Durban — Councillors in KwaZulu-Natal have been one of the challenges that the Department of Human Settlements is dealing with in the provision of housing for flood victims.
This comes after the EFF’s Mathapelo Siwisa asked the Minister of Human Settlements Mmamoloko Kubayi that with reference to the flood victims of KZN, what are the reasons behind the delays; are they still housed in municipal halls; how far is the process of identifying land to build flood victims' houses; and on what date will the process be finalised?
In response, Kubayi said these are some of the challenges they are facing:
- Finding suitable land for development.
- Undertaking feasibility studies.
- Land development planning and approval.
- The slow pace of constructing Temporary Residential Units (TRUs).
- Business forums like Delangokubona, have a negative impact on service delivery.
- Theft of material on-site.
- Councillors obstructing relocation by:
(i) Refusing the import of communities into their wards,
(ii) Refusing the relocation of flood victims outside their wards
(iii) Communities not being accommodative to flood victims who are relocated to their neighbourhoods.
Kubayi said that the KZN Department of Human Settlements has advised that all flood victims have been moved from mass care centres and municipal halls.
“The department has identified 15 land parcels that are at various stages of planning to build houses for the flood victims,” Kubayi said.
“The movement of flood victims from municipal halls commenced from October 2022 to December 24, 2022.”
Meanwhile, last week, speaking on housing, eThekwini Municipality mayor Mxolisi Kaunda said that in the aftermath of the floods, our teams have been working tirelessly to repair damaged infrastructure and to relocate flood victims to family-friendly accommodation.
“... we can proudly say that over 8 000 families who were displaced by floods and moved to 120 mass care centres are now in safe family-friendly accommodation. We are also accelerating a programme of building permanent houses for them. As we speak, the city is preparing eight sites for this purpose,” Kaunda said.
“Apart from relocating flood victims to temporary emergency accommodation, we are continuing to build storm-disaster houses for families who have sites that are located in safer places.
“To date, we have been able to build over 60 storm disaster houses for flood victims. Among the beneficiaries of this programme is Gogo Ndawonde from U Section in Umlazi whose house was damaged by a retaining wall during the floods. As a caring city, we have built the 76-year-old pensioner a three-bedroomed house that she will share with her three daughters and grandchildren,” Kaunda said.
He also commended the efforts of all three spheres of government, Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi, Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube, and KZN Human Settlements MEC Dr Ntuthuko Mahlaba for their support and leadership in this mammoth task of relocating thousands of families.
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