Durban — The eThekwini Municipality has reiterated its commitment to relocating flood victims to more suitable accommodation and eliminating mass care centres by December 15.
That was according to mayor Mxolisi Kaunda on Thursday morning while giving progress on the work the municipality had done to relocate flood victims from mass care centres.
Kaunda was speaking at Conway Farm in oThongathi, where some flood victims had been living for a month while others moved in on Thursday.
“Here at Conway Farm, we will accommodate 163 families and this has resulted in the closure of oThongathi and La Mercy halls,” Kaunda said.
“Today (Thursday) we are busy moving the remaining families at Caneland Training Centre to this accommodation.”
Kaunda acknowledged that the relocation process took longer than they had anticipated and apologised to people who remained in community halls. He reiterated the commitment to finalise the challenge with speed.
“We want to assure you that the municipality is working tirelessly to ensure that at least by December 15 all mass care centres must have been closed and our people moved to more family-friendly accommodation,” Kaunda said.
He said from the original 120 mass care centres occupied by the April and May 2022 flood victims, 62 of these had been closed through various interventions.
“The remaining 58 mass care centres which are accommodating 3 448 will be cleared by December 15,” Kaunda said.
“Regarding building material supply, the city approved 3 011 people who required material supply and R34 million was allocated for this purpose. To date, 467 people from five mass care centres have been supplied with building materials (Bester, Amawoti, Dassenhoek, Cutshwayo and Clermont Hall),” he said.
He said in September, they set themselves a target of closing one mass care centre per week. As a result, they have been able to close mass care centres in Bester, Amaoti, Kloof, Ngoqokazi, Tongaat, Tehuis, Palmiet, Dassenhoek, La Mercy, Cutshwayo; Savannah Park and Clermont Hall.
“As we have indicated, we plan to close all mass care centres before December 15. Therefore, out of the remaining 3 448 people, 2 000 will be relocated by the end of this month and by December 15, we will relocate the remaining 1 448,” Kaunda said.
He said eight land parcels had also been identified to build permanent structures for flood victims and they were pleased that earthworks had begun in these sites and construction was expected to be completed in 2024. In the meantime, flood victims will be accommodated in the buildings we have leased for 24 months.
He also said a total of 13 buildings had been identified and linked to mass care centres and the process of moving people to these buildings was under way.
“Our officials are continuing to identify more suitable buildings to meet the deadline of December 15,” Kaunda said.
Daily News