Durban - The DA is considering legal action against the eThekwini Municipality for allegedly failing to implement public protector recommendations at Glebelands hostel.
DA parliamentary spokesperson on human settlements Solly Malatsi and spokesperson on police Zakhele Mbhele held a meeting with residents yesterday.
Malatsi said the people of Glebelands had been failed by the government, and the party would put pressure on the eThekwini Municipality.
“We will be exploring the prospect of laying charges against the eThekwini Municipality. The Public Protector recommendations are binding, and any failure to implement them is a violation of the constitution, which makes people criminally liable,” Malatsi said.
The report, released by Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane in June, slammed the municipality, saying there was evidence of “tardiness in implementing its own hostel policy” adopted in 1998.
The hostel policy states that hostels should offer rental accommodation with a “clean, healthy and secure environment”.
Some of the remedial actions recommended were that the eThekwini Municipality should compile a database of all people either evicted or displaced from the hostels, and in the event that these residents could not be returned to their rooms, alternative accommodation should be provided for them.
The report also recommended that the city implement access control, and that municipal services, including refuse removal, improving of lighting and maintenance of the grounds, should be extended to the hostel.
Hostel residents said the eThekwini Municipality had failed to deal with overcrowding and conditions were deteriorating.
“Some people who were evicted came back and the overcrowding is worse. Roofs damaged by a storm last year have not been restored, refuse has not been collected for the past three months, and we are worried about the health of our children,” resident Simphiwe Duma said.
The public protector also found against the KZN Department of Social Development, saying it failed to fulfil its responsibility to the victims of the hostel violence.
Social Development MEC Weziwe Thusi asked that the department be afforded three months to implement its interventions.