THE government has announced plans to release several thousand hectares of land to facilitate the rebuilding of thousands of homes destroyed by the recent floods in KwaZulu-Natal.
The national Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) announced recently that it would release more that 250 parcels of land and the provincial Department of Human Settlements is expected to release more.
The government is releasing land to enable the construction of homes in more suitable areas so that people can be moved from dangerous areas like floodplains, where some of them have built their homes.
Close to 8 000 homes were destroyed or partially damaged by the floods last month, nearly 400 people were killed and thousands were displaced by the rain and remain homeless.
The provincial government announced on Tuesday that it has started building temporary structures in some of the affected areas in Durban and surrounds.
“We can indicate that to date the Provincial Department of Human Settlements is working with the Housing Development Agency as part of mapping out more pieces of land to build houses for destitute families, including those who will be relocated from river banks,” said KZN MEC for Human Settlements Jomo Sibiya.
He said the Department of Human Settlements had identified 3 815 properties while the Department of Public Works had identified 103 properties.
Meanwhile Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure Patricia de Lille was expected to visit the province to hand over bridges as her department had been working around the clock to rebuild bridges.
“In light of the recent flooding in KwaZulu-Natal, the DPWI and others are working with the provincial government to respond to the need for more bridges to be installed in various communities across the province.
“Eighteen bridge sites were identified and assessed for the 2022/23 financial year and following the floods, an additional six sites were identified for bridges to be installed.
“On April 21, 2022, an additional 28 bridge sites were received from various municipalities.
“The Nsimbakazi Bridge in Empangeni in the Mthonjaneni Local Municipality is one of the latest bridges to be completed and is ready to be handed over to the community.”
IFP councillor Mdu Nkosi said recently that the government needed to move with speed in providing temporary housing solutions.
Nkosi said he had made a proposal for those affected by the floods to be accommodated in some of the city’s dilapidated buildings, which would have to be fixed before people can move in, but that proposal was not tabled to council.
“On April 26, 2022, I submitted an urgent motion which called on the council to consider converting dilapidated and abandoned municipal and provincial buildings into social housing to accommodate residents who had lost their houses in the recent floods,” said Nkosi.
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