‘I dreamt of spoiling her. Now we have nothing’
FIVE months ago, Ntisetseng Tetswana was heavily pregnant and dreaming of swathing her first-born in a frilly pink blanket, singing her a lullaby, perhaps placing her in a white crib.
Tetswana, 24, who moved from the Eastern Cape last year to be with her boyfriend in Cape Town, knew she could not afford the crib, but she did not realise just how badly her dreams would be shattered.
This week she found herself homeless, sitting on a plasticcovered mattress in a chilly community hall, hugging her three- month-old daughter, Dimpho, to keep her warm.
Dimpho, dressed in a stained yellow Baby-gro, her only remaining item of clothing, coughed a few times.
“I didn’t think her life would be like this. I wanted more for her,” said Tetswana.
“I dreamt of spoiling her. Now we have nothing.”
Tetswana is one of hundreds of Strand residents who were evicted from land in the Lwandle informal settlement on Monday.
The land, owned by the South African National Roads Agency, is earmarked for the rerouting of the N2.
Their homes were demolished, leaving many with only the clothes on their backs as temperatures plummeted and severe storms hit the Western Cape.
The evictions and demolitions ended in violent clashes between residents and the police on Monday and Tuesday.
Among the items Tetswana lost were her baby’s first booties, which she had kept to show her family when she visits them in the Eastern Cape in December.
“I got such a fright when the police came . . . I ran and dropped Dimpho. For a second I thought I had killed her. But she’s fine.
“I can’t believe this is our life. We’ve got nowhere to go,” she said.
In the community hall, the residents said they did not want to be at the centre of political bickering. They simply wanted help. “I need nappies and food, not arguments,” said Tetswana.
Mattresses lined a wall and people were huddled on them under donated blankets.
Others sat on plastic chairs in circles busy with card games. Children ran around playing.
Yambo Lamla, 28, an unemployed father of two toddlers, said he was ashamed that his family was staying with hundreds of other people in a hall.
“I’m meant to look after them and I can’t even put a roof over their heads,” he said.
Friends Mpumelo Papu, 19, Spenathi Mdabuka, 20, and Thabo Swelindawo, 22, who had lived together in a shack for three months since moving out their overcrowded family homes, said they were more concerned about writing exams than political squabbles.
“We’ve lost our school uniforms in this evictions stuff and just want to pass exams.
“I’ve got to write Xhosa. I’m focused on that,” said Swelindawo, a Grade 11 pupil.