Cape Town - Victims of the Manenberg tornado have said the disaster was a blessing in disguise after they picked up the pieces and rebuilt better lives for their families.
It was on August 29, 1999, a day that Cape Town will never forget.
Five people died, 220 were injured and over 5 000 were left homeless after a wind reaching 150km per hour hit the maisonettes in Manenberg.
A bloodied red sky and a loud bang is what residents recall, some believing the end of the world had come.
Then a raging wind swept through the courts, removing cars, windows, rooftops and walls in its path.
A total of 40 flats were destroyed.
This year, TikTok users also compiled videos of the disaster, some filmed by Associated Press, showing one of the deceased being removed from the debris, furniture being carried by men, and shocked residents thanking God because their lives were spared.
Today, these victims have said the tragedy forced them to survive and build better lives for their families after they had to wait two years for new homes to be rebuilt.
Several of these victims were single mothers, who are now grandparents and great-grandparents.
In 1999, R1 million was allocated by the City of Cape Town’s disaster relief fund to rebuild.
But it was not only the buildings that needed rebuilding, lives and livelihoods had been destroyed. Some were forced to sleep inside classrooms or a family in one room before they were housed.
A year ago, a wall of remembrance was erected in the local park, Tornado Park, which has the names of the victims, including those who passed away years after the tragedy and those lost to the pandemic.
Ironically, the streets where the new homes were built are named after natural disasters, such as Cyclone Street.
Charles Josias, of the Jordaan Community Forum, said the wall formed part of their history: “We decided we needed to do something to remember the people of the tornado and those who died during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“It is a place where victims can sit and reflect and tell their grandchildren what happened that day.”
For Maria Warries, 73, fondly known as Aunty Marie, the emotions are still fresh as the day the tragedy happened.
Warries described that morning and her life thereafter with a lump in her throat.
“I thought it was the end of the world. I looked through the window and I saw no homes,” she said.
“I thought, are we the only ones left, my children were screaming ‘please help me’. I said to the children it is the end of times and that there is nothing you can do.”
“We had a stressful life after that, I had to sleep in one room with my children and I only earned R800 per month. I was soon offered a job and God opened the doors for me and later for my children.
“We just have to be grateful and faithful because God sent people into our lives, my employers who helped me raise my children and looked after me until the day I retired.”
Another is Mary-Ann Hazel, 66, whose children were forced to sleep in classrooms and relatives’ homes when she was down to her last dime after the tragedy.
Hazel was homeless, unemployed and a single mother.
But after the disaster, she refused to give up. She became a crèche teacher.
“It looked like a fire in the sky, and then the wind began and it swept everything out of the door; my son was on one side and me on the other and I knew if I had to pass it would take me also.
“I remember just after that, my children and I sat on the field and my daughter asked me, ‘Mommy, where are we going to sleep tonight?’ I had no answer, two of the children had to sleep in classrooms.
“I had buried my husband in 1996 and in 1999 the tornado left me homeless with my children. After that, they brought Wendy houses to Phoenix camp. God opened the doors for me, and I received a job as a crèche teacher in Oranjezicht.
“Those people allowed us to sleep in hotels and rooms, and they helped to look after my children and I.
“Today, I still have a relationship with those families.
“I also run a soup kitchen and they often provide donations and we are so grateful to these people.
“I met people I would never have met if it wasn't for the tornado.”
Fouzia Harding, 69, still has scars from the tragedy.
She had to receive stitches to her head after her home was left in ruins.
“I wondered why the sky was so red and then I saw a big cloud and something told me to move away from the window and I laid next to my daughter and her baby in bed. I was also a single mother.
“I thought maybe it was an aeroplane that crashed but I realised it wasn't because we were alive.
“When I stood up, I realised everything was gone, my roof, even the fish tank that was in my son’s room, and there was just water left.
“The fire department used their ladders to help bring us down because the staircases were crushed and broken and we were trapped inside.
“I had a gash to my head and had to receive stitches.”
Harding said they were grateful to the organisations who donated food and clothes from day one.