Durban - EThekwini Municipality deputy mayor Philani Mavundla says the city should, in light of the slow progress to resettle people displaced by the floods, brace itself for protest action.
He said the progress to build temporary housing structures for the thousands who were displaced was slow and leading to frustration building up among angry residents stuck in shelters.
MEC for Human Settlements in KwaZulu-Natal Jomo Sibiya said the department was working hard across the province to relocate people from halls and shelters to temporary residential units, and had taken over some tasks which were supposed to be implemented by municipalities, in order to fast-track the process.
Mavundla said about 70 of these temporary structures had been completed in eThekwini, but close to 4 000 structures were needed.
Two weeks ago, nearly 100 people stormed the Durban City Hall and threatened to live there unless the government made plans to accommodate them in the city’s unused buildings. They said they could no longer live in halls and shelters.
The storms in April affected thousands of people, destroyed homes and killed close to 400 people.
“I have always said that I will be honest with the people of eThekwini, and I intend to continue in that vein. I can say now that I am expecting hundreds of protests similar to that one (at City Hall) because the progress has been slow.
“There have only been 70 temporary units, and one needs to consider that there are 4 000-plus families that have been affected,” said Mavundla.
He said he felt the government had not treated the situation with the urgency it deserved.
“Today (Monday) I just handed over houses that were built and donated by contractors; they took days to build, those are the people who know what they are doing.”
Regarding OThongathi water infrastructure, Mavundla said the city had completed building the retaining wall of a storage facility .
He said while the city still believed the process to rebuild the infrastructure would take up to five months, there was a possibility this could be pushed back after a dispute was lodged by one the losing bidders for the contract to rebuild the infrastructure.
The community had been without piped water since the floods as most infrastructure was washed away.
In response to Mavundla’s concerns regarding housing, Sibiya said they expected to have 1 000 units built in the province by the end of the week.
“I must say that I am quite unhappy with the fact that people are still in the shelters, they have been there for too long.
“In the next two weeks there will be a huge difference, we will close down many shelters in eThekwini because we are working very hard.”
He said the department had reprioritised R500 million from its budget and dedicated it to the disaster.
“We are working with the eThekwini Municipality, they are responsible for installing services in these houses, and that has been slow and that is why we are now using the department’s money to install these services.”