By Bongekile Gumede
Tuesday, 5 July, brought hope to the flood victims who have been housed in Durban community halls and churches (mass centres) since the April and May floods which tragically washed away their homes, leaving them with absolutely nothing except the clothes on their backs.
Over the past three months, the victims have been living on donations and relief provided by non-profit organisations and the Department of Social Development, however, they are still waiting to be allocated homes and property on which their new homes will be built. Last month, the Springfield Weekly Gazette visited victims who are being housed in Westville’s Truro Hall and in a Palmiet church which is merely a roof over their heads and floods when it is raining, with unbearably cold winds blowing through spaces between the plank walls which are covered with only a thin piece of sheeting.
Hope was restored to the Truro Hall victims on Tuesday when they saw a convoy of delegates led by KwaZulu-Natal Premier, Sihle Zikalala, driving onto the premises with black cars which transported eThekwini Mayor, Mxolisi Kaunda, as well as the KZN MEC of the Department of Public Works and Human Settlements, Jomo Sibiya, and senior officials who came to deliver the news that land has been identified for the flood victims to be rehoused.
Following the visit to Truro Hall, the delegation made its way to unveil the site on Pemilton Road in Reservoir Hills where the construction of 80 units and six ablution blocks for the affected victims will take place. Premier Zikalala said that this is a clear testimony that the Provincial Government has been hard at work, providing humanitarian relief, restoring service provision, making efforts to fix infrastructure and securing suitably located land to house the people as part of the Building Back Better programme.
He said that Sibiya and Mayor Kaunda have been hard at work, helping to deliver on this important task on behalf of the flood victims. “As we said, we are now in the third stage of our response which is to focus on rehabilitation and reconstruction, the concept of building back better. This involves the construction and repair of major infrastructure but also the construction of houses in suitably-located areas with measures to protect the residents of affected areas from such adverse weather events in the future,” said Zikalala.
With regard to linking the mass centres or community halls and shelters where the people are being housed to land parcels, Zikalala said they are happy to announce that they have launched the first phase of the programme to rehouse flood victims.
“We are, today, unveiling the parcels of land that have been secured and linked to each mass care centre as part of our programme to get the lives of the people back to normal and give them back their dignity. There are currently eight sites identified to build Temporary Residential Units (TRUs) in eThekwini Metro with three in the North Region and five in the West Region. We are at a stage to start delivery of the 1 074 TRUs as part of the first phase.
“The province has 84 mass care centres of which 44 have already been linked with a possible land parcel. Detailed assessments on the 44 recommended properties are complete and are due to be released by the National Department of Public Works and Infrastructure through Power of Attorney from one department to the other. All completed layouts will yield a total of 1 074 TRUs including ablution facilities,” Zikalala emphasised.
He said that preliminary engineering design processes are underway for all sites and all the designs are in line with the permanent solution. “The city, on its part, is required to play its role in the installation of services to connect proposed TRUs with the eThekwini Water and Sanitation Department. We are pleased to announce that a Social Facilitation Process has been concluded and government took a compromise position where 76 TRUs will be erected simultaneous to a permanent housing development process.”
Zikalala urged all ratepayers near the identified sites to be considerate and to work with government as they seek to address what is a crisis that in the end, affects all of us. Other pieces of land which have been identifies are: Cotton Lands, where 356 units and 14 ablution blocks will be constructed; Ntuzuma with 138 units and six ablution facilities; Roodekrans with 99 units and six ablution blocks; Uitkoms farm; Klaar Water; Lange Fontein and Ntshongweni.
The premier said other properties that are at the land acquisition stage are: La Mercy, Pallock and Tshelimnyama. He said the cost of recovery is over R2 127 542 632 and the department has reprioritised R515 975 906 from its own allocated funds.
“This, however, means that the province requires an additional R1 611 566 726 in order to complete the process of rehousing all the identified communities that are currently staying in centres mainly in eThekwini. Funding requests have been submitted to the National Disaster Centre and finally we can provide an update on the recent meeting with the NCOP Ad Hoc Committee on the KZN Floods Disaster where progress reports were presented on the province’s response to the recent floods. We reiterated to the committee our position, as we have submitted two requests for funding through the National Disaster Management Committee for immediate as well as medium to long-term relief on 9 and 17 May.
“An acknowledgement letter to this effect was received from the NDMC on 18 May and the total amount applied for is R1 001 640 181. We also indicated to the NDMC that the medium to long-term relief estimate is R17.8 billion. The total required for implementing municipal infrastructure repairs is estimated at R12 655 666 492 while the Sector Departments is estimated at R5 156 725 478. In this regard, the total amount required for the post-disaster recovery in the whole province is estimated at R17 812 391 970,” said Zikalala.
He said he stands on the land which carries the hopes of thousands who, very soon, will call it home. “Home is where the dreams of a family are realised in the comfort and safe company of loved ones. This is what this project means as it will bring decent shelter, but also dignity to the families currently housed at Truro Hall. Like many, they too will soon return to a house that they will call home and which will become an available asset in their hand,” he concluded.
Nomhle Mkethwa, one of the victims housed at Truro Hall, said she was very happy to see the premier and his delegation who came personally to give them hope that they will soon be getting new homes. “We hope that they stick to their promises as we have seen empty promises in the past without any delivery. We were also happy to receive food vouchers from the Department of Social Development because our food supply was almost running out. We thank all the departments who are involved in this project for ensuring that our dignity will be restored,” said Mkethwa.
Abahlali baseMjondolo spokesperson, S’bu Zikode, said they welcome the announcement made by the premier and appreciate the fact that they heeded the call to prioritise housing for these victims. “It is unfortunate that only the flood victims will be benefitting from these homes, however, we understand that the process can take years, but we hope that all the people living in the affected areas will be moved and provided with proper housing as well to avoid such disasters from happening again,” said Zikode.
