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People’s Post
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Owner vows to rebuild NETTALIE VILJOEN NETTALIE.VILJOEN@MEDIA24.COM
“N
othing is going to keep me back. I will rise up and I will do it 10 times better than before.” This is the message that Liezl Mathews, owner of the Little Angels Educare Centre, has for the criminals who set fire to her creche on Friday 19 June. Four structures, including a kitchen and a storeroom, were destroyed in a blaze which, Mathews says, broke out after the centre, located in Karbonkel Road in Hangberg, was targeted with petrol bombs. Lt Col K Masakala, the station commander of Hout Bay police station, has confirmed that a case of arson is being investigated. Little Angels was founded in 2011. Before lockdown, it accommodated 86 children, aged one to five, and eight aftercare kids. During the lockdown, it was the command centre for a feeding scheme which prepared and distributed meals in Hangberg, Ocean View, Manenberg, Lavender Hill, Retreat and Capricorn. Other groups also used the premises as a distribution point for food packages and pet food. With the centre destroyed, these services have ceased. People’s Post spoke to an emotional Mathews at her home on Wednesday 24 June. She says both her and her family members are traumatised. Her nephew, Cameron Adams (36), was trapped in the centre’s kitchen when the protest broke out. She says it has been especially hard on. “Luckily, we managed to get him out just in time.” Jesreel Adams (8), Mathew’s late sister’s child who she has raised since he was a baby, has difficulty sleeping. “He comes to me every night, crying. He says he doesn’t want them to kill me,” she shares. Inspite of all this, Mathews remains positive. Once Covid-19 passes, she hopes to rebuild. What keeps her going, she says, is the outpouring of support she has received. “So many have sent me kind messages on social media. People who know how hard it was for me to build the centre from nothing.” She mentions Rob Quintas, the councillor for ward 74, in particular. “On the night of the fire I hardly slept, and he must not have
slept either because he was in constant contact with me, asking if we needed anything.” Mathews says she is grateful to all of the people who have already offered to help. “The City of Cape Town has promised me four prefabricated structures as well as a kitchen kit which includes a stove and a gas tank. But it is going to take a lot to get back to where we were.” Speaking out on the torching of the two premises in Hangberg on Friday – the other was an electricity depot – Mayor Dan Plato said the arson was an apparent “retaliation” for the repeated removal of an “illegal, partially built and unoccupied structure” on land that had been earmarked for community services. The structure in question stands next to Little Angels on land which the City had agreed to lease to the creche to incorporate a safe house. On Thursday 11 June, the City dismantled the illegal structure during an anti-land invasion joint-operation (“Tensions flare in Hangberg”, People’s Post, 15 June). Three days later, according to community sources, the structure had been rebuilt and the owner, Ginola Phillips (20), had moved in. After the anti-land invasion unit again dismantled the structure on Friday 19 June, all hell broke loose. According to the City’s Mayco member for human settlements, Malusi Booi, City law enforcement officials came under attack with petrol bombs, flares and stones. Mathews says malicious rumours fuelled the attack on the centre. “Some people in the community have been spreading lies, saying I am to blame for the anti-land invasion unit showing up.” She says after the unit first arrived in the area, she received threatening messages through WhatsApp. “I am not angry. I have forgiven them for what they have done. I just hope that, when this case goes to trial, those who said these things will be man enough to repeat it in court,” Mathews says. Quintas says no reason can justify this kind of destruction. He says it’s difficult to get NGOs to step into a space where they fear volatility and violence. “This is a tragedy. What the parents of the little angels are going to do with their children when the ECD centre can’t open as it was supposed to; I
Liezl Mathews, owner of the Little Angels Educare centre in Hangberg, stands in one of the structures destroyed in the blaze on Friday 19 June. have no idea as yet,” he adds. Mathews says she still finds it hard to believe that “jealousy and hatred” could lead to this. She says she is also disappointed in law enforcement. “They just come in here, do what they do – without warning – and then leave. People in the street were throwing rocks at my family, swearing at us. Anything could have happened.”
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Asked if the action taken by the City on Friday could be deemed irresponsible – considering Hangberg’s volatile history – Richard Bosman, the executive director of safety and security, said the matter is the subject of litigation and the City could not comment any further. V To assist in rebuilding Little Angels Educare centre call Andrew Stoller, on 073 602 3526.