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DURBAN – An informal settler pressure group criticized the government for delays in relocating residents to appropriate homes, saying this was to blame for widespread illegal connections to water and electricity.
It comes as MEC for Human Settlements Jomo Sibiya criticized the transit camps in eThekwini Municipality, describing the temporary shelters as unacceptable, a horror, an inconvenience and as being too numerous.
These temporary residential structures have remained an eyesore and an annoyance, Sibiya said during the department’s budget policy speech recently.
Indeed, they are in total contradiction to the human and benevolent characteristic for which our government is known, Sibiya said.
In his review, he promised that out of the 71 transit camps, the department and the city would eliminate 45 in the 2021/2022 fiscal year.
Since they were built in the aftermath of the 2009 rainstorm, 17 had been eradicated between 2013 and 2018, he said.
The mere mention of the transit camp in our lexicon has always evoked the unsightly and sordid image of the infamous Isipingo transit camp in Ward 90 (eThekwini).
Sibiya added that the coming years would see a massive reduction in informal settlements, especially in eThekwini, which had the highest concentration.
There are 393,167 structures across the province, and 73% of these are located in Durban.
Representative organization Abahlali BaseMjondolo said its members had warned that in the meantime they would continue to illegally connect to essential services.
The government has not given priority to relocating people to adequate housing with sufficient water and electricity. Our members say that while the government is treading water, they will be providing water and electricity on their own in nearby suburbs, organization spokesperson Bathabile Makhoba said.
Sibiya said his department, together with the municipality, had purchased land near the Kanku road in Isipingo, and that the location was being used for a new housing project that is expected to produce 300 houses.
The project is currently at the stage of bulk installation and internal services. The majority of beneficiaries will be transferred from the Isipingo transit camp, he said.
The city said that although illegal electrical connections were prevalent throughout the municipality, they were more common in areas around informal settlements.
In informal settlements, you find that there are legitimate customers, but if you look at the number of customers who are connected to a transformer, they represent 30% of the overall connection, 70% of which are therefore illegal. . They connect to the transformer themselves, bypassing safety devices placed to protect the transformer, said specialist engineer Abel Malima, who said this in turn causes delays in the delivery of the service.
MERCURY
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