Durban - It is an open secret at Glebelands Hostel in uMlazi that what started the violence which has left more than 60 people dead, is rooms for sale.
“If you want a room here, you pay,” says a resident who lives with her husband.
She believes that tribalism, political alignment and other factors - on which the violence has been blamed - are coincidental.
No matter what the reason, police have showed a determination to put an end to it.
The incessant wailing of police sirens and a helicopter hovering, pierced the still uMlazi morning air on Friday, as tactical response teams, Metro and other officers from around Durban, K9 units from as far as Pietermaritzburg and Kokstad and 30 public order police officers deployed from Pretoria, descended on the infamous hostel.
Police spokesman Brigadier Jay Naicker said three firearms had already been seized before the more than 50 police vehicle convoy swooped in for a search and seizure operation.
Conflict at the eThekwini Municipality-owned hostel stems from the control of rooms.
One female resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Daily News that the hostel was peaceful when she moved in from the Eastern Cape town of Bizana in 2009, to live with her aunt while studying nursing.
Residents were forced to pay a monthly fee of R800 for a bed in four-man rooms, and R2 500 for a single room,” she said.
Those who failed to cough up the required “rental” fee were evicted, or worse, killed.
During the raid, police found a woman in a room which only had an unmade double mattress on a single steel frame.
“Where do you live,” asked police. When she responded that she lived in this room, they accused her of lying, asking where her linen, clothes and other housewares were.
After much probing, she led them to a room next door, where a pot of water was boiling on a two-plate stove. They searched the room while questioning her about lying.
When a safe was discovered, she phoned her husband, defying police instructions to hang up.
She told police that her husband was coming from another room in the hostel where he ran a tuck shop.
“People are dying for rooms and you have three, how come?” asked one officer.
The woman did not answer, instead folding her arms with the phone held out, apparently to let her husband in on what was happening
He eventually came charging down the dark passage, opening the safe to reveal two guns and bullets. He handed police a licence for one, but not the other weapon.
Police also found a bank bag of R100 and R200 notes under the mattress, which seemed to be for storage of documents.
“There is something going on here, tell us the truth, baba,” said a policeman, before taking the man to the police station to confirm his story that his gun was lost, then found, but his license had never been returned to him.
Police seized an SANDF replica uniform, knives and pangas before moving on their operation to the KwaMashu Hostel.
A firearm and ammunition found in the possession of a Glebelands hostel resident.
Daily News