Christmas wish list: to be moved

IT’S ALMOST Christmas and there are still people without temporary or permanent shelter in Durban, following the floods in April which claimed the lives of more than 400 people and washed away homes, bridges and roads.

Flood victims living at mass care centres in ethekwini said their Christmas wish was to be moved from the community halls to homely environments.

Charles Ganesh, 40, with his wife Jamie Govender, 38, and their three children, have been housed at the Shastri Park Community Hall in Phoenix since April.

Ganesh said the hardest thing about being at the community hall was that there was absolutely no privacy.

“We want to celebrate Christmas in what we call a ‘home’ of our own. No matter how much we have tried to get used to our current circumstances, it is still hard. We have had government officials coming here and making promises, but we are still here,” said Ganesh.

Ganesh and his family lived at the Palmview flats in Phoenix, parts of which were and still remain badly damaged. Three families were now left at the Shastri Park Community Hall, comprising 18 people.

Ranjith Ramnaram, 59, has also been living at the hall for the past seven months. He said he was fortunate enough that his children were older and lived in their own homes.

“I’m just alone here. My wife passed away a few years ago. I miss her. I miss being in my own space, I miss my privacy. We have heard many promises, these officials coming in and out of here, but absolutely nothing has happened. I know we’ll still be here by Christmas when it’s a time to be joyous. Families will be together, but us here, we will be sad and no one would even know,” said Ramnaram.

The national Human Settlements

Department granted an amount of R325.764 million from the Provincial Emergency Housing Grant for the provision of Emergency Housing solutions which included temporary residential units (TRUS).

KZN Premier Nomusa Dube-ncube said the construction of TRUS was identified as an immediate emergency to house the more than 4 000 displaced flood victims, and said that of the identified buildable 1 810 TRUS during the first phase, 1 592 had been completed, with 1 511 being occupied.

Dube-ncube said that of the original

135 mass care centres that were set up after the floods, about 71 centres had been closed and moves were afoot to house flood victims in the remaining mass care centres.

“We are closing these mass care centres daily and are moving people into temporary emergency units.

“Furthermore, in ethekwini metro, which was the epicentre of the flood disasters, about 50 mass care centres remain. There is progress in linking mass care centres and transitional emergency accommodation facilities as well as permanent housing solutions

land parcels in an integrated manner,” said Dube-ncube.

She said the provincial government, working with the ethekwini Municipality and the Human Settlements’ Housing Development Agency, had secured eight land parcels which would be used for permanent housing solutions in the western, northern and southern regions.

Mlungisi Khumalo, spokesperson for the provincial Department of Human Settlements, said all flood victims who were housed in halls would be moved by December 15.