When people of Kanana (Canaan) in Gugulethu settled on open space near the N2 they thought they had found a place they would be able to call home.
Now, however, their living conditions in the damp, low-lying area are making them ill and they complain of infestations of flies and rodents.
As one enters the area, one is met by the overpowering stench of decay and not far away, rats revel in a pile of dumped rubbish.
Now the fed up residents, who are living there because they can’t afford to live elsewhere, want out.
Nobuntu Yekani stays right next to NY11. The sewer drains near her home become blocked almost every month.
She said she woke up to a road littered with human faeces and rubbish and residents have started using a piece of land next to her tiny shack as a dumping place.”This is an unhealthy environment that we live in. You have children that are exposed to this on a daily basis. But we have a government. We have people that we voted and they promised us heaven and earth. These are what we are reaping by staying here,” she said.
If she had money, she said, she would take her children out of the township.
“In the Bible Canaan is a land of milk and honey. Ours is an unhealthy, heavy stinking with stench Kanana. I regret having a shack here. But I came not because I had a choice. I had no place to stay,” she said.
Some residents said what they are experiencing is a self created problem while others blame the government. One said who said the place is not only a health hazard but dangerous to live in.
“I am not going to tell you my name but let me tell you about this place. We have created our problems here. Most young men do drugs and in the process they rob and break into houses. It is difficult to walk at night. We are now between the hard rock and ,” he said.
The ward councillor Bongani Ngcombolo said he had called on government to relocate the residents.
“When we campaign for them to be taken out of here, people think we are being political. But here is the evidence of how people live. This is unhealthy and hazardous,” he said.
