Families living in temporary housing for 13 years accuse eThekwini of neglecting them
They were moved to make way for a housing project that is yet to be built
Families in the Amaoti Transit Camp on Shellbrook Street in Amaoti, north of Durban, say the eThekwini municipality has abandoned them there for over 13 years. Photos: Tsoanelo Sefoloko
When scores of families were relocated to the Amaoti Transit Camp on Shellbrook Street in Amaoti, north of Durban, they were told it would be temporary housing.
Thirteen years after they were moved from land earmarked for a housing development, many of the families accuse the eThekwini municipality of neglect as their living conditions worsen.
Many of the prefabricated units are leaking, communal toilets are vandalised so people relieve themselves in the surrounding bushes and refuse is not collected regularly. People we spoke to said that in the rainy summer season they anticipate their furniture getting damaged through leaking roofs.
The transit camp houses about 360 people who share 12 ablution blocks in old containers. Each container has three toilet stalls and three showers. But most of the ablution blocks are smelly with overflowing toilets. Two years ago, the eThekwini municipality told GroundUp that people living in the camp would be relocated in phases once new houses had been built in the Amoati Cuba housing project.
When we visited the site where the housing project site, only one showhouse had been built on the land and was surrounded by overgrown grass with little evidence that work would happen there anytime soon.
Community leader Linda Mfeya believes the municipality dumped them at the transit camp. “We were forcefully moved from our houses by the municipality. Now we are still waiting for our RDP houses that were promised to us. The sad thing is that we were not living in shacks. We had proper houses. I sometimes go away for weeks to work in Johannesburg and worry about my family because one day this house will fall on us,” said Mfeya.
Noncedo Mrali said her house leaks each time it rains. She said she tore down her three-room house when the municipality promised to build them new houses as part of the housing project. “The municipality dumped us here to suffer, and we are not even allowed to build proper houses next to the transit camp,” said Mrali.
EThekwini municipality spokesperson Gugu Sisilana said the City is currently doing feasibility checks for the high-density housing project. “A precise budget cannot yet be provided. Estimates will follow once planning is completed,” she said.
She blamed delays to rehouse the transit camp families on “limited developable land and other constraints”.
The site of the high-density housing project in Amaoti still stands vacant.
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