Durban — Similar to eThekwini Municipality Mayor Mxolisi Kaunda, KwaZulu-Natal Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube reported that they had made visible progress in moving flood victims out of mass care centres into dignified accommodation.
Dube-Ncube said that, in the aftermath of the April and May floods, the National Department of Human Settlements had granted a total amount of R326 million from the provincial emergency housing grant for the provision of emergency housing solutions, including temporary residential units.
She said that among the human settlement remedies implemented were transitional emergency accommodation, temporary residential units, building materials supply, permanent housing, and rental assistance schemes.
The construction of temporary residential units was identified as an immediate emergency to house the more than 4 000 displaced flood victims. Some victims had their houses partially damaged, which meant interventions in the form of building materials supply vouchers should be provided, Dube-Ncube said.
“Of the identified buildable 1 810 TRUs during the first phase, 1 592 have been completed, with 1 511 being occupied. The other 81 completed will be occupied in KwaDukuza Municipality as soon as services are installed.
“We anticipate that by the end of this week the services will have been installed, resulting in the closing down of four mass care centres of the existing eight in KwaDukuza,” Dube-Ncube said.
She said the remaining four would be shut down by the end of the month, thus completing the total shutdown of all mass care centres in KwaDukuza.
Dube-Ncube said that, of the original 135 mass care centres set up in the aftermath of the disaster, about 71 had since been closed, and moves were afoot to transfer flood victims from the remaining 64 mass care centres.
“Daily we are closing these mass care centres and moving people into temporary emergency units. The recent examples are the closure of Thandanani in KwaDukuza, the Shembe, and 38 Avenue and Nondlini in the eThekwini Metro,” Dube-Ncube said.
“Furthermore, in eThekwini Metro, which was the epicentre of the flood disaster, about 50 mass care centres remain. There is progress in linking mass care centres and transitional emergency accommodation facilities, as well as permanent housing solutions and (land) parcels, in an integrated manner.”
Dube-Ncube said the provincial government, working with the city and the human settlements public entity the Housing Development Agency, had secured eight land parcels which would be used for permanent housing solutions in the western, northern, and southern regions.
“To date, more than R98 million has been spent in the first tranche of the allocated R325 million, and 206 families have since been relocated to decent temporary emergency accommodation facilities as of the beginning of this week,” Dube-Ncube said.
Last week, the eThekwini Municipality reiterated its commitment to relocating flood victims to more suitable accommodation and eliminating mass care centres by December 15.
That was according to mayor Mxolisi Kaunda, who made the statement while giving an update on the work the municipality had done to relocate flood victims from mass care centres.
Kaunda was speaking at Conway Farm in oThongathi, where some flood victims had been living for a month, while others moved on to the site on Thursday.
He said that 163 families would be accommodated there, and that would result in the closure of the oThongathi and La Mercy halls.
“We want to assure you that the municipality is working tirelessly to ensure that at least by December 15 all mass care centres will have been closed and our people moved to more family-friendly accommodation,” Kaunda said.
He said that, of the original 120 mass care centres occupied by the April and May 2022 flood victims, 62 had been closed through various interventions.
“The remaining 58 mass care centres which are accommodating 3 448 will be cleared by December 15,” Kaunda said.
He said they planned to close all mass care centres before December 15. Therefore, of the remaining 3 448 people, 2 000 would be relocated by the end of this month, and by December 15 they would relocate the remaining 1 448.
Daily News