Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Welcome to the misery of Marikana
Where drugs are more readily available than food, death is a daily occurrence and no one cares
HOME to about 60 000 people, most of whom are unemployed, dysfunctional families and abusive fathers. A heavily drugged youth and no hope for a better life.
This is the sad reality of Marikana informal settlement. Muggings, rape and murder are common.
“Crime in this area is worse than any other informal settlement, that is why the community resorted to taking action. Women are raped, people get killed like flies and the unemployed prey on the employed as if it is their fault they are not working. It really is heartbreaking,” said a resident who wished to remain anonymous.
Rubbish is piled up along the streets, communal toilet doors are broken and bumpy roads are what keep neighbours apart. There are no parks, no community halls and no legal electricity connections.
At the end of August, the Western Cape High Court ordered the City of Cape Town to negotiate with owners of the land to buy it for the occupants. The city was given between one and two months to negotiate and has until October 27 to report to the court.
However, according to mayoral committee member for transport and urban development, Brett Herron, the city has filed an application for leave to appeal against the Western Cape High Court judgment of Judge Chantel Fortuin at the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA).
The Weekend Argus visited the area earlier this week after calm had been restored following the killing of 11 residents on September 30 who, according to community leader Xolani Dosini, were “instrumental in the fight against crime” and the beating of alleged criminal Aphelele Mgobozi last week.
The streets were abuzz with residents moving around, some huddled in street corners while others took advantage of the sunny weather and did their laundry at the communal taps.
“This is normal here. Unemployment is high, poverty is second- nature to these people,” said Ntombekhaya Nyama-Plat, a preacher at a nearby church.
Nyama- Plat runs an informal rehabilitation programme at the home of one of the under-age drug addicts in the community. She said about 20 addicts were part of the programme and they came together every Wednesday to “talk about issues they are either dealing with or that have led them to drugs”.
“Drugs are readily available here. Food, not so much. These children have different tales of horror, but with multifaceted intervention they can be saved,” she said.
With tears in his eyes and desperation in his voice, a 17- year- old drug addict told Weekend Argus he had resorted to drugs to escape the violence at home and the trauma it had caused.
“My father would come home drunk every weekend and we knew he would beat my mother. The last straw was when one day he beat her up so badly that she had a clot in her brain and both eyes were swollen. I lost it, I grabbed a cane and asked him what he thought he was teaching us as children, having to watch the abuse all the time.
“He responded that only a fool would answer my question and I just beat him with the cane. I never saw him after that. I hate him.”
He started using drugs early this year and dropped out of school. “I use drugs so I don’t think about the problems at home. We struggle, and my father was meant to be the one to provide for us but instead he abused us – my mother physically and us emotionally. Tik helps me escape,” he said.
According to his mother, he too has a violent streak. “His father’s abuse has definitely affected him. I see it in his eyes when he fights with his younger sister.”
Mother of one, Nolitha Mqwetyana, 26, dropped out of school after she fell pregnant seven years ago. She and her two sisters were raised by their mother, who was a domestic worker. Her drug addiction lead her to Marikana informal settlement in 2014 after she had “lived on the streets and slept around with random men”.
Mqwetyana’s mother fell ill in 2010 shortly after she had given birth to her first child.
“She sold our home in Lower Crossroads. At that time I was already into drugs but was not dependent on them. I took them on occasion, if I was out with friends or partying. If I had my child with me, I could not allow him to see me in a drugged-up state,” she said.
Waking up from a night of heavy drug use with her live-in boyfriend, Mqwetyana could barely make sense of what was going on around her. She tried to tell her story but struggled to find the words.
“I don’t like talking about my life, it hurts me. I know I have messed it up. I even lost my child. He now lives at a children’s home in Langa. My mother is mentally disabled and I have nowhere to go.”
The youngsters never have much food.
In Mqwetyana’s flat is a single bed, a couch and an old broken television. They have no electricity and all she could say was she hoped one day to leave Marikana and become a famous musician or actress.
“We all have different talents, some are into art and others music and dance, but with no resources and miserable pasts, we are stuck in this hell hole,” she said.
asanda.sokanyile@inl.co.za