Shack dwellers feel they are the forgotten people
IT HAS been more than 30 years since Kwa Mathambo informal settlement surfaced between the Effingham and the Durban North suburbs.
The settlement, which had about 65 shacks in 1994, has now grown to more than 394 transit camps. The settlement is home to more than 1 000 residents who left the rural areas for a better life near the city. However, the dream of having access to clean water, proper sanitation and adequate shelter has been impossible.
Ndodeni Dengo, community leader and activist, said poverty, lack of service delivery and unemployment were some of the issues that residents faced on a daily basis.
“What is even worse is the fact that when it is time to go to the polls to vote, political officials visit these places and make promises to the dwellers which they fail to keep. I won’t even mention the basic services such as waste collection, access to clean water and sanitation. We have only two toilets that cater for over 1 000 community members, which is not acceptable.”
He said there was only one standpipe that the dwellers relied on – one they had built themselves.
The Kwamathambo informal settlement is just a stone’s throw away from the Durban North suburbs where most residents are employed. Dengo said since the pandemic hit in 2020, more youth had lost their jobs.
“We have youth who have completed their matric but find it hard to secure any kind of employment. Those that find themselves lucky enough to secure jobs have to feed more than five mouths under one roof.”
The transit camps which were built in 2013 were meant to have been an interim solution until the City found a suitable place to build RDP houses. However, it has been more than seven years and nothing has been done.
Just a kilometre away is another informal settlement, Briardene, which mushroomed in 1992.
Although 1996 saw the development of low cost houses in the area, some families were not beneficiaries, forcing them to continue living in shacks. Close to 300 residents are still living in the informal settlement,
while 240 inhabit the low-cost housing units in dire conditions.
According to shack dwellers movement Abahlali Basemjondolo’s general secretary, Thapelo Mohapi, they had reached out for help to local government, but their attempts had been in vain.
“We are currently living without any water or electricity and we are using the bucket system toilets which are only emptied once a week. There are a lot of people using the same toilets and the smell around the community is very unpleasant. There are rats the size of cats. Briardene is a neglected area,” he said.
Mohapi said Abahlali Basemjondolo had reached out to the departments of Water and Sanitation as well as Human Settlements but nothing had come of it. He said other community members used the nearby bushes to relieve themselves as the toilets were always full.
“Poverty in the community is rife, such that a soup kitchen had to be introduced by the movement so that people in the area do not go to bed hungry.”
He said the situation had deteriorated since the July unrest as most people had lost their jobs and
they had been at home ever since. He said this also led to an increase in crime in the community with house break-ins becoming frequent.
Local councillor Shontel de Boer said they tried to help in ways they could at Briardene.
“The area has had a lot of sewer issues, the sewer was overflowing and they have had water bursts. We have had a sewer pipe replacement but it is incomplete as the whole sewer system needs to be upgraded. We also put speed humps on some of the roads,” said De Boer.
She said what caused more problems was the recent fire which resulted in close to 100 shacks being burnt and ablution blocks being destroyed.
“We have reached out to the municipality with regards to this but the response was that the City has no budget and no timeline was put in place as to when these issues will be resolved.”
De Boer added that criminality in the area was of concern. She said most people from the Durban North community complained about breakins, suspecting the Briardene informal residents.
“There is also a drug problem. There are some members of the community
who are addicted to whoonga and they not only create problems for the people outside of Briardene, they create problems for the residents of Briardene, too.”
In Pietermaritzburg, families at the Jika Joe informal settlement continue to live in squalor. An estimated 3 000 residents, including children, live in homes that are falling apart.
Some of the elderly have been living in the informal settlement since 1994 when they were first promised low cost housing. Water and sanitation were an on going issue, while different parts of the informal settlement have been destroyed by fires over the years which left hundreds of people homeless.
The majority of residents are unemployed and dependent on government social grants. The community feels neglected by the municipality and is desperate for proper housing.
Recently, families were affected by storms which flooded their homes while their roofs were damaged by falling trees. Without having alternative accommodation, some families tried to rebuild but others were forced to find new homes due to the extent of the damage.
A resident said that the municipality
was paying certain people to become corrupted in the way they handled issues at the informal settlement. She said in meetings held over a period of time with officials, promises had been made of low cost houses but officials were being dishonest and were dividing the community by holding meetings with different groups and making different promises.
Two years ago a project to build flats and RDP houses began but none of the residents have occupied the available units that have been completed. “I am so disappointed, we can no longer dance to the municipality’s tune. We have been living in temporary structures since 2009. What is the meaning of temporary?
“Instead of development and progress, the municipality is intent on building temporary structures. What are we? Dogs that you throw anywhere? It is painful for us and we have rights. It’s time that the municipality took the people seriously,” she said.
Phumlani Gumede, the head of the Human Settlement Department in Msunduzi, promised that issues would be addressed speedily and that the municipality would seek assistance from the provincial office to hasten the process of acquiring better housing.