Cape Town – A disabled man living in Lower Crossroads was evicted from his shack when he couldn’t pay the full amount of his rent on Monday.
Marcus Den Nyoni, from Zimbabwe, has been wheelchair-bound since he suffered a spinal cord injury when he was robbed and stabbed in 2018.
He said that on Monday his landlord put his belongings outside and chased him away.
“I won’t manage to pay him the R500 for this month. It has been hard through this whole pandemic, I am a foreigner and I don’t even get a grant. Right now, I am facing a challenge where my landlord came and put my things outside,” he said.
“I’m taking medication each and every day for the pain in my legs I’ve got no family here, I’ve got no one to support me. I’m alone, this is how I am living.
"This is very bad. I’m looking to get some assistance from any individual who can help me,” he said.
The landlord could not be reached by deadline.
Willson Tarusarira, a PhD candidate for health and rehabilitation studies at Stellenbosch University, said Nyoni, who takes 31 tablets a day due to his disability, said that when he first occupied the place, he was asked to pay R500.
“Prior to his eviction, Mr Nyoni reported that the landlord arrived with some people whom he thinks are related to each other. Those people started asking the landlord why he was renting his shack to a disabled person and a foreigner.
"When I arrived, Mr Nyoni’s items were wet and piled in the house. I asked some neighbours as to what transpired but people were not willing to reveal exactly what happened,” he said.
Tarusarira said he was looking for a shelter for him.
Melikhaya Gadeni, Community Policing Forum secretary of Ward 34, said: “We have liaised with Sanco Entshona branch to intervene on the matter as eviction by landlord is prohibited under level 3 lockdown.”