28 November 2024
The area around the communal ablution blocks at the Zamani transit camp in Malukazi, Durban, is littered with uncollected garbage. Many families were relocated here before the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Photos: Tsoanelo Sefoloko
In 2009, hundreds of families were relocated from informal settlements in Umlazi to make way for the construction of sports facilities and a parking area next to the King Zwelithini Stadium in preparation for the FIFA World Cup.
Now, people in Zamani transit camp in Malukazi in ward 89 say they’ve lost all hope that government will fulfil the promises it made years ago to give them houses.
They say they’ve been waiting for ages just for the eThekwini Municipality to fix their blocked and overflowing toilets, a recurring problem for years. Every year in the rainy season many of the homes get badly flooded.
Tholakele Mlambo said her family was relocated to Zamani when her daughter was still in grade R. She is now at university. “And we still don’t have houses,” said Mlambo.
“We are stuck here … I used to live in a three-room mud house, and we were evicted and brought here. We were promised that we were going to live in the camp for three months [only],” said Mlambo.
“We have even built toilets using our own money, because we could see that the municipality doesn’t really care. The toilets they erected for us are a health hazard,” she said. “We want the City to bring new container toilets.”
Community leader Sibusiso Ntuli said conditions in Zamani are unbearable. He said waste is often not collected, leaving the settlement with a foul smell.
Because there is only one access road, elderly and sickly residents struggle to walk the half kilometre to get public transport.
Ward Councillor Mbangeni Mjadu (IFP) told GroundUp, “We have tried to fix the toilets but the community blocked the contractor from fixing the toilets.”
Mdu Nkosi, chairperson of the municipality’s new trading services portfolio committee, said water and sanitation had a 50% budget cut recently. Most of the remaining funds had to be used for repairing storm damage. This has resulted in a long backlog of cases across the metro. He said they had to prioritise requests according to the budget.
The municipality did not respond to our questions about housing.
Zamani transit camp in Malukazi.