In an effort to assist people affected by the faction fight which took part in Majola Village in Port St Johns, the founder of Sizwe Kupelo Foundation, Sizwe Kupelo, handed over clothes and blankets to some of the community members left homeless during this incident.
Kupelo was accompanied by a team of social workers, members from Songe Social Change and Tyeks Security Company. One of the victims, Nofikile Khatywa (66), said her three-roomed house was burnt to ashes.
Earlier today, the foundation visited Majola war victims in Port St. Johns and distributed clothes and blankets to those whose houses were torched and forced to live in the bush with their children. pic.twitter.com/WCbBFxishx
— Sizwe Kupelo Foundation (@SKFoundationSA) June 13, 2023
“Now we are hoping that there will be a change in our communities, because this violence left us with nothing but pain. We do not have places to stay because our homestead was burnt down. Now that there are police officers who are patrolling here we feel safe,” said Khutywa. She said that this initiative would bring a change because they did not have even clothes to wear.
The Ward councillor of the area, Councillor Bulelwa Mjakuja, said that what Kupelo did had brought a smile to these community members.
“We are also happy that police officers are patrolling in this area. At least people are now able to sleep in their homes. There are a lot of changes that are happening here,” said Mjakuja.
Kupelo said that they had also brought the Phantsi Ntonga tournament, with the aim of changing the situation between these localities.
“We also brought them soccer kit because we were told that some of the kits were also burnt down. When we visited here before, some of the women asked us to bring psychologists so that they can find counselling. We also brought new clothes and we received some other clothes here in Port St Johns,” said Kupelo.
“We were not given money by government, but they took from their pockets and helped because there was a need to do so. We are bringing peace here; we are going to spend five years here trying to develop all these localities,” said Kupelo.
