Overflowing toilets and flooded homes: The long wait for a 2010 World Cup housing promise

Residents of Zamani Transit Camp informal settlement outside Durban are still waiting for authorities to keep their promise to build them proper houses after they were removed from their original land in preparation for the 2010 Soccer World Cup.

In 2009 the community were asked to relocate from settlements in Umlazi to make way for the construction of sports facilities and a parking area next to King Zwelithini Stadium.

The international cup tournament was held at different venues countrywide with some stadiums used as training camps for different teams from abroad.

Zamani Transit Camp people in Malukazi were promised to be provided with formal sites after the World Cup, but since then nothing happened.

Unacceptable

Many had lost hope that anything would ever be done for them but the United Democratic Movement has taken up the battle on their behalf.

UDM’s KwaZulu-Natal provincial secretary Vuyani Mngonyama condemned the “inhuman living conditions” endured by the families in the Zamani Transit camp, situated at Malukazi in the eThekwini metro municipality.

“These families had been relocated from informal settlements in Umlazi with promises of better housing and services. Yet, fifteen years later they remain abandoned in deplorable conditions with no proper housing, water or sanitation,” Mngonyama said.

“The UDM condemns the eThekwini Municipality’s failure to uphold its commitments. The municipality’s recent admission that there is no budget to assist the residents of Zamani highlights the continued neglect of vulnerable communities.

“This is unacceptable in a country where every citizen deserves the dignity of adequate housing and basic services,” he said.

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Blocked and overflowing toilets

Residents have been forced to live with blocked and overflowing toilets, homes that flood every rainy season and uncollected waste that creates a hazardous environment.

Many residents have even used their own limited resources to build makeshift toilets which pose serious health risks.

The lack of proper sanitation coupled with inadequate access roads, has left elderly and sick residents struggling to reach public transport or access healthcare services.

“It is deeply shocking that some residents have been waiting for permanent housing for so long that their children, who were in Grade R at the time, are now attending university—yet their parents and families remain trapped in the same deplorable conditions.

“This serves as a glaring indictment of the government’s failure to prioritise the needs of its people,” Mngonyama said.

SA deserve better

The UDM demanded that the eThekwini Municipal and national government immediately intervene to provide proper housing, water and sanitation for the Zamani residents.

“South Africans deserve better. It is unacceptable for families to live in such dire conditions while government officials make empty promises.

“The UDM will continue to stand with the people of Zamani and hold the government accountable until their dignity is restored,” Mngonyama said.

Several attempts since December last year to get comments about the plight of the Zamani Transit Camp community from various individuals in the communications department at eThekwini Metro were fruitless despite their promise to respond.

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