6 June 2024
Ayanda Greyela uses a bucket to throw water out of her home in Nomzamo in Strand. She says that she has been staying here since 2010 and although this has happened plenty of times it is getting worse.
Heavy rainfall on Thursday left dozens of Cape Town communities waterlogged. According to the City of Cape Town’s Disaster Risk Management Centre, over 40 informal settlements, including over 1,200 structures have been flooded. Over 2,000 people were seriously affected.
There was also major flooding reported in other parts of the Western Cape.
Resident Broandwell Silala piled bricks in his doorway to walk in and out of his home after it flooded on Thursday.
The centre recorded flooding in “Khayelitsha, Strand, Gugulethu, Sir Lowry’s Pass Village, Wallacedene, Vygieskraal, Bloekombos and Hout Bay”.
Community leader Noxolo Silala checks in on residents in Lwandle as the rainfall subsided.
Noxolo Silala is a community leader in the Simanyene informal settlement in Lwandle. She says the nearby canal often floods into the settlement in winter, making it dangerous for learners walking to school when it’s still dark in the mornings. Like many other families in Simanyene, Silala does not own a heater, so there’s very little she can do dry her clothing and keep warm on days like this.
She also wants government to formalise the area or build them houses.
Residents pointed out this flooded stream between the shacks in Lwandle. They worry that it could lead to rubbish and excrement from the surrounding toilets floating into their homes.
“We need help here,” says Thulani Nonyati, a community leader in New Village, Nomzamo.
He says that shack dwellers in New Village were meant to be relocated years ago, but nothing has happened. Nonyati says that they’re trying to move flood victims into the community hall. But with nearly 200 people affected, space is limited.
When we visited on Thursday afternoon, people could be seen clearing the canal in order to prevent blockage.
This family was trying to remove water from their home in New Village, Nomzamo.