Durban - Unfulfilled promises for housing lie behind the petrol-bombing of at least two Puntan’s Hill houses in less than a week.
Since the beginning of the year, people living in the informal settlement - frustrated by the long wait for housing - have been encroaching on private land, leading to tensions and anxiety.
On Sunday night, unidentified men believed to be from a neighbouring informal settlement threw three petrol bombs into a house.
The home was destroyed and a woman was injured. A car in the yard was also set alight and burnt to a shell.
Khumbulani Ngcobo, a small business owner who said he had been living in the area for the past 29 years, said the municipality had made promises since 2003 that people would get houses but nothing had been done.
“We have been talking about this for years, you cannot keep fooling people. We have to fight for everything; the reason we have the electricity is because we fought for it,” he said.
“You cannot expect a family of four or more, parents living with their children, to settle for such living conditions. As the kids grow we are unable to have privacy.”
Community members had decided to invaded private land because they were tired of waiting on unfulfilled promises, he said.
The biggest concern for the community was that once they had built their informal settlements and started living in them, the municipality destroyed them without notice. Their belongings were thrown out and their homes shattered, he said. Already several shacks had been marked, he said, and were expected to be destroyed by next week.
“Homeowners are the ones who point at which informal settlements they want destroyed and this agitates the informal settlement dwellers.
“As a sort of retaliation, they have started fighting with them by also destroying their homes.”
Community leader Cebo Mhlongo, said he was surprised by the attack on Sunday night.
“I was surprised that she was attacked because she was most understanding of the plight of the people living in the informal settlement.
“The problem was that some people were building their shacks right on her doorstep and that became a big issue, and she would complain.”
He said homeowners who were not happy about the spread of shacks had been tolerant, saying the shacks could go up to a point, but some people would go beyond that. “And in some cases some people have been deliberately provocative towards homeowners.”
A homeowner, who declined to be named, said having the shacks close by was “damaging” but they had learned to live with them. “What does that do to the value of your property? There is the issue of petty crime, but petty crime is everywhere.”
He said he got along well with the adults from the informal settlement and only had an issue with youngsters who were rude.
MEC for Human Settlements Ravi Pillay said although he was still waiting for an updated report on the situation, government officials, including those from the premier’s office, had already met the community. More meetings were being planned as the government was facilitating the process of opening communication between the groups.
Speaking on the promises for housing, Pillay said he was sure a plan was in progress, but it could not happen overnight.
Attempts to get comment from the municipality were unsuccessful at the time of publishing.
The Mercury