Heavy rains have caused extensive flooding across Khayelitsha and Gugulethu, leaving a trail of destruction and misery.
Homes have been damaged or destroyed, and families have reported losing furniture, groceries and other belongings in the flooding.
The Emsindweni, eThembeni, Island and Covid settlements appeared to have been particularly hard hit by the flooding when Vukani visited. Women in rain jackets on the side of Baden Powell Drive were turning back vehicles trying to enter Makhaza because of flooded roads there.
On Monday, the weather service issued a Yellow Level 4 warning, saying rains were expected to cause flooding of roads and vulnerable settlements in Cape Town along with the southern parts of the West Coast, parts of the Cape Winelands and western parts of Overberg districts on Tuesday.
Emsindweni resident Nosakhe Fahla said she was thinking about leaving the province because she had to buy new furniture every year because of flooding caused by the winter rains.
“This is tiring,” she said. “We are here not because we want to be, but we have nowhere to stay. Every year, we are told stories about proper houses. There is no year that passes without registering for houses, but zilch.”
Her children had also been unable to attend school because of the flooding, she said.
“We were woken up by water at 4am and found out that our clothes are wet. We have to stand up early and try to mop out the water. But we could not control the water,” she said.
“Imagine if it really rains for the whole week; what will happen to us? The weatherman has predicted that it will continue for the week. We appeal to the authorities to do something.”
Community activist Bulelani Qola criticised the government for failing to provide housing in the province’s shanty towns. It appeared the City of Cape Town “just does not care”, he said.
“The City of Cape Town needs to release land for people… Some of the areas are 25 years old but still in wet areas,” he said. “They have been talking about us living in the wetlands, and yet we know that the whole of Cape Town is a wetland. What is important is land. Release land to people and then we can work it.”
The City’s Disaster Risk Management spokeswoman Charlotte Powell told IOL that they were determining the need for humanitarian and engineering relief.
“The roads department is assisting in unblocking roadways and providing milling and sand in some areas. The electricity department is dealing with weather-related outages,” she said.
In a statement, the City said the entire country faced a huge demand for housing, and it encouraged people not to settle on land unfit for habitation or lacking utilities.
It’s Unlawful Occupation Hurts Us All campaign emphasised the risks posed by the unlawful occupation of land.
“Many of the newer unlawful occupations are not budgeted for, and the majority of the settlements have formed on land where services are not feasible. The City has done assessments of all areas and continues to look for options. We have active programmes in place to reduce the health and safety risks of informal settlements.”
The human settlements directorate alone had budgeted R1.8bn over the medium term for services and upgrades in informal settlements, and R2.5 billion of the capital budget had been allocated for human-settlements projects over the next three years, the City said.
