Devastating sludge from tailing during flooding in Snakepark
Nobulawo Sitshaluza
After the sludge flooded houses in the year December 2022. Mr Sindile Mkangala a 46-year-old man who stays at address no 5377 in an informal settlement met with the councilor of Snake Park Ward 129 Phumlile Tshangase. The councilor addressed him as a member of the committee for people living in an informal settlement, she gave him firm instructions that residents who were heavily affected by the flood sludge from tailing cannot be located in proper houses but they must continue to stay in the same destroyed land.
One day when he came back from work after the sludge destroyed some homes, he found a lady building a shack in his yard. “ I could not do anything to stop them, because they had no place to go,” said Mr Sindile Mpangane is a pensioner 62-year-old grandmother who stays at address no 4904 block 1.
“The councillor offered no real assistance at all during the flooding. I lost most of my furniture and clothing. I am forced to share a yard with my neighbour and we dont get along. I have waited for my RDP house from 1996 until today iam ashamed and I have to share a one-room shack with my grandchildren.” she said.
Lebogang Selogilwe 54 years old lives in address no 4902, she is a mother of mother of four children and she also has two grandchildren. They are living in a two-room shack close to the tailing. The shack is old and cracked and the dust blows in every day because the zincs are old. She is currently unemployed and she can’t afford to renovate the shack, she lost all her belongings in the sludge.
“ It is hard for me to move my shack because I can’t afford people who will fix, iam also waiting for my RDP house. Every time I go to the Department of Housing they turn me away because my name is not yet on the list. Iam scared that I will die and leave my kids without a home”. She said.
She also currently staying at the same yard where everything she owned was destroyed by flooding. She also prays that in the end, she will have a proper home for her family, as a single unemployed parent.
I think the government must act urgently and allocate people to proper homes.
