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The weekend of 13-15 October would be best forgotten
by members of four families living in the Cato Crest Greenfields.
To these families this weekend will go down as the longest
of their lives. A group of young delinquents unleashed terror
that sends shivers down the spine of anyone who cares to
listen as the victims tell of the terror that was unleashed
on them by these young thugs.
Some say the youths were drug-crazed, while others believe
they were possessed by demons of some kind unknown to man.
It is alleged that the style that was used by the drug-crazed
youths is reminiscent of the search and destroy tactics
that one sees in the movies.
One of the victims, Ntombi (real name withheld), told
IZWI that she was soundly sleeping with her daughters aged
between 13 and 15 when the front door of her house was knocked
over. Instinctively she was at the door grappling with her
assailant thinking he was alone. But when she managed to
pin her assailant to the wall, to her dismay she realised
that more thugs were waiting patiently for her to finish
her heroics.
"To my disappointment there were more thugs than I
had anticipated. I simply resigned myself to the terror
awaiting me and my daughters," the traumatised woman
said. Her daughters were repeatedly abused by the assailants
for five hours. When she tried to free herself from their
grip she was assaulted. Her tormentor used their guns as
batons to silence her. After they had raped the girls, they
shot at Ntombi’s feet and seemed to enjoy watching her jump
up and down as she tried to escape the bullets. Then they
disappeared into the night to attack yet another family
nearby, taking some of her possessions with them. Following
the assault, Ntombi and her daughters have had to undergo
the trauma of HIV testing.
One of Ntombi’s neighbours remembered that night: "The
gunshots kept me from helping her. I was too afraid and
the other people were too drunk to do anything."
Rapist stoned to death
Meanwhile a suspected rapist was stoned to death by a group
of angry Cato Crest residents in the Greenfields Housing
project.
It is alleged that the victim had come back to sexually
terrorise a girl for the second time. Sources close to the
family have revealed that the young girl was molested by
the victim but police could not press charges because the
suspect was not positively identified.
Thinking that he could get away with rape for the second
time the suspect returned. Unfortunately for him the girl
screamed and roused her neighbours. In a fit of anger the
neighbours reacted violently and stoned the suspect to death.
"We are tired of these thugs! If the law cannot protect
us from unwanton terror we will defend ourselves. They cannot
expect to push us forever."
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Community forums
Dear IZWI
Kindly publish this letter on our behalf as we feel it is
worth the effort.
Idasa is an independent non profit organisation which
is on a mission to establish democratic institutions and
advocate for social justice. One of the activities that
it is involved in, is to educate communities about democracy
and constitutional phenomena.
The KwaZulu-Natal Democracy Project has, as its focus,
the education of citizens in the importance of participating
in constitutional democracy activities at a national, provincial
and local level.
As the strategy to accomplish this noble but difficult
task, we intend to initiate provincial community-based organisation
consultative forums. The forums will be used, among other
things, as a platform for both CBO’s and NGO’s in the province
to share ideas on community development programmes.
Towards the end of this year and the beginning of next
year we are planning to conduct training for organisations
in the province via CBO forums. We therefore invite your
organisation to participate in the Durban Region Consultative
Forum, to be held at venues yet to be disclosed. Each organisation
is requested to send two delegates.
For more information contact Nhlanhla Mtaka, Civil Society
Co-ordinator,
1904 Maritime House, Salmon Grove, Smith Street.
Tel: 305-9768.
Yours in Community Development
Nhlanhla D. Mtaka
"Umfowakwa Nomajalimane"
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Jamaica residents will not be spending this Christmas in
their new houses. The development of houses in the area
has hit a snag following the failure of the project managers
to deliver houses. The Jamaica Development Committee is
now contemplating to bid for the project management of their
development.
"Because the project has fallen behind schedule we
are seriously considering becoming the developer and appointing
an expert to play a supervisory role," said a committee
member who wished to remain anonymous. IZWI has learnt that
work on the infrastructure programme has been half completed
and Teichmann Civils has been pulled off site pending the
relocation of shacks obstructing the services construction.
The programme that was adopted for the development of the
area was an in-situ upgrade arrangement whereby construction
of houses takes place after each slab is prepared.
IZWI has learnt that only eight houses have been built
so far despite the fact that close to 200 slabs have been
prepared. Moreover, the people of Jamaica, Universal the
project managers and the CMDA have rejected the constructed
houses citing unacceptable standards as the reason. Sources
close to the development are saying the delay has been partly
caused by the refusal of community members to move their
shacks out of the way of services construction. Community
members initially committed themselves to make way for the
services but are now unwilling to co-operate.
For the construction of houses to continue people have
to move their shacks that are in the way of the services
construction or accept moving into a new unserviced house.
Town planning approval for the Jamaica development was approved
in 1998.
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