A group of Khayelitsha residents, who are fed up with living near a pool of drain water where three babies have been dumped and found dead in the past year, could soon be relocated.
The residents of an area in Site C, known as Island, said the pool of water at the back of their properties was a place of "bad luck" because children had also drowned in it .
But after a visit by Mayor Helen Zille to the area on Sunday, the city has identified a piece of land it hopes the residents could be relocated to.
Three weeks ago residents found a dead newborn baby boy wrapped in a plastic bag in the water and they said they believed he had been thrown there by his young mother.
The body of the baby was discovered by a young boy who went to fetch his ball near the drainwater.
The residents say it is not the first time they have found the bodies of babies there. They said that in the past year they had found three babies in the water.
One resident found a baby who was alive when she rescued it.
Patricia Dywili said she heard children screaming that they heard a baby crying near the toilet. "The baby was not even a full day old and it still had its umbilical cord attached. I pulled it from the water and the police arrived," she said.
She said she was upset that babies were being dumped there because one of her own children had drowned in the water.
The emotional Dywili recalled how in 2003 her mentally disturbed son had fallen in the water and two days later had died in hospital.
She said tearfully that had the water not been close to the shacks, her son would still be alive.
"I curse this water. Someone needs to do something soon. This water also stinks and we are suffering from TB," Dywili said.
She blamed the government and the municipality for failing to attend to the problem.
"When the elections come, government people will be the first to approach us, but they do not want to help us," said Dywili.
On Tuesday the media liaison officer in the Mayor's office, Bonginkosi Madikizela, said they had visited the area on Sunday during the mayor's tour in Khayelitsha, and had been concerned by the living conditions.
"We have found a piece of land where people can, we hope, be relocated to," said Madikizela.
- Cape Argus
The residents of an area in Site C, known as Island, said the pool of water at the back of their properties was a place of "bad luck" because children had also drowned in it .
But after a visit by Mayor Helen Zille to the area on Sunday, the city has identified a piece of land it hopes the residents could be relocated to.
Three weeks ago residents found a dead newborn baby boy wrapped in a plastic bag in the water and they said they believed he had been thrown there by his young mother.
The body of the baby was discovered by a young boy who went to fetch his ball near the drainwater.
The residents say it is not the first time they have found the bodies of babies there. They said that in the past year they had found three babies in the water.
One resident found a baby who was alive when she rescued it.
Patricia Dywili said she heard children screaming that they heard a baby crying near the toilet. "The baby was not even a full day old and it still had its umbilical cord attached. I pulled it from the water and the police arrived," she said.
She said she was upset that babies were being dumped there because one of her own children had drowned in the water.
The emotional Dywili recalled how in 2003 her mentally disturbed son had fallen in the water and two days later had died in hospital.
She said tearfully that had the water not been close to the shacks, her son would still be alive.
"I curse this water. Someone needs to do something soon. This water also stinks and we are suffering from TB," Dywili said.
She blamed the government and the municipality for failing to attend to the problem.
"When the elections come, government people will be the first to approach us, but they do not want to help us," said Dywili.
On Tuesday the media liaison officer in the Mayor's office, Bonginkosi Madikizela, said they had visited the area on Sunday during the mayor's tour in Khayelitsha, and had been concerned by the living conditions.
"We have found a piece of land where people can, we hope, be relocated to," said Madikizela.
- Cape Argus
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