Reserve residents fear for their lives
CRIMINAL activity in the close-knit community of Seven Tanks in the Silverglen Nature Reserve has intensified. Two homes were recently petrol bombed.
It has been alleged that land invaders, intent on building makeshift homes, were responsible.
Last Wednesday, the community, who live in wood and iron homes, said they feared they would be killed.
Seven Tanks is one of the oldest Indian communities in Chatsworth.
The residents, most of whom are smallscale farmers, said their ancestors built homes in the reserve more than a century ago.
One of them, who has lived on the land for five decades, said he had to be alert in case he was attacked.
The father of two, who declined to be named, said his two-bedroom home was targeted by angry invaders last Monday.
Some of them began building their homes down the road and someone notified the eThekwini land invasion unit. They demolished the shacks and chased the land invaders away,” said the 57-year-old.
“While my wife and I were in the room that evening, I heard a bustling sound. They threw a petrol bomb at the window and by the time I went to check, the carpet and the curtains were alight.”
He doused the flames with water from inside, while his neighbours threw buckets of water in the entrance to the property.
His two daughters have moved in with relatives while he and his wife have been left to defend themselves.
“We have to take turns guarding the house,” he said.
This was not the first time the residents have come under attack.
“Since 2014, we have been having issues with petrol bombing. It stops and flares up again. But it’s the first time my home has been struck. I don’t think it will be the last.”
Another farming family said land invaders hurled a lit paraffin bottle at their house on the same night.
“This is about the third time we were hit,” said another resident, 56.
“My home is more than 80 years old. The last time we were hit, my windows were damaged. I did not replace it because I knew it would happen again.”
She said her granddaughter, 5, was traumatised and kept asking why someone would do that.
“I wish I could tell her. We would consider leaving but we farm here. This is our livelihood. Also, we don’t have money to just pack up and leave.”
She said the Department of Human Settlements had informed them last year that they would be rehoused.
“But nothing happened,” she said, before adding: “This is certainly not the life I chose for my family.”
A mother of one, 25, said criminals held a knife to her last Monday.
“My child, 5, and I were walking in the area and we heard someone scream. Two men grabbed us and held knives at us. My child began to cry. I gave them what I had and they ran away.
“A day later, I was at my aunt’s house and two other men walked in and screamed at us. They demanded valuables,” she said.
The chairperson of the Silverglen conservancy, Shaun Hammond, said: “Last week, we found two bodies here and a few months ago, a mother and son committed suicide.”
The deceased, he said, were not residents. Hammond added that criminals also used the nature reserve to abandon stolen cars.
“This is out of hand. To curb crime, we have decided to close the entrance at Silverglen and keep only the one at Road 703 in Montford open.”
In that way, park rangers could regulate who entered and exited.
The reserve, he said, was 220 hectares and unfenced.
“It’s easy for criminals to hide. We were, therefore, left with no choice but to close one of the entry-exit points.”
He added that the reserve had fish eagle and crowned eagle nesting spots.
“We see animals like bush pig and small antelope. This is the only green lung in Chatsworth, so it needs to be preserved.”
Ward councillor Tony Govender said the sporadic crime resulted in “unnecessary mayhem”.
“The residents are living in fear. It is tense at the moment.”
Govender said there was a time when the residents were supposed to be placed in park homes, while the department built homes on the land.
“But the residents were never moved because they were afraid they would be left in the park homes… but the department should have continued with building the homes.”
At the time of publication, the municipality and the Department of Human Settlements had not responded to requests for comment.