A Valhalla Park family says their lives have turned into a horror movie after rats and spiders infiltrated their home and started biting them.
Several family members have been bitten by the rats and spinnekoppe, and they are blaming the City of Cape Town for their plight.
The trouble started on 29 December after a fire broke out at a hokkie in their neighbour’s backyard that quickly spread.
Carol Williams says firefighters broke through the roof and ceiling of her semi-detached maisonette to get to the fire.
She says the firefighters damaged two rooms and also soaked her house with water.
The neighbours, who live in a council house, lost everything but have since received a container to live in.
But Carol, 52, she says they’ve been unable to repair the damage to their privately owned home as they have no insurance, and she wants the City to fix “what the firefighters broke”.
TORMENT: Carol Williams, 52, from Valhalla Park is gatvol of invasion
Now she, her husband George, their daughters Joy, 23, and Ruth, 19, and two young grandchildren are being attacked by vermin.
“We can’t sleep at night. There are rats everywhere. Most of the lights in the house don’t work and when it rains everything is wet upstairs and the water leaks down,” she says.
“The beams in the ceiling downstairs are hollow and the rats and spiders have made nests in there and are biting us.”
Ruth vacuums every day to try and get rid of the spiders and they all walk around with a bottle of turps to kill the insects.
Ruth says she got the horries one night when a giant spider attacked her.
“I was lying in the bedroom downstairs sleeping when I felt something on the inside of my thigh. I swatted it away, but then felt something bite me on my foot. I had a massive, painful bump for days and I felt sick.”
While the Daily Voice was at the house, faint scurrying could be heard from upstairs while huge spiders sat in hollow beams.
“We are living in a nightmare that replays every day,” says Carol.
“I sent an email with forms I received from the City. They say they cannot help me because it’s not council property.”
According to Mayco Member for Human Settlements, Malusi Booi, they have not received any claims from the Williams family.
“The property at 56 Agnes Road is privately owned and was not insured, and as such, the owner was advised to submit a public liability claim to the City for consideration. The City, however, has not received such application as yet.”
saafia.february@inl.co.za