KwaZulu-Natal Premier Thamsanqa Ntuli said there needs to be a plan to relocate the remaining Lamontville residents who were affected by last month’s deadly heavy rains and flooding.
Ntuli on Sunday visited Inanda and Lamontville following severe weather conditions in the province. He also visited 41 flood victims at the Bayside Hotel in the Durban CBD.
In Lamontville, some of the corrugated iron houses where many flood victims lived had been removed. What remained were some of their belongings.
Lamontville flood victim Nkululeko Ncame said he was working the night shift and when he returned, part of his house, roof and door had been removed. Even some of his household items were stolen.
“I think the items were taken by people who were taking advantage of the situation,” Ncame said.
He said he and his neighbour remained behind to look after their belongings because all they could take was a bag.
Another Lamontville flood victim, Nothando Mdlalose, who had been moved to Impala Holiday Flats last month said around midnight, on February 25, she was awakened by neighbours to find the house was flooded.
“I put the child on my back and tried looking for items I could take with me but failed. The water was streaming in and I needed to get out and wake up the children, as they were sleeping,” Mdlalose said.
She said she could only go to a neighbour because she was also afraid of being alone. They stayed indoors because the floodwaters were strong enough to carry them away.
Mdlalose said they were moved to the Bayside Hotel on Friday.
She said officials always came to see them and console them but they needed more help.
Speaking in Lamontville, Ntuli said he was hopeful as the first group of flood victims had been taken to a much safer place.
“There are other families, in our view, we are worried that if it rains even at night, we don’t know what will happen to those left behind,” Ntuli said.
He said they have spoken to the human settlements head of department, Max Mbili, about the need for a plan to ensure the relocation of more people from Lamontville because he saw some of the houses; therefore, they needed to be relocated.
Regarding Inanda, Ntuli said a blockage caused people to move from their original houses and some community members did not dispose of their garbage correctly.
Ntuli said that needs to be addressed so people can care for nature and the infrastructure.
“It’s very important that we look after the infrastructure with the climate change in our province,” Ntuli said.
He said there will be a climate change conference next week where academics and researchers will unite to provide solutions.
“What is important now is that we require solutions, we cannot just watch people suffering the way they are, we need to do something quite urgently,” Ntuli said.
Ntuli added that the search continues for the woman who was swept away by floodwaters in Lamontville last month.
“We have lost 15 lives in eThekwini alone and have lost more than 20 lives in KwaZulu-Natal as a whole,” Ntuli said.
“Last week three lives were lost, so we send our condolences to the families.”
eThekwini Municipality mayor Cyril Xaba said eThekwini has 590 informal settlements and some people build in unsuitable places like floodplains and protected areas.
“We don’t have enough land to settle people. We are now appealing to amakhosi or neighbouring amakhosi to make land available so that we can then settle people.”