KwaZulu-Natal government needs R1.7 billion to achieve its objective of building thousands of permanent homes for the victims of 2022 and this year’s floods in the land donated by traditional leaders.

Some of the housing projects are already under way, and provincial Human Settlements MEC Siboniso Duma hopes that some families will have new permanent homes during the festive season. 

Premier Thami Ntuli and Duma visited Cornubia, north of Durban, on Thursday to inspect 1,200 houses, which are still under construction at a cost of about R600 million.

After inspecting the Cornubia housing project, Ntuli said there was light at the end of the tunnel for the flood victims who are currently living in inhumane conditions. He commended Duma’s efforts.

“They told me that this coming December, 113 other victims will be relocated to Cornubia, and next December, everyone will have houses to live in,” said Ntuli. 

Duma stated that R25 million has already been allocated for constructing houses on 108 prepared sites.

However, the provincial government still faces the massive task of providing permanent homes for the 40,000 people displaced by the 2022 floods and the more than 11,000 families left without shelters due to heavy rainfall earlier this year. 

Most of the flood victims were along the coast. 

“To build these houses in the rezoned land and the land under amakhosi, we need around R1.7 billion,” said Duma.

The provincial Human Settlements Department spent R33 million buying Montclair Lodge, which has 268 rooms, from Transnet, to be repurposed at R35 million for accommodating the flood victims.

Since the 2022 floods, approximately 4,000 people have been placed in Temporary Emergency Accommodation (TEA). 

Duma said the number of families living in TEA has since decreased to 1,049.

The national Human Settlements Department also supported the province in building Temporary Residential Units (TRUs) and permanent houses on land donated by amakhosi.

“We also have six pockets of state-owned land that we have rezoned to build houses for the displaced communities. But as you know, we have been battling to build in this land as a result of ‘Not in My Backyard Syndrome’,” said Duma. 

He said some of the amakhosi donated land to build TRUs and houses for the affected families, adding that the department was currently building permanent houses in Umgababa, south of Durban, for 19 families that are currently in three self-accommodation facilities. 

“We will be closing down these TEAs once permanent houses have been constructed. Displaced families are now living in eight houses and seventeen TRUs that we have built and completed in C orpesville (Pietermaritzburg). About nine houses are due for completion this month (August).” 

Duma said residents who have a mentality of preventing authorities from building houses for flood victims in certain areas have delayed the process. 

There were gunshots fired when some residents in Shallcross chased away a contractor in November and December 2024, who was starting to construct houses for the victims. 

“By now, we could have built more than 400 houses,” said Duma.

However, he said the department identified 12 state-owned portions of land across the eThekwini Metro to accommodate 4,458 residential sites. 

According to him, about seven pockets of land have been rezoned and are ready for construction.

“We cannot wait any longer to start the construction of houses for vulnerable members of society. Any delay is not only prolonging their suffering but also a violation of their human rights and the Constitution,” he said.

During the process of verifying who qualified to benefit from the houses, the government discovered that some flood victims did not qualify as they had RDP houses elsewhere, and some were earning salaries that were above the stipulated amount of money to qualify. 

Some people, who claimed not to have IDs, disappeared when they were offered assistance to get the documents.

“We uncovered that some individuals are foreign nationals, and we also uncovered that some individuals who have benefited from the government in the form of newly built houses have brought relatives to these TEAs,” said Duma.

bongani.hans@inl.co.za

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