Pretoria - The EFF in Tshwane has threatened to mobilise for a protest in solidarity with the Mamelodi flood victims should the government fail to relocate them in seven days.
This comes after the Pretoria News last month reported that about 150 flood victims were still accommodated at Nellmapius Community Hall after their shacks at Mountain View, Mavuso and Willow Farm informal settlements were washed away by a flood last year.
The Gauteng Department of Human Settlements has since said it was working in tandem with the City of Tshwane to implement the relocation plans.
According to the department, relocations by the City had started and were ongoing.
The displaced people were urged to be patient, but it would seem they had had enough of the promises.
This week, the EFF blamed the DA-led administration for making “empty promises” to relocate the flood victims following the displacement by a natural disaster five years ago.
Regional party leader Obakeng Ramabodu said the EFF wanted the “DA administration” to relocate Mamelodi flood victims to a safe place within seven days, and failure to relocate them would force the party to mobilise communities into a protest.
“The family of Lucas Mashaba from Soul City Section, Eerste Fabriek squatter camp, who suffered a fateful end in the 2019 flood, will never forget the unnecessary death of their son emanating from the incompetence of the DA administration,” Ramabodu said.
He said the 2019 flood victims in Mamelodi had not been relocated as promised by the municipality.
Other residents were forced to leave their homes and move into a local community hall after their dwellings were washed away by a rain storm in February 2022.
“The plight of the residents has not been treated as a priority by the DA administration, which pumped all its budget into affluent areas over the years,” Ramabodu said.
Tshwane mayor Cilliers Brink has repeatedly dismissed the assertion his administration prioritised service delivery in affluent areas over townships.
Ramabodu said: “Family units of flood victims are still stuck in the community hall with very poor standards of basic services provision. It is clear the Mamelodi flood victims’ situation will never change until the EFF in Tshwane intervenes.”
He said the party wanted people to be moved out of the community hall immediately and relocated into safe and habitable accommodation provided by the municipality.
Pretoria News