Cape Town - Silindokuhle Khonkgo, 24, carried a large cardboard box filled with clothes, balancing it on her head as she made her way up the mountain on which Imizamo Yethu in Hout Bay is built.
Her heart was heavy because her neighbours, 2-year-old Ayabulela Ngceza and his parents Siyabonga and Nonarana, died in the fire that broke out in the early hours of Saturday outside the Ngcezas’ shack about 30m away from where Khonkgo’s burnt down.
Khonkgo is among the 15000 homeless residents whose shacks were razed.
On Friday, when Khonkgo returned to work in the kitchen in Fish on the Rocks on the Hout Bay seaside for the first time since the fire, she sobbed as she remembered her neighbours. “I’m not fine. I’m crying. I’m gonna miss them so much,” she said.
The husband had always looked forward to coming back home to his wife and enjoyed spending time with her, said Khonkgo.
Zamile Mawu stands at the spot in Imizamo Yethu where his shack was destroyed. Picture: JASON BOUD
“I loved playing with the boy. When we went out, he always asked where we were going and he wanted to come. People liked to follow him around into the roads and to the Somali shop. He was so cute,” she said, choking back tears.
“Especially I knew his mother. She used to visit my auntie and neighbours. They always sat together to chat. She was a nice lady. Her husband loved her. He always looked forward to seeing her when he got back from work. I think he worked on a boat.”
“Maybe if someone goes to town, they (the couple) would walk down with them.”
She got permission to be off from work to attend the family’s memorial service at midday today.
On Thursday, Khonkgo and Zamile Mawu were among hundreds of people queuing for donations worth hundreds of thousands of rands, including water, food, blankets, tents, clothes and hygiene packs.
Khonkgo received a large box filled with jerseys, pants and shirts, while Mawu was given four bags filled with toothpaste, toilet rolls and two pairs of old takkies.
They stopped briefly to chat to Pastor Mildred Godongwana of the New Methodist Church in Khayelitsha before starting their journey. “I heard about it on the news and just cried and cried,” said Godongwana.
“I said to God: ‘You know my problems. But look - they’ve got nothing,’” the pastor added.
Khonkgo and Mawu have been climbing up and down the mountain that’s Imizamo Yethu for about an hour - each at least 10 times, she guesses, this week to fetch donations and water.
After walking past the
government-subsidised homes, churches and shops in the main road through Imizamo Yethu, Mawu left to go to his shack a bit further down
and next to a road, but Khonkgo started mountain-climbing
up an obstacle course, traversing a narrow footpath
winding in between and around shacks.
She crossed large rocks, stones and uneven soil patches and had to put her box down several times or struggle to move it through small spaces.
Picture: JASON BOUD
She dodged shack windows, wires, plants, washing lines and corrugated iron plates.
At the top, Khonkgo stepped over the heaps of metal and soot to show the black square where her shack had stood just a few days ago.
She pointed to where her bed and furniture had been.
She’s looking forward to rebuilding her shack on the same spot.
A little further up the mountain, Khonkgo watched neighbours re-erect their shacks with building kits provided by the City of Cape Town. Poles went up to frame walls and there was continuous hammering. She’s hoping to be next in line.
She was storing her donations at the shack of friend who had taken her in temporarily, Khonkgo said.
When she saw the fire, it was so big she didn’t have a chance to enter her shack and she just ran with the bag she was carrying.
Her ID and cellphone were in it, items she’s grateful still to have.