Displaced Mamelodi flood victims uncertain what future holds

Mamelodi flood victims are uncertain about the future as they wait to hear who will be relocated and who will have to return to the flood-prone area they had to leave.

Many of them are from the Mavuso informal settlement near Mamelodi.

They were living in shacks near the banks of the Moretele River from where they fled in February 2020, when the settlement was hit by floods that damaged or washed away scores of shacks.

‘We want land’

After the floods, people were forced to leave and moved into the Nellmapius Community Hall.

Many were reluctant to talk about who was staying and who was going, with others left divided after the city said only nine households would be relocated to Pienaarspoort.

“We don’t want shacks, we want land. Those shacks will damage again when the rain comes,” said one of them.

The occupants have now started to fight among one another because some were chosen to be moved to Pienaarspoort while others were told to go back to their homes.

ALSO READ: Ongoing storms keep Cape Winelands and Overberg schools closed on Friday

A flood victim, Moses Mboweni, has been living in the community hall for more than three years.

He said he couldn’t return to his shack because there was nothing left but a structure and overgrown grass.

“I went to my shack over the weekend like they told us to do for the assessment and waited from 11am to 4.30pm and they were a no-show,” he said.

Mboweni said he didn’t know what his fate was seeing that he was not part of the nine households who will be relocated.

“They said we should go back to our shacks, but I left everything behind. I have nothing to return to,” he said. Mboweni said he had to send his children away because they could not live in the damaged shack or in the community hall.

“We are only 60 people, it’s not that much. They can make a plan for us,” he said.

Plan for relocation changes

Initially, the flood victims living in the hall were told they would be relocated to Leeuwfontein, but that never happened.

Last week, Tshwane deputy mayor Nasiphi Moya and MMC for human settlements Ofentse Madzebatela visited the hall to discuss with the displaced people how best to move them before November, when the facility will be returned to Nellmapius residents.

Madzebatela said: “An agreement was reached with the community leaders stating that those with structures would return to their shacks and the relocations would resume according to the original shack markings.

ALSO READ: WATCH: Western Cape may close up to 53 schools due to severe weather, 5 000 displaced

“The meeting addressed concerns by the nine families who have now agreed to vacate the hall, with the assistance of the city,” he said.

Madzebatela said the city had received a parcel of land in Pienaarspoort from the provincial government where the affected families will be relocated.

“Relocations will resume once the rehabilitation of the land in Pienaarspoort, which has been budgeted for, is completed. The envisaged date for the relocation is November 2024,” he said.