Survivor recalls mother’s screams
Ramaphosa can do little to console grieving woman
President Cyril Ramaphosa patted Khuthazile Khanyile on her arm as she broke down. She sobbed while she told him that she will never forget her mother’s screams for help as their home was swallowed by floodwaters.
Her mother, Tetty Thabede, left their home in Mpholo in Mariannhill, west of Durban, at about 6am on Tuesday for work. Soon after, she was caught in a flash flood.
Khanyile and her daughter, Bongi, ran outside when they heard Thabede’s screams and saw her struggling in the water. They tried to help but were also caught in the raging water.
Had it not been for her neighbours, who managed to pluck Khanyile and Bongi to safety, three generations of her family would have been lost within minutes.
“I last saw her as she was leaving for work. She was carrying all her bags. I heard some screams, she was screaming so much. Then the water just went on top of her and at that point my daughter and I got caught in the flood and we didn’t know what happened to her.
“My daughter and I were pulled out but that was the end of my mother. When I came back I asked Bongi where is gogo and she said: ‘She disappeared with you,’” Khanyile said.
She recounted her tragic loss to Ramaphosa, who visited parts of flood-ravaged Durban on Wednesday.
In the early hours of Thursday morning — more than 72 hours after Thabede had gone missing — rescue workers found her body buried in mud under a car.
Her story is echoed by the Sithole family in Umlazi’s H Section.
On Thursday, church hymns rose from a modest low-cost government house where relatives and neighbours gathered to pray for Sibaphiwe Sithole.
Some shook their heads in disbelief while others stood transfixed in the back of a fourroomed house where Sithole died after a wall caved in, crushing the 41-year-old in his sleep.
The Sithole family were ecstatic to receive the house in 2011 but say the home was problematic from the beginning.
“When we got this RDP house we were very happy. We didn’t think the way it was built would lead to my brother’s death,” said Mfanafuthi Sithole.
He said Sibaphiwe was asleep in his room and they believe that the mud from the bank behind his room gathered against the wall until it finally collapsed and he was buried underneath.
Staring at the hole in the wall, Mfanafuthi said his brother didn’t stand a chance.
“We were not satisfied with the way the house was built, it looked very weak. There are no support beams on the doors and windows, making it crack easily.
“We have been passing on our complaints to community leaders, who have passed them on to the municipality. More people are going to die here if things don’t change,” said a frustrated Mfanafuthi.
Less than 500m from the Sithole home, Zazile Mungwe, 65, stood looking at the gaping hole where her house once stood.
“I was at church for Easter when I got a call from one of my children saying the house had collapsed,” she said.
The muddy bank on which Mungwe’s house was built collapsed and crashed into a shack below, burying 10-year-old boy Mnotho Mlotshwa.
For now Mungwe is relying on friends and family. She is living with a relative and has started rebuilding her life.
“I thought my biggest problem was the cracks in the house. Whenever it rained I got really nervous. Little did I know there were bigger problems with the structure, problems that were caused by water,” she said.
Umlazi H Section ward councillor Amon Dladla said recommendations have been made to the department of human settlement to move residents in his ward.