local government department discontinued electricity
to shack settlements, many people’s lives had endangered because they used
other, more dangerous, sources of light and means of cooking.

The Durban Fire Department said from January to June they had responded to
198 cases of shack fires, compared with 209 last year.