Cape Town - Her 20-year-old daughter died in a shack fire last year and the thought of suffering a similar fate is Nosakho Sigwelo’s worst nightmare.
Sigwelo, 53, has lived in a shack for 23 years.
“When my daughter died, the fire brigade said the fire was too strong and they couldn’t rescue her.”
Sigwelo believes that at her age she should have a proper house.
This is why Sigwelo plans to march to the Western Cape provincial legislature on Friday in a protest organised by the Cape Town Informal Settlements Organisation. She hopes Premier Helen Zille responds to the organisation’s request.
Her two-roomed shack in Site C, Khayelitsha, where she lives with her seven children, is not well built.
There are gaps between the corrugated roof sheeting and the wall where sand blows in, and there is a hole in the roof that leaks when it rains.
The floor has holes where rats get in.
“I can’t relax while living here,” said Sigwelo.
She awakes at 7am to begin her chores.
“The first thing I do is clean the potta-potta toilet because it leaves the house with a stench. It sometimes spills, so I then need to wipe the spilt faeces with newspapers.”
Although the City of Cape Town had promised the portable loo would be collected daily, several days’ worth accumulated outside the shacks and neighbours threw the waste outside each other’s yards.
“You wake up and you see poo outside your home, dirty baby nappies. I have to clean it.”
Sigwelo’s chores include sweeping out the sand every half-hour and ensuring all food is enclosed in containers where the rats can’t reach it.
She has been treated for TB and says her living conditions have made her ill many times.
“Having a house would allow me to relax.
“I won’t have to wake up and clean human waste and most important a house would mean I could die peacefully. I don’t sleep well. I keep thinking of how my daughter died.”
Sigwelo said she hoped to confront Zille at the provincial legislature on Friday.
“I want to take the potta-potta, sit on it and then ask the premier how she would feel if she had to do this.”
zodidi.dano@inl.co.za
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