Chance for metro to show it cares

HOUSING in Nelson Mandela Bay has hardly been the metro’s metier. Under the ANC, human settlements – as the government portfolio is referred to nowadays – became a cesspit of concentrated corruption.

The delivery of houses took a back seat to crony plunder by councillors, officials and “businessmen”, like circling vultures always scouting for the next meal.

If the houses went up at all, invariably they were built badly, or in the wrong place, or crookedly allocated, a legacy of misrule that lives on today.

There was scant regard for the welfare of the city’s poorest.

All they, people like those of Moeggesukkel informal settlement in Uitenhage, got was false hope.

The result was an insurmountable housing backlog and routine tragedies like Monday’s fire which blazed through Moeggesukkel, taking from its destitute inhabitants the last of the very little they could count as possessions on this Earth.

About 25 residents have taken refuge in a community hall where they are receiving shelter and food.

Theirs will be a temporary respite, however, and soon these families will have to contemplate how they rebuild from scratch.

They won’t have insurance to rely on and it remains to be seen how far the city extends its disaster relief.

The DA-led coalition has styled itself as a “caring city” since taking over government and this disaster is just itching for a demonstration of compassionate outreach.

Moeggesukkel was not of the DA’s making, but in assuming office, it accepts the responsibilities and liabilities of the previous regime.

Having encountered stiff resistance to its eviction campaigns last year, Moeggesukkel, and other settlements like it, promise to test the new administration’s political mettle.

On a positive note, the benchmark is set very low, a chance if ever there was to rebuild a capable housing department.