×

We've got news for you.

Register on SowetanLIVE at no cost to receive newsletters, read exclusive articles & more.
Register now

Hostel residents 'living in fear'

WAR ZONE: eThekwini mayor James Nxumalo visits KwaMashu hostel where incidents of political violence have flared PHOTO: TEBOGO LETSIE
WAR ZONE: eThekwini mayor James Nxumalo visits KwaMashu hostel where incidents of political violence have flared PHOTO: TEBOGO LETSIE

RESIDENTS of Durban's volatile Kwa-Mashu hostel say they live in constant fear of being killed in what is believed to be a low-key political war.

Even more worrying, say residents who do not want to be identified, is that police have failed to make arrests in some of the more than 20 killings during this year alone.

The hostel, unlike the eight other hostels in Durban, is a squalid, overcrowded facility whose conditions are made worse by shacks built between the hostel blocks.

"You sleep today and in the morning, you wake up with a shack next to your room," said a resident .

"You don't know who is staying there or where they come from. Some of us are concerned because we have children," she said.

Residents say they cannot live elsewhere as they cannot afford rent.

Following the killing of four ANC members at the hostel on November 7, the ANC's KwaZulu-Natal deputy chairman Willies Mchunu has blamed opposition parties.

Sphamandla Mpungose, Sizwe Shandu, Lucky Sibiya and Sibongiseni Biyela were shot dead at the hostel in a suspected political hit. They were said to have defected from the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP).

"ANC members are not the problem here, they are the ones who are targeted," Mchunu said during a visit to the hostel recently.

Mchunu who is also MEC for community safety, visited the hostel to assure residents that arrests into the murders would follow.

The hostel rooms are inhabited by one up to eight people. The tenants say they pay between R46 and R600 per month.

 

Last Thursday the ANC eThekwini region held a joint memorial service for the dead members ahead of their burial.

Although Mchunu did not name individual parties, he said the ANC has always been targeted. But IFP provincial chairman Blessed Gwala hit back.

"The ANC has dismally failed as the government to put the real hostel issue to rest. It has failed to change the hostels into family units and reduce crime. Why would we kill people for defecting from us? We also have many members who defected from the ANC and other parties," said Gwala.

Ubunye bamaHostela - an association formed by hostel residents - blames both the governing party and the opposition for the killings.

Chairman Vusi Zweli said hostel residents were used as tools by political leaders.

"We formed this association so that people could be united on the basis of their common needs and not be divided according to their political affiliations," he said.

Political violence in KwaZulu-Natal hostels dates back to pre-1994 when most hostels were divided between the ANC and IFP.

 

Zweli said political parties were fueling tensions among hostel dwellers, who he said were mostly not "well educated. We are trying to educate them here but it is going to take time," Zweli said.

The ANC's call for cameras in the hostels has been rejected by some hostel residents, saying they had not stopped crime in the Durban central business district.

fekethas@sowetan.co.za

 

For more stories like this one, be sure to buy the Sowetan newspaper from Mondays to Fridays

Would you like to comment on this article?
Register (it's quick and free) or sign in now.

Speech Bubbles

Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.