5 September 2024
Nompumelelo Mnguni, displaced by the April 2022 floods, sits in a room she shares with several women in government emergency housing in Point Road, Durban. Photo: Tsoanelo Sefoloko
Some families living in emergency accommodation ever since the devastating floods of April 2022 in Durban have been issued with eviction notices by the eThekwini Municipality.
A number of people at the Point Road and Astra Transitional Emergency Accommodation (TEA) buildings say they were given letters, dated 22 July 2024, from the eThekwini Municipality’s human settlements unit, giving them notice to vacate the premises. It said they no longer met the criteria for emergency housing, because the City discovered they had previously been allocated RDP houses.
Flood victims we spoke to did not deny having previously benefited from government housing, but most of them had moved to informal settlements closer to the city centre and their places of work. Their shacks in Dakota informal settlement in Isipingo Beach and uMlazi township were washed away with all their belongings two years ago.
The council plans to rehouse the flood victims in new housing developments, but its policy stipulates that people can only benefit once from such schemes. During a verification process, it was discovered that 26 people were previously allocated state housing.
Nompumelelo Malemela, who was served with a notice to vacate, said she lived in the community hall for over eight months after the floods before moving to the Point Road building.
“They [the municipality] should have at least allocated land to us to rebuild our homes. We have been telling them that the living conditions in these TEAs are unbearable, because we are forced to share rooms with people we don’t know,” she said.
Nomvula Mafu, a committee member at the Point Road building, said, “We will keep fighting for vulnerable people because it is clear that eThekwini municipality is taking advantage of unemployed people who don’t have enough money to pay rent [elsewhere].”
Municipality spokesperson Gugu Sisilana said legitimate April 2022 flood victims were not issued notices because the City has a plan to relocate these families to more “dignified homes”.
Sisilana said that five out of ten parcels of land identified for development have received planning approval. “One contractor has been appointed for the two land parcels and qualifying flood victims will be relocated to permanent housing once the projects are completed,” she said.
“The municipality will not find alternative accommodation for those defrauding the state at the expense of legitimate destitute flood victims,” said Sisilana.