Durban - The KZN Department of Human Settlements said it has reached a milestone of 1 015 Temporary Residential Units (TRUs) built in the province for displaced flood victims.
The floods in April caused extensive damage across several areas with eThekwini most affected. Hundreds of people died, thousands were left destitute as their homes were destroyed. To date, hundreds if not thousands of people are still living in community care centres across the city and province.
Human Settlements department spokesperson Mbulelo Baloyi said of the completed units, 922 had already been occupied by families who were displaced by the floods.
He said thus far about R49 million had been paid to service providers while R1.8m worth of invoices were being processed for payment.
“Progress is seeing the initial allocation of TRUs being completed in AmaJuba, uMzinyathi, King Cetshwayo and uMkhanyakude Districts.
“The process of linking affected families in mass care centres across the province with land parcels for the construction of TRUs is ongoing,” he said.
The update from the department came as the KZN MEC for Human Settlements and Public Works Dr Ntuthuko Mahlaba announced yesterday that a lease agreement with the Transnet Property Division management has been reached for the Montclair lodge to house flood victims.
The department said resettling the April and May floods victims in permanent accommodation remained a priority and the Transnet lodge had been earmarked for possible use to temporarily house flood-stricken families while they await permanent resettlement.
The lease agreement comes after flood victims from the Yellowwood Park Civic Centre and Tehuis Hostel in uMlazi mass shelters invaded the lodge in July.
The state-owned entity had to resort to the courts to secure an eviction order to remove the invading floods victims to vacate the Transnet facility.
Mahlaba said there were more than 130 single room apartments available in the building, saying that the aim was to have permanent homes built in the next six months.
The newly appointed MEC visited the building after the KZN Provincial Executive Council and the Ad Hoc Joint Committee on Floods Disaster and Recovery met on Tuesday to discuss issues of housing flood victims.
IFP KZN provincial spokesperson for Human Settlements Thokozile Gumede said leasing the Transnet building and moving the families back doesn’t solve the issue as a whole.
“What about those still in halls across the province?” she questioned.
Gumede said the only solution was building permanent homes and for the existing abandoned city buildings to be fixed. She added that the shelters were negatively impacting the family unit.
“The shelters are changing family structure, married couples are being deprived of their marital rights due to the lack of privacy while the children are victims of neglect as they are deprived of being around their fathers as they would at home.”