Cape Town - Close to 5 000 people in Khayelitsha’s informal settlements were affected by the severe weather conditions over the weekend, with more than 1 000 shacks destroyed by heavy rains and gale-force winds.
Wards 99 and 96 were especially hard-hit, with residents now trying to rebuild their lives after they woke up knee-deep in water as the rain seeped into their shacks.
Affected by this was Nombulelo Bonani, 59, from ward 99 in Endlovini, who said that she woke up with her feet soaking in water at around 4am.
“When I got out of bed, my feet were in the water. When I moved from the bed to the living room, there was water as well. The water was reaching below the knee. I have been living here since 2010 but this is not the first time we have received flooding but it is the first time we had that high capacity.”
“My fridge is damaged and our clothes and furniture are wet, but I am still assessing further damage.”
Further down the dirt road, residents were rebuilding their homes with the material that got blown off due to a “tornado” on Thursday evening.
Salim Omar, 45 described the experience as a disaster as he nailed a small shack together for him, his wife and his son to sleep in.
“It feels like some sort of punishment. We were in the house and just heard roofs flying followed by a big boom and lightning. Nobody knew what was happening, but we were inside the house when it just flew. I am thankful nobody got hurt but we need to build ourselves a shack so that we can have a roof over our heads.”
Gift of the Givers has been handing out humanitarian relief and food to all those affected since Thursday.
Western Cape project manager for Gift of the Givers, Ali Sablay, said the total was close to 10 000 people affected as calls had been coming in across Cape Town for help.
“It is going to be a busy few days for Gift of the Givers teams, but we have pulled in additional assistance in terms of stocks from our different warehouses around the country. On only the first day of the inclement weather it’s predicted close to 10000 people have been affected, though that number could rise over the next few days, but our teams are geared up.”
