Desperate Coedmore Road residents demand housing solutions amid neglect
“Build us homes” was the clarion call from Coedmore Road shack dwellers in Durban, who live around an old cemetery and a railway line.
On Tuesday, DA eThekwini spokesperson on Housing, Councillor Zamani Khuzwayo, conducted oversight inspections in KwaDimba and the Coedmore informal settlement near Seaview.
Ward 64 Councillor Norman Gilbert said that more than 400 residents have been living in shacks in and around the Coedmore Cemetery, with little to no access to basic services.
“Despite the municipality and the provincial government being fully aware of the conditions under which these residents are living, no meaningful action has been taken to improve their living conditions,” Khuzwayo said.
Gilbert said the city has provided portable toilets and a communal water pipe for the residents.
“From the date of establishment in the late 1990s, they were not supposed to be here permanently. They are out of sight and out of mind. One year rolls into the next without any housing plans for shack dwellers,” he said.
Gilbert said the visit was not electioneering but rather to put pressure on Human Settlements to deliver homes.
“I know the people living there don’t want to be there. None of them has a permanent job and relies on day-to-day labour. The shack settlement continues to expand.”
Community representative, Nkosinathi Mbanjwa, said he has been in the settlement for more than two decades and heard many empty promises by councillors and politicians, especially around election time.
“We only receive visits when it is close to elections. Politicians pounce now and then, but we are aware of this. We want houses, not empty promises. The shacks have become crowded because the children have grown up. They need their own rooms and privacy. We are human beings, after all,” he said.
Mbanjwa also pointed out several graves that were among the shacks. Two of the headstones date back to May 1935 and February 1941, respectively.
Another representative, Sebenzile Sithole, who has been in the settlement for 12 years, said the water levels rise from the nearby stream and flood the settlement, turning the outside corridors between shacks into mud.
“We are human beings and responsible individuals. We cannot go on living like this,” she said.
Nisha Madaree, a spokesperson for the concerned ratepayers’ group, wards 64 and 65, said none of the previous councillors resolved the problem of finding them houses. She doubts another oversight will yield the desired results.
“They are human beings. The municipality needs to work systematically to clear out informal houses that are bleeding the ratepayers,” she said.
The municipality clarified that the cemetery did not fall under its jurisdiction nor was it owned or managed by it. The property is privately owned.
On the housing issue and the cemetery, the MEC for Transport and Human Settlements Siboniso Duma previously said the department was undertaking three research studies focusing broadly on the total number, and:
- Housing needs of households living in privately owned land and facing eviction;
- Households in both rural and informal settlements living in disaster-prone areas; and
- Households living in graveyards such as Seaview Cemetery.
Khuzwayo stated that in 2022, 30 Burlington families were severely affected by the floods that ripped through Durban, damaging their homes and leaving them homeless.
“The municipality relocated these families to KwaDimba as a temporary measure, promising that they would receive proper housing in the near future. It is alleged that these families have remained in KwaDimba ever since, with no prospect of being provided with permanent housing,” he stated.
zainul.dawood@inl.co.za
