Residents stand by baby-dropping dad

Joe Slovo residents angered by the demolition of their shacks last week are standing firmly behind the father who dropped his one-year-old daughter from the roof of a shack.

The child was caught by a metro police officer and was not hurt.

The residents claim they were not given eviction letters and allege they were encouraged to occupy the empty land by their ward councillor, Simphiwe Tyukana.

But Tyukana has repeatedly denied this.

Resident Lizzie Jantjies said the councillor had failed them. “There is a lot of instability in our ward and when we approached the councillor last year, he told us to invade unmarked land and put up our structures.

“We followed his direction – we believed he was on board, and then last week, without any warning, the police came in and started tearing our houses down,” she said.

Jantjies said the panic caused by the demolition resulted in tempers flaring.

“The problem is that we are in desperate need of houses.

“So for people to come and take away the little we had was an emotional thing for our community,” she said.

That tension was palpable on Thursday last week when the SAPS, metro police and municipal officials began demolishing the shacks.

As the demolition was in progress, a man climbed onto the roof his shack with his toddler, throwing her off about five minutes later.

Another resident, Vuyani Siziba, said the events had been traumatic.

“People were traumatised because they were about to lose everything. The manner in which the police came in here, they were ready for a fight.”
Siziba said he did not believe that the 38-year-old father, who is not being named to protect his daughter’s identity, had intended to throw the child from the roof.

He believed that because the man’s shack was surrounded by armed police officials, he had only wanted to “pass” the child to the mother.

“Yes, that father was on the roof with his daughter, but he was backed into a corner of losing his house,” Siziba said.

“I want to correct this misconception or myth that he wanted to trade the child’s life for his shack. He was on the roof to stop the demolition, not to endanger his child.

“We are all parents and at no point did we want him to hurt his child, so saying that the community urged him on is also false.”

Lungelwa Makina said the situation could have been handled amicably had residents been informed.

“People were angry that day. I was angry,” she said.

“But if our councillor was fighting for us and had warned us about the demolition, a lot of things could have been avoided.”

Following the protests, Ward 41 councillor Tyukana’s house and family were threatened, after which he allegedly went on a rampage and viciously attacked two women.

He has also denied these allegations.

Referring to the claims that he had given the residents permission to build on vacant land, he said: “I warned them on two different occasions that their structures would be demolished if they continued.

“I, at no point, encouraged anyone to put up structures on that vacant land.”

The father, who is still in custody, will appear in court on Monday. – Additional reporting by Siyamtanda Capa