Durban - Five months after several parts of the province were devastated by the floods, the eThekwini Municipality says it has made progress with rehousing flood victims but has been faced with many challenges.
The municipality said an executive committee meeting held on Tuesday revealed that progress had been made in closing some mass care centres that were used to house displaced flood victims.
“Initially, 120 care centres were opened to house 3 999 households. This has been reduced to 70 currently in place.”
The municipality added that mass care centres were closed through various initiatives such as the material supply option, combining mass care centres that are close to each other, renovating existing government buildings and building temporary residential units (TRUs).
“To fast track the process, the city is acquiring private- and government-owned buildings which will be renovated to provide a rental accommodation scheme,” said eThekwini Municipality spokesperson Msawakhe Mayisela.
The municipality said the following buildings had been identified and were currently being assessed for feasibility of being inhabited or converted for residential use:
- Public Works buildings: Palm Beach Hotel, West Point Lodge in Margaret Mncadi Avenue and Backpackers at 154 Mahatma Gandhi Road.
- Private properties: 25 Manton Crescent, Ntuzuma E 302 flats, 170 Varsity Drive, 19 Cederville Road and 120 Munro Drive.
- Others: Sport Park Social Housing, Montclair Lodge (Transnet).
The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Human Settlements confirmed that it was working with the municipality to use some city buildings to settle floods victims.
The department’s spokesperson Mbulelo Baloyi said 92 shelters had been linked to land parcels but these plots were at different stages of readiness.
The municipality said many challenges had hindered the delivery of houses and the removal of flood victims from mass care centres, including some “flood victims have refused moving out of mass care centres, slow progress on approval by the auditor-general in terms of real time audit, protracted supply chain management and planning processes, and limited suitable land parcels”.
Baloyi said residents in Ntuzuma A section recently said they did not want “the flood victims whom they do not know” to be re-homed in their neighbourhood.
He said the other concerns from residents were the creation of slum neighbourhoods with no clear indication of future plans, and the degrading of their properties due to the construction of TRUs.