Residents ‘left to fend for themselves’
IT HAS been 10 years since residents from various parts of eThekwini were moved into the Zamani transit camp in uMlazi with the promise of relocation to better accommodation after the 2010 World Cup.
This was a promise allegedly made by eThekwini Municipality in 2009.
However, the residents discovered that their prefabricated structures were located less than 20m from a sewage treatment plant.
A foul odour lingered in the air while heaps of uncollected garbage bags lay in different parts of the camp yesterday.
Bhekilizwe Shezi is among those who were settled in the area in 2009.
He said their shacks in Malukazi were on the route to King Zwelithini Stadium, and were deemed an eyesore as the route would be used by teams going to the stadium for training.
“We were told that we would be relocated to low-cost houses just after the 2010 World Cup, and that was it. We are left to fend for ourselves under these appalling conditions,” Shezi said.
He said no feedback was ever received from the municipality regarding their relocation.
“This sewage treatment plant emits a bad smell, especially in the late afternoons. This place is rat-infested and from time to time pest control people arrive to put their controlling measures in place. What we don’t see are nurses to vaccinate people, including children. We were basically sacrificed for the World Cup and now we are forgotten,” he said.
Noxolo Ngubane, a mother of 18-month-old twin girls, said she worried about her children’s health, given the living conditions at the camp.
“Since I got here as a young girl, we have been living in squalor. Our children walk and play in puddles of dirty and stinking water. There’s no drainage system so when it rains, our homes get flooded,” she said.
Her neighbour, Zwelinzima Maphumulo, also from Malukazi, said he had lost hope of better accommodation.
“They (eThekwini councillors) visited us recently to tell us to register to vote. They will disappear, only to be seen again during election time. They don’t have the people’s interest at heart,” Maphumulo said.
It is not clear if municipal health inspectors had visited the place to assess its suitability for human habitation before people were moved into the 1 237-unit camp.
Councillor Mondli Mthembu, the City’s chairperson of the human settlements and infrastructure development committee, and city manager Sipho Nzuza could not be reached for comment.
Addressing Parliament’s select committee on social services during its visit to the camp in September 2017, Human Settlements MEC Ravi Pillay admitted the low-cost housing programme to accommodate the camp’s residents was not running according to plan.
“As for the sewerage treatment plant in Zamani, as much as the people have not received their houses in time, we see a need to at least make their lives as reasonable as possible,” Pillay said at the time.
Yesterday, he said 10 transit camps were prioritised for resettlement.
Area councillor Bhekisisa Mjadu (IFP) said the City had failed to provide the people with better accommodation after the World Cup as promised.