NMB Flood victim relocation plan met with resistance

By Anita Dangazele

The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality’s plan to relocate residents from the Lapland informal settlement to the newly identified area of Van Rooyen in Kariega has been met with hostility by another group of residents who have been eyeing the area for some time.

NMBM Mayor Gary van Niekerk said on Thursday that the municipality had identified the Van Rooyen area as suitable land to relocate the residents of Lapland because the current area is classified as a floodplain and is at the foot of a dam.

However, the residents from McCarthy informal settlement say there will be conflict if the municipality gives the land that they’ve been eyeing to Lapland residents.

Van Rooyen is a stone’s throw away from McCarthy and in the same ward, while Lapland falls under a different ward.

Ward 48 committee member Susan Ruiters said they were also affected by floods and because that land is in their ward, they deserve to be relocated to it.

“Here’s the challenge that we are having with the decision that was made in our absence, bringing ward 45 [Lapland] to ward 48 [Van Rooyen] is totally contravening and disregarding our current situation as it is.

“Now if you speak about relocating those people [Lapland residents], then you’ve got to be willing to address our issue. Where are we going? Because that land [Van Rooyen] is too small to accommodate all of us here. Here we’ve got 880 dwellings.

“We want that land, we need that land. We need to be relocated to the land where our schools are, where our churches are, where we’ve got access to public transport,” Ruiters said.

The residents allege that their ward councillor, Franay Van de Linde, failed to report their plight to the municipality.

“When there were floods, we were affected because the water from the top flooded our houses. We tried to call our ward councillor many times but she never came. Nobody from the municipality came.

“Only religious groups came to our aid and even then they could only help a few people,” a resident who asked not to be named said.

Van de Linde could not be reached for comment at the time of publication.

Pictured Above: Nelson Mandela Bay Mayor Gary van Niekerk briefing the media on Thursday about the municipality’s progress in addressing the aftermath of the devastating floods that hit the city in June.

Source: Anita Dangazele

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