Needy flood victims scramble for food

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By MATT MEDVED

Mietjie Peterson lifted her hands out of an empty vat of potatoes and gravy and sat back against a counter as a plastic sheet lowered and separated her from the scrabbling hands of the frenzied crowd outside.

Peterson is one of several displaced Philippi residents who volunteered to give out food to the estimated 800 people who turned the Brown’s Farm Community Hall into a make-shift refugee camp after heavy rainfall at the weekend flooded their homes.

The ward councillor for the area, Bongani Mini, said the displaced residents were being urged to go back to their homes last night because there was no rainfall expected today.

“Although their houses are still wet, many of them are anxious to return home,” he said.

“Many of them are afraid that they may lose their belongings to looters.”

Mini said the community was grateful for the food and blankets that the City’s Disaster Management department had brought for them, but he wished it had come sooner.

“It was raining on Thursday, but they didn’t respond until Saturday,” he said

Although Mini said that everything at the community hall was in order, the chaos that raged seemed to suggest otherwise. As one of the volunteers left the enclosed kitchen area holding loaves of bread, she was immediately swarmed by children attempting to snatch the loaves out of her arms as she pushed towards the exit.

When she finally emerged, her arms were empty and the children around her were squabbling over the pieces they had pilfered.

Peterson said many of the older residents were working together to help look after the younger ones.

By the end of the night she was anxious to get home, despite her home still being flooded.

“The rain came in from the top and bottom and everything is wet,” she said. “But I have two children and one of them has got a lung infection now. They need me.”

Informal residents want houses and toilets – and to be moved out of ‘unfit’places

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By MATT MEDVED

The SA Communist Party held a mass meeting for disgruntled Gugulethu residents at the Lucas Mbembe Community Creche last night to air their grievances with disaster response and service deliveries.

More than 120 residents showed up at the discussion, chaired by Cape Town SACP secretary Luthando Nogcinisa and SACP street organiser Lindile Sonyoka.

“This morning we went door to door to visit people affected by this disaster and they said the City of Cape Town had not sent anyone to help,” said Sonyoka.

Disaster Management logistical officer Aboubaker Kippie said he had personally delivered food parcels to the Lotus informal settlements and was shocked by the allegations of neglect. Several residents confirmed he had brought food and blankets to them last week.

But Lotus area ward councillor Mandisa Matshoba said that while Disaster Management had not responded quickly enough to the flooding, the real issue was about housing rather than food and blankets.

She said she had spoken to Housing MEC Nomvula Mokonyane about the issue and she was coming to visit the Lotus community today.

She also conceded Disaster Management was likely understaffed because of the other flooding and that the tangled electricity lines made it very difficult for trucks to enter informal settlements to help.

And while Gugulethu residents were generally appreciative of the relief, they were also more seriously concerned with the housing problems and lack of service delivery.

“The food and blankets, they aren’t helping. We already have food,” said Z Mbarane, a woman from the Lotus informal settlement. “What we need is work. We need houses, we want toilets.”

One woman asked that Disaster Management assist the community to get rid of excess water because it was exposing their children to diseases.

Lotus resident Jackson Mkhizwane said he did not think they should have to stay in the area as it was unfit to live in.

“Why should we just sit on top of a pile of rubbish where water is easily absorbed and will rise again as soon as it rains?” he said. “This is a cheap place where people cannot live, we need to be relocated. It has been 13 years since the democratic elections. People like Chris Hani gave their lives for freedom but most people are still not really free.”