LISTEN: Durban mom recounts moment she threw daughter from burning building during unrest
A Durban mother who threw her toddler into the arms of strangers to flee their burning building says while they are thankful to have survived the incident, they are still traumatised.
Naledi Manyoni and her two-year-old daughter Melokuhle were forced out of their 16th floor flat after looters set fire to the building in the Durban CBD two weeks ago.
Manyoni says the building receptionist ran from floor to floor, telling tenants to evacuate.
She says she grabbed her child and started running down the stairs and made it to the third floor, where they were stuck due to the fire and smoke.
Manyoni says she found herself in a small smoke-filled passage and then slid down from the third to the first floor with the baby where they still needed to try and get down.
"So when we were there the smoke was very bad there, we even coughing and sneezing the baby was crying - we were crying together, holding each other, asking me 'Mommy what's happening?' and saying 'we are trying to get out of here, we are going to be fine' that was the only thing I was telling her.
"People were screaming 'Throw her' after they came all together then a threw my baby. I stressing if they are going to catch her and they did. They managed to catch her and they directed me to the other side and they went to catch me on the other side."
Manyoni says they've begun looking for a new home as the current one makes them relive the nightmare.
"We are all trying to be ok, but she hasn't forgotten about it. She sometimes reminds me, mommy you threw me down.
"She's always telling me that and sometimes when she wakes up at night, she gets a shock and cries. She's scared and she's looking in my eyes like she is scared.
"I am not a person who finds things difficult to forget but lately, I am not myself. It's like there's something bad I am going to hear or something bad is going to happen. I am not me."
She's expressed her gratitude to everyone who helped them get out of the burning building that day.
"I was so scared but the thing that made me positive, that made me throw my baby to them is that I saw that things people are willing to help. They were trying to help us. They showed me that they want to help us."
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