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By Citizen Reporter

Journalist


Relief for displaced KZN flood victims

Flood victims moved from mass care centers to Astra building.


More than 500 displaced flood victims will be spending Christmas in decent and dignified accommodation after they were moved from mass care centres into an apartment building in the Durban CBD on Tuesday.

The Astra building in Russell Street, which was previously a student residence, will accommodate victims from various shelters, including Verulam north of Durban and Chesterville near Durban.

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The KwaZulu-Natal provincial government made a public promise that it would move all displaced flood victims from mass care shelters into decent accommodation before Christmas.

KZN premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube said on Tuesday that, in the next seven days, there would be no flood victims living in mass care centres in KZN.

We have just processed a total of 1046 families who were in mass care centres and we are housing 531 of them here at this spacious Astra building.From the agony of being deprived of privacy and [experiencing] uncertainty, we have restored dignity of our flood victims. The families will now be able to regroup and plot their futures in a safe and habitable place.
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The units have single beds, a bathroom and a fully equipped kitchen. The families were taken to their new temporary homes by the premier and MEC for Human Settlement Ntuthuko Mahlaba.

Dube-Ncube said additional mass care centres that will be closed in eThekwini Municipality are in Umlazi K, Emaus, Tshelimnyama and Nazareth, and relocations planned for this week include 195 people from Mpola Hall, 158 people from Rurafo Hall, 120 people from Marrianridge Hall and 23 families from Truro Hall in Pietermaritzburg.

She said that, in KwaDukuza north of KZN, all four remaining mass care centres will be closed by next Monday.

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The premier told KZN that challenges such as the “not in my backyard” attitude from homeowners, who don’t want to see homes being built in their neighbourhood, caused delays.

Flood victim speaks
Zola Yalo (24), who lost his home when the informal settlement he lived in, in Verulam, was washed away by the floods, said he is grateful to be moving into a decent home.

He said they were informed on Monday that they would be relocated.

According to Yalo, there were initially almost 400 people living in the shelter, however, people have trickled out due to the negative living conditions in the hall.

As an unemployed young person, I feel that living in the CBD will make looking for a job easier.

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