Durban — KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Transport and Human Settlements Siboniso Duma has made a bold promise that could come back to haunt him if not honoured – a fate once suffered by erstwhile premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube.
Duma delivered the first budget vote on Thursday for the Department of Human Settlements, amounting to R3.5 billion for the 2024/25 financial year, and undertook to “fully eradicate” the long-standing transit camps in eThekwini by the end of 2025.
“We are working closely with eThekwini to ensure that come the end of 2025, transit camps will be no more. A further 14 transit camps are to be decommissioned by the end of this year, with the remaining 26 to be decommissioned by the end of 2025.”
Duma’s promise comes as the province, especially eThekwini, was littered with a string of transit camps housing thousands of destitute flood victims.
Among them were thousands of residents who have lived in squalor for more than 16 years in a transit camp in Lamontville, south of Durban.
Some victims were housed in a transit camp in Mayville, while others were in Durban Central.
Their hopes for better houses have remained a faint dream. Duma, however, who is also MEC for Transport, vowed to “walk the talk”.
Reacting to Duma’s promise, Nombuso Ngcobo, who has lived in the Lamontville transit camp for 14 years, said she’d adopt a “wait-and-see” approach.
“I will wait and see what happens next. I am tired of upping my hopes for nothing,” she told Daily News.
During her tenure, Dube-Ncube found herself in the political firing line from the opposition led by the DA over what they claimed was her failure to eradicate the transit camps in the province – especially in eThekwini.
During his speech on Thursday, Duma lauded the late ANC strongman and former housing MEC Dumisani Makhaye for laying a “solid foundation as guided by the policies of the ANC, the party he served until his untimely departure (2004)”.
Said Duma: “We will accelerate the implementation of rural housing development projects as a tribute to former MEC Dumisani Makhaye. In this regard, we will work with His Majesty King Misuzulu and Amakhosi aseNdlunkulu throughout the corners of the province.”
Duma was appointed as the MEC for Transport and Human Settlements by Premier Thamsanqa Ntuli in June, as part of a power deal termed the Government of Provincial Unity (GPU).
Despite the ailing economy besetting the country, Duma said his department had “shown tangible proof of delivery and interventions” in all districts.
He cited the Jika Joe community residential unit (CRU) project in the Msunduzi Local Municipality as one of the department’s achievements.
“Phase one consists of 440 apartments of the eventual planned 760 total yield in this R445 million project. We delivered 9 363 breaking new ground (BNG) houses using various housing instruments in the 2023/24 financial year. Since the dawn of democracy, 690 000 BNG houses were provided to communities across the province,” he said.
On the job-creation front, Duma said his department created 8 243 work opportunities through 172 projects throughout the various subsidy instruments in the past financial year.
“This includes work opportunities for 2 081 women, 4 356 youth, and 17 persons with disabilities. Since 2019, we have created 32 990 work opportunities in housing projects.
“We created 2 252 full-time equivalents (FTEs), particularly with skills transfer in the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) last year, and 6 505 FTEs since 2020. We have our sights on creating 11 900 work opportunities and 3 500 FTEs within the next two years,” he said.
“These achievements and others to follow in my presentation today provide tangible proof of delivery despite the terrain, a growing population, and inherited spatial patterns.”
Reflecting on the harsh implications of the 1913 Group Areas Act, Duma said: “Townships such as Wentworth, Chatsworth, Phoenix, uMlazi, KwaMashu, KwaMakhutha, Cato Manor, Hammarsdale and others were created not for human settlements but to allow for easy surveillance and monitoring of the people by the apartheid government.”
He said his department was working on other long-term catalytic projects, including the Amaoti greater housing project and uMlazi urban regeneration in eThekwini and eMpangeni, as well as the mega housing development in the uMhlathuze Local Municipality.
Through the housing interventions in rural areas, the department had delivered 6 939 houses, creating “comfort” to more than 39 216 families, he said.
He said that since 1994, more than 200 000 houses had been built for people living in rural areas and close to 37 000 of these had replaced mud houses.
Duma said his department would pull out all the stops in the 2024/25 financial year to build 6 946 BNG houses for qualifying households throughout the province using the various housing instruments, 270 community residential housing units will be delivered, and 100 houses for military veterans.
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