400 Eastern Cape families dumped in wetland without services for 13 years

Nomonde Mgoqi (67) says she has lost hope that she will ever receive the RDP house she was promised in 2012. Photos: Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik

• In 2012, 400 families were given R1,500 each and relocated to Zone 14 several kilometres out of Dutywa town, Eastern Cape.
• They were moved to make way for a housing project and they were promised their relocation would be temporary.
• Since then they have been living in a wetland area in dire circumstances.

More than 400 families were relocated in 2012 from an informal settlement near Dutywa, Eastern Cape, to make way for their RDP houses. They were moved to Zone 14 together with their old shacks and each family was given R1,500. The relocation site, meant to be temporary, is in a wetland several kilometres from the town. Thirteen years later, they are still there.

The houses were never built, and the relocation site was never electrified. People cook on wood fires. Some have illegal electricity connections.

Water is delivered by truck. There are communal toilets but most are blocked due to a lack of water.

Most of the residents are unemployed. Some get piecemeal work.

Families scrounge on this dump for food.

About a kilometre away is a dumping site. Some people, mostly youths, scrounge at the dump for food. We also saw young mothers with their kids here.

In the afternoon we met a couple, Goodman Ndikho and Cikizwa Njemla, with their two children, aged one and three. They had been scrounging the dump since 6am.

“Every morning we come here to collect plastic bottles and look for food. There are shops that dump expired food here. We eat it, and we also sell to other people in Zone 14 at a cheap price,” said Ndikho.

“Sometimes we would find dead dogs here and we would have to move them so we can find what we are looking for, something to eat,” said Ndikho.

NomaIndia Gqola inside her one room shack she shares with her four daughters and five grandchildren.

Back at Zone 14 settlement, Nomaindia Gqola, 61, lives in a one-room shack with her four daughters and five grandchildren. The roof leaks. The zinc sheets for the walls are patched with old cardboard.

“The material used to build this shack I bought more than 30 years ago,” she says.

“The municipality bribed us to move. They gave R1,500 to each family and made the relocation to look like it was something temporary. We agreed because we trusted them. Now they have forgotten about us,” says Gqola. “They used to come here to give us those empty promises about the RDP houses, but now they are so quiet.”

She has a social grant and supplements it by helping people in town to carry their shopping bags.

People have been living in their old shacks in Zone 14 informal settlement. Most cannot afford new materials.

When we visited the settlement last week, the residents, mostly elderly women, came out in numbers. They complained about their old shacks, about their poverty and unemployment.

The floor of the shack where Nomonde Mgoqi, 67, lives with her daughter and grandson is always wet from water rising from the ground. The roof and zinc walls are full of holes.

“I don’t know how many times I applied for an RDP house with no luck. We used to live closer to a town but our officials decided to dump us here. The only time they come here is when they want us to vote for them,” says Mgoqi.

Residents said without street lights the place is dark and crime is rife. People living with disabilities are specifically targeted on grant pay day. This happened to Thumeka Baleni and her boyfriend several times. She started to put some cash under the door so the thugs would not break it. This month she forgot and they smashed their way in. They took all her disability grant money.

Out of fear, the couple have sent their children to live with relatives.

“I have three children, two girls and a boy. This month I didn’t send money for school,” she said.

Communal toilets recently set up in preparation for relocating more people.

Despite the 13-year delay, Mbashe Local Municipality is planning to move three more informal settlements near town to the area: JPO, Mabhaceni and Agriculture – the oldest informal settlements in Dutywa formed more than 25 years ago.

All three lack services. In JPO, 20 families have to share one pit toilet. Most people relieve themselves in the veld.

On Sunday, residents from all three informal settlements met to discuss how to resist the relocation to Zone 14.

At the meeting, Splesh Ngceba, from Agriculture, said people were prepared to move but only if the municipality first built them houses. He said the municipality is offering R5,000 vouchers to buy shack materials if they move.

He told GroundUp the sheriff came in September to give them 30 days notice but they refused to sign the letter.

Mbhashe Local Municipality spokesperson Babalwa Manqwanti said she could not comment as there are legal proceedings in the matter of GPO, Mabhaceni and Agriculture.

Regarding Zone 14, Manqwanti said the municipality is in discussion with the human settlements department but did not give details.

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