Landlord saves 3 tenants, another dies in landslide
● Perhaps it was the screams of terror or desperation in their voices. Or maybe it was just human nature to help a fellow person that gave Michael Govindsamy, 56, the strength to jump over his balcony and haul three of his tenants to safety while a mountain of mud demolished parts of his home in the pounding rain.
But despite Govindsamy’s heroic feat, he is riddled with guilt for not being able to save another of his tenants, off-duty police officer Nokuthula Sithole. She was crushed by rubble during two landslides — minutes apart — that covered several houses in Lotus Road in Durban’s Springfield Park in the early hours of Tuesday.
Among the survivors was Sithole’s fiveyear-old son, Kuhle, and long-time friend, Const Gugulethu Buthelezi, who underwent police training and worked with her at Durban Central Police Station. Buthelezi’s roommate was also saved by Govindsamy.
The father of three said he was unable to sleep as the rain fell incessantly, and was helping his neighbour remove water which entered her home shortly before 2am.
Initially reluctant to talk, Govindsamy’s wife Leeanne eventually coaxed him into recalling the events in an effort to help him deal with the trauma.
“Our tenants called my wife to say water was coming into their room, and I left to go and see what was going on,” he said.
“When I got to the gate of my house I heard this rumbling and I looked up and saw the whole hillside coming down and smashing into the back of the house.”
He said all that was going through his mind was that he could not let them die.
“I could not get access from the side so I went into the house and jumped over my balcony into the water. I helped the woman out and the child through the bathroom window and carried them back up to safety. I don’t know how I did it, maybe it was the adrenalin, I can’t tell you,” he said.
After making it to safety on the pavement outside his home, Govindsamy heard the cries of his neighbours who were trapped in waist-deep water inside their home and rushed to try and help them.
Govindsamy said he had witnessed several floods in his lifetime but nothing compared with the events of this week, which annihilated the home he has lived in his entire life in a matter of seconds.
“I was born and brought up here. I have been through so many floods — a major one in 1975, the 1987 floods and the recent ones — but nothing like this, not in this area at least. Other areas, yes, not here.”
Govindsamy, who is unemployed, said his family did not know where to start in rebuilding their lives.
“We’ll just have to take it one day at a time and trust God. We are Catholic and this is the holiest week for us. We have been fasting for 40 days. All our plans are out the window now, but we will still go to mass and thank God for keeping us alive.”
While the Govindsamys counted their blessings, the Naidoo household a few doors away was not so lucky.
McKaylan Naidoo, 21, and his six-year-old brother Mateo died when a second landslide toppled their home and trapped them beneath the rubble. Their funerals were held on Friday. Their family said they were too traumatised to speak.
All three bodies were recovered by members of police and the community on Tuesday.