A month-old baby girl who lived with her mother in a shack in Philippi that was flooded on Tuesday night, has died of pneumonia.
Asemahle Nyaba developed a cold after heavy rains.
By Wednesday morning the flood water was so high in most of the shacks in the Egoli informal settlement that families had to stand on beer crates and bricks.
Heart-broken mother Landiswa Nyaba, 17, said her baby's cold had worsened on Wednesday morning and she had asked community leaders to arrange transport to take her child to hospital.
But the child had died before she could take her to hospital. "This is enough now. I've lost my baby because of the damp we live in," said Nyaba, her eyes red from crying.
Egoli community leader Abe Fransman confirmed that the baby had been very ill in the shack at about 5am and they had arranged for her to be taken to hospital, but she had already died by the time transport arrived.
When the Cape Argus visited Egoli on Wednesday, many shacks were still flooded.
A resident, Mavis Du Toit, 41, said she desperately wanted to be moved from Egoli and pleaded for help from the government.
She said she was worried she might catch diseases from living in a flooded shack.
"We will get TB if help does not come soon. It's been a long time that we've been suffering in this place," said Du Toit.
Many children had not attended school on Wednesday because their uniforms were wet, residents said.
Instead, the children were wading though pools to help their parents bail out water from the shacks.
Fransman said Egoli had been in existence for the past 13 years and no government assistance had been given to its residents.
He claimed the city's Disaster Management had not come to help since their homes were flooded.
Previously when flooding occurred, a team from Disaster Management visited Egoli but they had simply come to register the resident's names, with the promise that they would help them, said Fransman.
"These people are again going to arrive and ask for our names and that's not good enough. We want Zille to come here to see for herself how people live here," said Fransman.
Disaster Risk Management spokeswoman Charlotte Powell said the Egoli residents could rest assured that help would be sent.
- Cape Argus
Asemahle Nyaba developed a cold after heavy rains.
By Wednesday morning the flood water was so high in most of the shacks in the Egoli informal settlement that families had to stand on beer crates and bricks.
Heart-broken mother Landiswa Nyaba, 17, said her baby's cold had worsened on Wednesday morning and she had asked community leaders to arrange transport to take her child to hospital.
But the child had died before she could take her to hospital. "This is enough now. I've lost my baby because of the damp we live in," said Nyaba, her eyes red from crying.
Egoli community leader Abe Fransman confirmed that the baby had been very ill in the shack at about 5am and they had arranged for her to be taken to hospital, but she had already died by the time transport arrived.
When the Cape Argus visited Egoli on Wednesday, many shacks were still flooded.
A resident, Mavis Du Toit, 41, said she desperately wanted to be moved from Egoli and pleaded for help from the government.
She said she was worried she might catch diseases from living in a flooded shack.
"We will get TB if help does not come soon. It's been a long time that we've been suffering in this place," said Du Toit.
Many children had not attended school on Wednesday because their uniforms were wet, residents said.
Instead, the children were wading though pools to help their parents bail out water from the shacks.
Fransman said Egoli had been in existence for the past 13 years and no government assistance had been given to its residents.
He claimed the city's Disaster Management had not come to help since their homes were flooded.
Previously when flooding occurred, a team from Disaster Management visited Egoli but they had simply come to register the resident's names, with the promise that they would help them, said Fransman.
"These people are again going to arrive and ask for our names and that's not good enough. We want Zille to come here to see for herself how people live here," said Fransman.
Disaster Risk Management spokeswoman Charlotte Powell said the Egoli residents could rest assured that help would be sent.
- Cape Argus
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