Lungani Zungu
Flood victims who are currently being housed at government-sponsored temporary shelters in Durban have been told they may well live in them for the rest of their lives.
EThekwini Municipality deputy mayor Philani Mavundla told local radio station Izwi LoMzansi that he “would bet his last cent” people living in shelters won’t get proper housing from the government.
“They will live there for many years to come.”
Following the floods that ravaged swathes of KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape in April, thousands remain without homes and live in shacks known as lindelas.
“The truth is that the people living in lindelas will not get proper houses anytime soon. That is the painful truth. The people did not vote for us to lie to them. They want us to tell the truth as it is,” Mavundla told the radio hosts.
Mavundla is the president of Abathu Botho Congress (ABC), which helped the ANC retain power in eThekwini following last year’s local government elections.
In return, the ANC rewarded Mavundla with the deputy mayor position and also topped it up with the position of chairperson of the Human Settlements Committee.
But his utterances appear to be in direct conflict with the promises of the ANC, a party with which he co-leads eThekwini municipality.
The ANC and ABC’s coalition government in eThekwini hangs in the balance amid the frosty relationship between Mavundla and Mayor Mxolisi Kaunda.
Mavundla said the National Department of Human Settlement is to be blamed for failing to provide better houses for the people who live in lindelas.
The temporary living shelters are scattered across eThekwini. Many are in Lamontville, Isipingo, and Umlazi, in the south of Durban.
The one-room lindelas are made of corrugated iron. In many cases, large families are forced to cram into these houses for many years.
Thokozani Mkhize of Umlazi U, is one of them.
“I have lost hope of ever having a proper house,” Mkhize told Scrolla.Africa.
Image source: @ThabisoTBee
