SAVE OUR CITY: There’s no water, no power, no toilets, and it stinks. Everson Luhanga visits a hijacked house in Yeoville.
Mnyamandawo means a building that has no electricity, no water, no toilets. It’s just dark — and dangerous.
That’s what Scrolla.Africa found at a hijacked property in Yeoville.
There are piles of uncollected rubbish, and sewage running down the street with a stench lingering in the air.
But destitute people are living there — and for them it beats sleeping under a bridge.
Young children play on the street unattended as the elderly and the youth sit around looking defeated and hopeless.
A shoulder-high structure, the shell of a small house, is the only sign that a happy family once lived here, in a nice middle-class home.
Innocent Ncube said he has been living at the place for the past eight years. He said that the man who owned the house ended up trying to burn it down.
“People I found here told me that the owner left the house because he couldn’t reclaim it from the hijackers. After several attempts to reclaim it, he failed. He knew he had lost the house to dangerous criminals. One night, he came and petrol bombed it,” he said.
Inside the yard, people have built shacks.
In some shacks, more than five people share a room. They use the same bedroom to bathe and cook.
Innocent said life is tough in the not so glittering city of gold.
“We don’t have water, electricity, or toilets. We walk to the market about a kilometre away to use the toilet.
“It becomes difficult and dangerous at night because the area is rife with criminal activities. But there is no alternative.”
He said they buy water from those who have it.
“They charge us R50 for a 20-litre bucket of water. It is expensive considering that we are unemployed. It is hard,” said Innocent.
While the Scrolla.Africa team was still interviewing Innocent and other residents, an elderly woman came out of her shack and accused our team of trying to hijack the property.
“We know your wicked plans. You want to evict us so that you can take over this place. It will not happen. Just leave and go right now,” she screamed.
When approached, the woman didn’t want to speak or give our team her name.
Another resident, Nkhulani Masuku, said they stay at the building because they don’t have to pay.
“I used to sleep under the bridge. One of my friends took me here and since then, I haven’t moved. This is a better place than under the bridge.”