Residents looking forward to swapping rats‚ cold conditions for electricity, running water

04 July 2018 - 06:30 By Naledi Shange And Thando Mpembe
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The newly prefabricated units that Cape York and Fattis Mansions residents will call home.
The newly prefabricated units that Cape York and Fattis Mansions residents will call home.
Image: Thando Mpembe

As scores of displaced Johannesburg residents await approval to move from their tents pitched in the Wembley stadium to newly prefabricated units they will now call home‚ a two-month-old baby girl has experienced the horror of having part of her cheek chewed off by a rat.

"She fell off the bed and while she was on the floor‚ she was eaten by rats. It really did hurt me‚" said the little girl's mother‚ who asked that she not be named.

"I took her to the doctor yesterday and they gave me medication‚" the woman told TimesLIVE as her baby lay sleeping on a bed‚ wrapped in an old‚ dirty blanket. The marks on her cheek are still clearly visible on her light skin. This woman is one of scores of people who were moved from the dilapidated Cape York and Fattis Mansions in downtown Johannesburg last year. She gave birth while still living at the stadium.

The first group of people arrived at the stadium in June‚ while the second arrived in July. Just a few metres away from them‚ the white prefabricated units‚ which each have running water‚ electricity‚ electricity points and a sink‚ are still vacant as the City of Johannesburg is still in the process of allocating them to residents.

"It's not okay to be here‚ especially for a child. People fight all the time‚ there is theft of things like IDs and birth certificates. It's cold‚" said the woman‚ who added that she relied on fire and paraffin to cook for her children.

The group say they have no idea when they will finally be allowed to move in. On Monday night‚ as the cold front swept across parts of the country‚ this woman and two of her other children were among those huddled in a large tent which houses over 30 people. Each of the families‚ which include women‚ men and children‚ has their allocated spot in the tent. Blankets hanging from ropes strung across the tent are used to divide living space.

Each family gets just a few metres of space‚ enough to fit a bed and a few of their belongings.

A picture of mobile toilets to be used by the Cape York and Fattis Mansions who survived fires in July 2017.
A picture of mobile toilets to be used by the Cape York and Fattis Mansions who survived fires in July 2017.
Image: Thando Mpembe

Litha Radebe‚ who is on the committee representing the residents‚ told TimesLIVE that Tuesday's howling winds were not the worst that they had experienced since they arrived at the stadium in Turffontein.

"[Yesterday] wasn't as bad. We have had worse. It gets bad‚ especially when it rains and all the water gets into the tents‚" said Radebe. Some people have continuously fallen sick since their arrival at the stadium. "Last year‚ we lost a person to the cold. He left Fattis‚ came here and developed some sort of flu and he coughed a lot. We don't know what it was‚" said Radebe. He added that he ccould not wait to move into the new temporary houses and while he is grateful for them‚ he acknowledges they come with their own challenges.

"The challenge is that unmarried people who were living together are not being put together. They will be put into the single's section and there‚ they will share their rooms with two other people. Some of these people are elderly‚" Radebe said. Residents had been given forms to sign.

"The forms said that there are no payments [for the temporary housing] but there are rules. The rules‚ for example‚ say that we cannot leave the rooms unoccupied for more the 48 hours. If we do that‚ our things will be taken to the police station. But what happens if I am back at home or in hospital or in jail?

Another rule is if there is no electricity‚ we cannot use paraffin‚ gas or light a fire. I understand they are doing this because these things are risky but they are not providing an alternative‚" Radebe said.

There were currently 51 containers available but the City of Johannesburg's housing department said in a statement last week that 33 of these would be allocated to those currently at the Wembley Stadium. "The provision of these park homes followed the July 2017 court order that instructed the City to house the people evicted from Fattis Mansion and those affected by the Cape York fire in the inner city by October 1 2017‚" the city said in a statement.

"In view of the unsustainable living conditions in the tents‚ the department resolved that the quickest solution would be to provide… the prefabricated units with full ablution facilities‚ running water and electricity."

Project manager‚ Zanele Malusi said the project was fraught with challenges as they tried to reach the deadline set by the court. "We are not where we had planned to be‚ but this is a major milestone‚ having been able to allocate the first phase‚” Malusi said.

According to Malusi over 30‚000 people are still living in Johannesburg's dilapidated buildings. The problem was hard to contain because when residents were evicted‚ the city was obligated to provide temporary emergency accommodation and currently had a limited number of resources available to do so.

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