Cape Flats residents who were left homeless after last year’s tornado feel that the municipality has not done enough to provide new housing
Marianne Merten A year to the day after her daughter Ghaironisah Moosa was killed when a tornado hit Manenberg on the Cape Flats, Maraldia Ajam died. The elderly woman lived for much of last year in a Wendy house, metres from where her council home stood before the storm. Neighbours said she died of a broken heart, the cold and the wet. The story of Ajam captures the desperate conditions of the victims of a tornado that swept through the poverty-stricken township. Many who were affected by the storm still have to recover emotionally and in material terms.
The terrible storm left five dead and dozens injured when it cut a swath through the oldest section of Manenberg – intended as temporary accommodation for families who were forcibly removed more than 30 years ago. About 285 legal council tenants and 160 backyard dwellers lost their homes. Hundreds of families were affected in nearby Guguletu and Surrey Estate. The Cape Town council is building new houses on a rent-to-buy basis, but only the 285 council tenants are eligible for allocation, whereas their 160 former backyard tenants are not. “It’s a raw deal they are giving us. I had a beautiful three-roomed structure in my mother’s backyard. It was a home,” said Jennifer Hector, who has been on the council housing waiting list for 15 years. She and her four children lived for 10 months in a church before moving to the Wendy house provided by a Muslim welfare organisation. Laundry flutters from makeshift wooden washing lines. The ground turns to mud in the rain. People cough, children play snot-nosed in the dust. Water comes from taps between the rows of Wendy houses. Two ablution blocks provide toilets and bathing facilities. Three public telephone booths were recently set up, but the actual phones are still missing. Camp residents now worry this means they will stay. And this week the council announced backyard dwellers could remain in the temporary shelters or could rebuild in backyards of the new homes. Anger and disgruntlement run deep. Hundreds of residents marked Tuesday’s anniversary of the tornado with a protest march to the council offices and Parliament.
The council is accused of standing by while NGOs, churches and mosques provided shelter, clothing, food and medical care for the stricken communities for months after the disaster. Since April the Mayor’s Relief Fund Trust – combining R1-million from the council and more than R2-million of public donations – has funded various projects like neighbourhood-watch vans, recent trauma counselling, flu vaccines and vitamins, extra doctors at the three local clinics and insulation for temporary shelters. Residents claim they have yet to see benefits from the donations. They also question what happened to the multimillion-rand insurance pay-out the council received for its destroyed rental stock. The foundations of the first houses can be seen in the barren area where the tornado struck. Sixteen houses will be completed in September and another 180 houses by December. But construction has been repeatedly disrupted as tempers flare. Many say the development is sub-standard. Sixty tenants have withdrawn from the rent-to-own scheme. The remaining 183 participants had to sign affidavits stating they would stick to the housing scheme.
They must save amounts of between R50 and R360 each month for six months. This money, with the housing subsidy, goes towards the construction of the various models. Tenants would continue paying monthly instalments for four years before receiving title deeds. “The tornado damaged our homes. The council destroyed them,” said pensioner Nora Maphaike, who lived with her cancer-ridden husband and child in a ground-floor council flat that escaped unscathed, unlike those of her upstairs neighbours. “The council decided on our behalf: take this house or you get nothing.”