Lamontville flood victims' flagging hope for formal abodes

AFTER living 17 years in transit camps some Lamontville flood victims, who were displaced yet again by last week's downpours, have given up all hope of having homes of their own.

Some of the victims were living in uMlazi in 2008 when they had to be moved to the eMhlabeni transit camp in Lamontville, also south of Durban, when floods in that year washed away their homes. 

They have had hopes that they would be placed in formal housing on various occasions, but that never happened.  

Such is their disillusionment with the slew of broken promises from government  officials about getting abodes of their own that they resigned themselves to taking a cynical view of the promises made by Human Settlements Minister Thembi Simelane's, who visited flood ravaged areas of Durban this week.

During her two-day visit Simelane's vowed that the government would speed up their relocation to proper houses.

During a community meeting on Tuesday, the residents voiced their frustration about being abandoned by the government.

Many, like Nomonde Mkhize, a mother of two, painted a grim picture of their reality, a situation they had initially believed would be temporary. 

“When we moved here (Lamontville) in 2008 and thought this would be a temporary stay at a transit camp, but this has become a permanent move until last week's floods. We are tired of hearing promises but no implementation. The visit by the minister does not mean anything to us because nothing will change here. We are stuck without houses for good,” remarked Mkhize.

As a result her hopes of relocation have waned.

Before the move to eMhlabeni, Mkhize also lived in an uMlazi house that succumbed to downpours of rain in 2008. 

Since then, she has witnessed the once small community of eMhlabeni swelling with arrival of other victims following heavy rainfalls that have subsequently lashed the city -- including the 2022 April floods, which left more than 450 people dead. 

“This place is congested with many people from different backgrounds crammed together. This is not how people should live,” Mkhize said. 

Simelane’s visit came on the back of the tragic death of seven people at eMhlabeni after torrential rainfall also displaced hundreds of people in Lamontville and various parts of the province, including in KZN.

The transit camp, which houses thousands of people, has outdoor stand-alone ablution facilities used by the entire community. 

Apart from the dire living conditions, the eMhlabeni transit camp is set precariously close to the uMlazi River, which had residents living in constant fear.

Another resident, Sibongile Nzimande also hit out at the government for allegedly being “reactionary” instead of being “proactive” in implementing measures to prevent lives being lost.

“Government people always come here after the damage has been done. They should be preventing these kinds of things from happening, not reacting when the people people are dead. There is no hope for us. I hear the people from the government saying they will relocate us, and that will happen now. It’s just promises,” said Nzimande.

She added: “What frustrates me the most is that when the government leaders come here, they act surprised after people have drowned. But they were placed here near the dangerous uMlazi River. I wonder what they expected when they placed us here many years ago.”

She was among the scores of victims from the 2018 floods that devastated the city of Durban. 

During her visit, Minister Simelane acknowledged the severity of the flooding and pledged to expedite the relocation process. Among the interventions discussed was the accommodation of 225 individuals whose homes had been eroded, as well as plans for relocating 229 families to permanent housing in Georgedale, along with supplying building materials to 93 households.

“We will make sure as the government that we take care of flood victims by relocating them to better places where proper housing could be built. We want to prevent such tragic events in the future by relocating people to safer locations,” said Simelane. 

During his budget vote last year, the then newly appointed MEC for Human Settlements Duma promised to eradicate transit camps before the end of 2025. 

Meanwhile, Duma’s bid to four state-owned sites in Shallcross, Chatsworth, for the construction of low-cost housing for the flood victims was receiving fierce opposition from the community members. 

On Monday, a meeting to announce the government's plan for the construction of the low-cost houses was called after some aggrieved community members allegedly fired gunshots in the air, apparently in protest against the development. 

However, community leader Marcus Richards refuted claims that the gunshots were fired by the community opposing the development. 

He said Shallcross was a crime-ridden area, and it was a common occurrence for people to shoot in the air.  

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