‘These people are out to get us’

Terror, anger and squalor best describe Skielik, an informal settlement of fewer than 50 shack dwellings on the outskirts of Swartruggens in the North West.

Skielek which lies between the main road and railway line to Swartruggens, was the scene of a brutal gun attack on recently. Residents barricaded the main road on Tuesday to protest against the killings, which occurred when a gun-toting youth allegedly went on a shooting spree, killing three residents and wounded six.

The violent attack was, most residents claimed, motivated by a general hatred for black people among the local white farming community.

Most of Skielik’s residents work on farms in the area and in the quarries as slate diggers. They rent the area from a landowner who charges them a monthly fee of R35. They get water from a tank, provided by the landowner.

The community, said 30-year-old Baswabile Wati, is very peaceful and appreciates the presence of white farmers because they ‘help us with employment”.

However, Wati, a quarry worker, said: ‘They [the whites] have threatened to beat us before and have promised to make us eat our shit for not following their orders, but we don’t hate them. All we need is peace and safety.” He supports five family members on his meagre weekly wages.

On Wednesday afternoon the main thoroughfare into the settlement was buzzing with reporters and photographers. Shattered neighbours, relatives and sweaty camera crews crowded the homes of the deceased. But there was not a police vehicle in sight.

‘We are very angry and scared because we are sitting here not knowing what is going to happen to us next,” said a grieving Augustine Ntombeni, grandfather of 10-year-old Tshepo Motshelanoka, who died in the shooting. He had just returned from his daily 5km walk from school and was playing outside his neighbour’s house at the time. A white teenager, 18-year-old Johan Nel, is accused of the attack.

‘Our children were killed like birds. Birds are even better because after shooting them you pick them up — our children were left there to die,” Ntombeni said.

Just up the road, at the Moiphitlhi residence, Thys Legwale and Abram and Esther Moiphitlhi were preparing to leave for Paul Kruger hospital in Rustenburg. On Monday three-month-old Keditlhotse Moiphitlhi was the second child to die in the shooting. The child’s mother, Ikgopoleng Moiphitlhi (31), was critically wounded.

Ikgopoleng’s father, Legwale, dressed in a torn dark blue South African Police Service shirt and duty boots, said he had given enough media interviews for the day. He complained of fatigue and said he was worried about the welfare of his family.

‘According to me,” said Legwale, ‘the government has to really wake up this time. They should take charge of what happened to us on Monday; they should also cover hospital and funeral costs for our loved ones.”

Sivuyile Dinana (30) was the third victim of Monday’s shooting.

On Tuesday North West Premier Edna Molewa visited the families of the deceased, including the Moiphitlhis.

‘I told Edna here yesterday that they should rather tell us to look after ourselves and stop promising us things they know they can’t deliver. It’s been 10 years since we arrived in Skielik and for years we’ve been told that we will be moved to a better place — how long should we wait?” a distraught Abram Moiphitlhi, an uncle of the deceased, said.

An angry neighbour, Selina Molefe, said the community needed to stand together and be vigilant about the local white community.

‘It’s clear that these people are out to get us. Look what they did to us in just a few minutes. What if they come back and finish off what they have started?

‘Yesterday [Tuesday] at court I wanted to see the suspect. We wanted to burn him alive and see him die. I’ll make sure that I go to court tomorrow [Thursday] to see the face of this bastard who shot my nephew on the leg,” said Molefe.

Across the road a shattered Vakusukume Phahloti (41) was sitting metres from where his cousin, Dinana, was shot dead. Phahloti could only utter a silent ‘kuzolunga [it will be all right]”.

Dinana was shot when he tried to get the children out of harm’s way after he heard gunshots from his shack. Minutes later he was lying in a pool of blood next to a dying Tshepo Motshelanoka.

When Maria Serote arrived from work in Swartruggens she found Dinana and Motshelanoka’s bodies sprawled in the dirt outside her yard.

‘We quickly picked them up and put them in a safe place in my house,” she said, crying.

Serote’s granddaughters, Kgomotso (23) and Kelebogile (21), were working in the house when the suspect shot them.

Kelebogile said the suspect kept on shouting ‘hulle’s baie stout, hulle hoor nie [they are very naughty, they don’t hear]”, while he allegedly shot at everybody in sight. ‘I am afraid they [the whites] might come back. Nothing can stop these people from repeating what they did because there are no police here,” she said.

But Serote said she is grateful that none of her family members died in the shooting.

‘My children are all lying in hospital with bullet holes on their buttocks. I am deeply hurt but I console myself that at least none of them died,” she said, pointing at a bullet hole in the corrugated iron house.