Demolition

Yesterday, Itipini was demolished.

A notice was issued a few weeks ago when the incident with the woman who lived near Waterfall occurred stating that people should vacate Itipini. No one really took this with any seriousness because there have been statements like this made in the past and nothing has ever happened. Not only that, but taking the threat seriously or not, the people that live in Itipini, by and large, don’t have anywhere else to go. Hence why they are living in a shack on top of a dump. It seems, though, that maybe we should have headed this warning a little bit more. How we should have done that, I’m not so sure. We’ve been working like mad to get people IDs and to get housing forms filled out and turned in for everyone possible. Once out of our hands, though, those papers go into the hands of the municipality who, like most government agencies, take a fair amount of time to process. In the meantime, the same municipality has now made homeless all of those that still lived in Itipini. This is all done, of course, under the guise of doing what is “best” for these people – getting them off of the dump and out of an area prone to crime. While this may have been their long-term goal (and certainly ours as well), wires got crossed and some policemen (whom I suspect are holding a grudge for an officer that was killed a year or two ago in the area) foraged ahead with the demolition part of the plan prematurely. Now everyone has been evacuated to the Rotary Hall turned into a disaster shelter and it has created a whole new mess of problems. Not only is the hall not big enough to house that many people, but, as I said before, there is no place to cook. So instead of having to feed around 90 people, that number has just jumped to several hundred that need to be fed all of their meals every day. I’ve been assured that they will all be allowed to stay there and be provided for until they can be put into government houses. This, I think, is a lot of lip service. I think that they will grant houses quickly (which could means weeks or months) to those who are eligible and for those that don’t have IDs and are thus, ineligible, I think they kick them out to their rural homes. These homes, keep in mind, are places of origin in most cases and not their homes. Their homes, where they have lived for 20+ years, were in Itipini. Their friends and family are all here in Mthatha. Their work and livelihood are here in Mthatha. And, if it’s hard to make a living in the city where there are at least odd jobs to work, making a living in the rural area – especially if you are coming from somewhere else and starting with nothing – might be damn near impossible.

People were digging in the rubble for their belongings that they couldn't get out in time

People were piling their things around the project to wait for a truck to take them to Rotary Hall.

Brother and sister (their names are escaping me right now) with what used to be their shack behind them.

Nonzuzo Fokisi waits with her things for the truck

View of Itipini from 2007

The same view today.

As for what it’s like on the ground, I don’t have so many words on this subject and the ones I do have seem inadequate in describing the kind of loss I’m witnessing and feeling. Talking about this politically and in terms of ideal social improvement seems incredibly distant when faced with the people of this community. The municipality can is playing chess but these people are not pawns – they are PEOPLE. And this was their home. I find what the municipality is doing to be deeply unfair even if their road is paved with good intentions.