A WESTERN Cape community of 5000 people share two toilets and one tap.
Sowetan yesterday visited the residents of the Eqolweni informal settlement in Plettenberg Bay, about 500km from Cape Town.
The Plettenberg Bay municipality has told residents there is nothing it can do because they have built their shacks on privately owned land. Residents said ambulances and firefighters do not enter the area. The settlement, in a valley, also does not have TV reception.
"Though we are poor, everyone here is forced to subscribe to DStv just to pick up the normal SABC channels," Mziwamadoda Xenge said.
Xenge said he had been unemployed for the past 14 years.
"There are no jobs at all here. Since I arrived from Eastern Cape, I have been queuing up, hoping some rich guy would pick me up to do whatever, even household chores," he said.
Basking in the sun with his fellow jobless neighbours, Zukile Dumezweni said the area posed a health hazard to their children.
"We have one huge open dustbin where we dump our rubbish. It is collected once a week and sometimes not at all," Dumezweni said.
He said their children, who attend school in Nokuthula township, sometimes did not make it due to lack of transport.
"They hike to school every day. Sometimes the cars don't stop to pick them up and so they return home," Dumezweni added.
Nondumiso Khetyane said she opened an educare centre in 2007 to provide for her family.
"It is hard to survive here. I have been living here for 15 years and have never worked except on seasonal jobs. It is hard to maintain this crèche because parents cannot afford to pay as they are unemployed. We share one water tap and queue the whole day for water," she said.
She said they lose their homes to fires because the shacks are built too close to each other and firefighters don't come when fires break out.
ANC ward councillor Monica Seyisi confirmed that the land in question was privately-owned.
"We do not have control over the land. We are still negotiating with the owners to sell the land to the municipality," Seyisi said.
She also conceded that unemployment in the area was very high.
5000 share two toilets and tap
A WESTERN Cape community of 5000 people share two toilets and one tap.
Sowetan yesterday visited the residents of the Eqolweni informal settlement in Plettenberg Bay, about 500km from Cape Town.
The Plettenberg Bay municipality has told residents there is nothing it can do because they have built their shacks on privately owned land. Residents said ambulances and firefighters do not enter the area. The settlement, in a valley, also does not have TV reception.
"Though we are poor, everyone here is forced to subscribe to DStv just to pick up the normal SABC channels," Mziwamadoda Xenge said.
Xenge said he had been unemployed for the past 14 years.
"There are no jobs at all here. Since I arrived from Eastern Cape, I have been queuing up, hoping some rich guy would pick me up to do whatever, even household chores," he said.
Basking in the sun with his fellow jobless neighbours, Zukile Dumezweni said the area posed a health hazard to their children.
"We have one huge open dustbin where we dump our rubbish. It is collected once a week and sometimes not at all," Dumezweni said.
He said their children, who attend school in Nokuthula township, sometimes did not make it due to lack of transport.
"They hike to school every day. Sometimes the cars don't stop to pick them up and so they return home," Dumezweni added.
Nondumiso Khetyane said she opened an educare centre in 2007 to provide for her family.
"It is hard to survive here. I have been living here for 15 years and have never worked except on seasonal jobs. It is hard to maintain this crèche because parents cannot afford to pay as they are unemployed. We share one water tap and queue the whole day for water," she said.
She said they lose their homes to fires because the shacks are built too close to each other and firefighters don't come when fires break out.
ANC ward councillor Monica Seyisi confirmed that the land in question was privately-owned.
"We do not have control over the land. We are still negotiating with the owners to sell the land to the municipality," Seyisi said.
She also conceded that unemployment in the area was very high.
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