KZN flood victims stuck in emergency housing, three years later

About 300 families have lived in an apartment building in Crystal Valley since their homes were destroyed by floods in 2022. Photos: Joseph Bracken

• Three years after floods destroyed their homes, hundreds of families are still in emergency accommodation in eThekwini.
• The eThekwini municipality has spent at least R120-million on housing the families.
• Families were allocated permanent housing, but these homes have not yet been built.

As the KwaZulu-Natal government rushes to house families displaced by recent storms, hundreds of families who lost their homes in floods more than three years ago are still living in emergency accommodation.

After floods battered the province in April 2022, families whose homes were destroyed were offered temporary shelter in apartments rented by the eThekwini municipality, at a cost of about R120-million since 2022, according to the municipality.

Residents say they expected to stay there only for six months before being moved to permanent housing provided by the provincial department of human settlements. But more than three years later, they are still there.

1,200 houses are being built for flood victims by the provincial government in Cornubia as part of a multi-billion-rand development launched in 2014. But to date, no housing units there appear to have been completed, despite the human settlements department promising to hand over homes to more than 300 families by December 2025. Some of these would be brick-and-mortar houses while others would be temporary housing units, which are usually adapted shipping containers.

When GroundUp visited the site last week, a contractor who asked to remain anonymous confirmed that no housing units have been completed. Many workers have threatened to stop working due to a wage dispute, the contractor said.

Human settlements MEC Siboniso Duma could not be reached for comment via his spokesperson, Ndabezinhle Sibiya, despite multiple follow-up messages and phone calls. Sibiya has previously blocked a GroundUp reporter on WhatsApp after refusing to answer questions.

EThekwini Municipality spokesperson Gugu Sisilana told GroundUp that the houses at Cornubia are now set to be completed by June. Funding and technical challenges have delayed the project, she says. The wage dispute is being addressed, she said.

The exact number of people living in temporary accommodation is unknown.

The Cornubia housing development is yet to provide houses for flood victims.

GroundUp spoke to residents living at four different temporary accommodation sites across eThekwini. All of whom were displaced in the April 2022 floods.

Some residents reported that they were informed in July last year that they would be relocated to permanent housing, but this never occurred. According to residents, no official has since explained why the move did not take place.

Almost 40 people have been living in an apartment building in KwaDimba near Thornwood since losing their homes in Shalcross during the April 2022 floods.

Lungi Mohloakoana, who lives there with her children, says families live in single rooms. “My children are older now, and they need their own space,” she says.

Mohloakoana rents an additional room closer to the restaurant where she works as a waiter, while her children stay in the apartment at KwaDimba.

She says there are often tensions between residents.

About 285 families have been living at the Astra Building in Durban’s city centre. Nthuthuko Yalo says people are forced to share rooms with families they do not know.

“There are often fights,” said Yalo. “Some people drink alcohol and behave badly.”

“I’m hoping we won’t spend another festive season here. Most of us would be happy to be moved. The sad part is that no one from the Department of Human Settlements has come to us this year to explain what is happening with our permanent houses.”

At Crystal Valley, just outside Durban, about 300 families stay in three apartment buildings in the same complex. The buildings do not have security, and there are cleaning services only once or twice a week.

Sicelo Mzimela says no one from the the human settlements department has spoken to them since they first moved there in December 2022.

Mzimela, along with several other residents from Crystal Valley, have now formed a neighbourhood watch to try to combat crime.

Residents also used to receive free transport for learners, but this stopped after about one year, said Mzimela. Parents now have to pay transport costs on top of having to now send their children to more expensive schools than from the areas they came from, he said.

Just over 100 families live in a building on Point Road in Point, Durban. They, too, are struggling with school transport costs.

“We saw on the news that human settlements is going to allocate houses, but due to a lack of communication, we gave up trying to find out,” said resident Nomvula Mnguni.

Municipality spokesperson Sisilana explained that the transport subsidy for scholars was one of the emergency relief measures after the April 2022 floods. But these subsidies were phased out.

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