KZN flood victims housed in four-star hotel

The DA has accused the KZN government of housing flood victims at the four-star Royal Hotel in Durban.

Attempts to get comments from the KZN government were unsuccessful.

When The Witness visited the hotel on Tuesday, management declined to speak to the media.

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Marlaine Nair, DA member of the provincial legislature, said the victims were taken from Truro Hall to the hotel.

Nair described the move as a publicity stunt by the ANC-run government ahead of the 2024 national elections.

This is the same department that has been dragging its heels for six months since the floods. This despite ongoing appeals by the DA to look into suitable accommodation, including vacant government-owned buildings.
While the ANC has finally acted, the move is nothing more than a desperate attempt to look good. The worst part is that it has raised the hopes of flood victims who have already endured great hardship.

Nair said it was unclear at this point how many people were being accommodated at the hotel and how long they are going to be staying there.

According to the hotel booking site — booking.com — a one-night stay at the hotel can cost up to R1 300.

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Nair compared this incident to the one that happened at the Transnet lodge in Montclair about a month ago.

Flood victims, who had occupied the lodge, were forcibly evicted and the government later procured the lodge from Transnet to house flood victims there again.

Meanwhile, eThekwini has received its first tranche of flood relief funds from the national government, six months after the floods.

Mayor Mxolisi Kaunda said the R185 million will be to “assist with rehabilitating roads and repairing our water and sanitation infrastructure”.

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IFP member Mduduzi Nkosi said he hoped this was the first of many relief funds from the national Treasury.

We had the president of our country saying eThekwini will receive a billion rand in emergency relief and that has not happened yet. Instead we heard how the R1 billion was not for eThekwini but for KZN, and then later for KZN and Eastern Cape and then the entire country.

According to reports presented to Exco, eThekwini suffered around R1,3 billion in damages due to the April floods.