Jika Joe residents barricade highway
RESIDENTS of the Jika Joe informal settlement in Pietermaritzburg have given the Msunduzi Municipality an ultimatum – prioritise building the houses that were promised or face their wrath and continuation of chaos.
Yielding to demands, the KZN Department of Human Settlements has agreed to meet with the shack dwellers to discuss how they could fast-track the process of building community residential units and to stop the construction of temporary structures.
On Thursday morning shack dwellers gathered in their numbers to barricade the N3 both ways between Dr Chota Motala off-ramp and New England Road. Tyres burned and debris was used to block CBD entrances in an attempt to shut down the city. Videos of protesters throwing what looked like rocks from a bridge onto the N3 caused much panic and fear.
Zodwa Nkwanyana, Jika Joe community leader said they had planned to disrupt the city on Wednesday since their cries had been ignored for years.
“We came out to block the road so that our ward councillor and the department of human settlements would listen to us. Our actions worked because officials listened to us. We spoke to the department last year during the hard lockdown and again on December 24, but we were ignored. They are taking us for granted, continuing with building temporary structures when we want to occupy the flats that have been completed and the RDP houses,” she said.
Msunduzi embarked on a project to build 572 45m² units.
“What the municipality had promised is that some families would occupy the flats, while others would be moved to RDP houses. But when we saw that the municipality was dragging its feet in building the promised RDP houses, we halted the process of the occupation of flats. We were then told that construction of the RDP houses would resume in 2022 but we have not seen any of that. Instead temporary structures are being constructed and they are asking us to move into them while they build phase 2 of the flats. We don’t want the temporary structures but the promised houses,” said Nkwanyana.
Msunduzi Speaker, Eunice Majola, addressed protesters and promised that all issues would be resolved at a meeting with MEC for Human Settlements Jomo Sibiya next week. “We are dedicated to improving lives and we will request the province to assist us as the people responsible for the building of houses. We will invite them so they can tell us how much has been budgeted to fast-track this project,” Majola said.