Cape Town - A mother of five in Delft, an area already rife with gang violence, is at her wits’ end after a drunk driver rammed into her home.
Residents of Blikkiesdorp claim gang violence has killed 62 people since the beginning of the year. And on Monday morning, this family nearly died after a driver careened into their home, leaving them exposed to criminals.
Two of the children, aged five and 10, were caught under the car but their mom managed to get them out, leaving them with bruises on their bodies.
Wendy Petersen Picture: Jack Lestrade
Wendy Petersen, 41, says a drunk driver in a Toyota Avanza crashed into her home just after 3am. The mother was lying on a single bed in her home, which has been ripped open like a tin can.
Her children, aged five, seven, nine, 11 and 13, have been left to wander around without food or warm clothes after thieves ransacked the house after the incident.
Video: Genevieve Serra/Daily Voice
Wendy says she was only given a few metal sheets and beams of wood to rebuild her home by disaster management officials.
“I filled in my housing subsidy forms in 2014. I was approved, but when am I moving?” she asks.
Fright
“Look what happened now, I heard screaming and someone call ‘Wendy’. Toe ek wakker skrik, is die Avanza bo op my en twee van my kinders. I grabbed and pulled my five-year-old, Johnny, and my 10-year-old, Nicole, out. This man who drove into us was so drunk and the police didn’t arrest him. They let him go, saying this isn’t a matter for the police, and that [the driver] must pay for the damages.”
Wendy says instead of helping, the man allegedly further traumatised the family by robbing them.
“We don’t even have extra blankets for the children and it’s raining,” the mom says.
Police spokesperson, Siyabulela Malo, said a case of reckless and negligent driving has been opened for investigation with no arrests made.
Meanwhile, 74-year-old Susan Williams says she and other vulnerable elderly women are being threatened with rape by “vigilantes and gangsters”.
Susan Williams Picture: Jack Lestrade
“I am living here 11 years. We feel that the City needs to get us out here because it is not safe here for us. They have threatened that they are going to rape us here.”
Last week, five men were murdered in Q block.