Cape Town - A confirmed Western Cape Covid-19 hot spot is now part of the list of informal settlements that need to be decongested.
According to Statistics SA, there are as many as 146 000 households in 437 informal settlement pockets in Cape Town. As of on Friday, the province had 8083 active cases of Covid-19, with a total of 18350 confirmed cases and 9830 recoveries. But plans to have scores of residents moved from Dunoon were yet to be put to action.
Provincial Human Settlements Department spokesperson Nathan Adriaanse confirmed to Weekend Argus that “Dunoon, Kosovo and Ithemba were initially identified as they have a high density in terms of the number of residents”.
“As you are now aware, the Dunoon informal settlement is now a confirmed Covid-19 hot spot,” Adriaanse said red tape was holding back decongestion plans.
“The Provincial Department of Human Settlements is currently busy with a number of statutory processes which require approvals from the City of Cape Town.
“These include rezoning and town planning applications. These are processes which you cannot short-circuit and we have to follow all the statutory processes,” he said.
Though this would be on a voluntary basis, Adriaanse said the “department has clear priority beneficiaries within the affected communities and these include the elderly, those living with disabilities and child-headed households”.
Early last month, spokesperson for the National Department of Human Settlements McIntosh Polela said a plan to temporarily remove thousands of informal settlement dwellers from their homes was at an advanced stage but the initiative required a sensitive approach which included consultations.
The initiative is in a bid to decongest extremely dense informal settlements in KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, Western Cape and Gauteng. Polela also confirmed that Dunoon, Kosovo and Ithemba had been identified as key areas which needed to be decongested in the city.
“In all the identified areas, the residents will be moved to areas within close proximity of the existing informal settlements,” said Polela. Polela added that the department was not able to say how many people would be moved.
Social Justice Coalition spokesperson Justin Japhta said: “The government should develop emergency plans to assist residents of informal settlements during the pandemic.”
Weekend Argus
* For the latest on the Covid-19 outbreak, visit IOL's special #Coronavirus page.
** If you think you have been exposed to the Covid-19 virus, please call the 24-hour hotline on 0800 029 999 or visit sacoronavirus.co.za