INLSA
A distraught resident of the New Dunbar settlement in Durban contemplates her next move after her home was burnt down by an angry mob. Picture: Terry Haywood
A mob burnt down three shacks and destroyed several others at New Dunbar in Bonela, Durban at the weekend.
The mob, which came from the “SPCA” and Matinini temporary housing camps, also in Bonela, accused those living in New Dunbar of standing between them and proper low-cost housing.
Members of the mob said they had been removed from New Dunbar so that the city could build houses fro them on the sites they had vacated.
However, those spaces were then occupied by other people, who had built shacks.
Police Captain Thulani Zwane said a group went to New Dunbar to demolish shacks on Saturday and returned yesterday to burn down the remaining structures.
He said police would patrol the area until the dispute had been resolved.
“So far there are no reports of anyone being hurt,” he said.
New Dunbar resident Portia Gumede said the crowd had invaded her house and stolen her bed before breaking down her shack on Saturday. Yesterday they returned to set it alight, she said. “We have nowhere to go.”
Like her neighbours, Gumede said she had lost all her possessions in the fire.
Two women from Matinini, who were part of the mob, said they were tired of living in the “tin houses” provided by the municipality as temporary housing.
They had been moved there in 2009, but no houses had yet been built. They said Matinini had six toilets for at least 200 residents, no electricity and no running water.
A tour of the camp showed several illegal electrical connections running off street lamps lying near pools of smelly, stagnant water.
Another Matinini resident, Nomasabatha Luponda, who lives in a one-roomed home with a family of eight, said her children were constantly sick because of the unhygienic conditions and lack of running water and toilets.
Ward councillor Bhekisisa Mngadi could not be reached for comment.
