Minister pleads with councils, property owners to halt evictions

Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation Minister Lindiwe Sisulu has appealed to municipalities and property owners to suspend evictions during the 21-day lockdown.

Sisulu and senior management of the department of human settlements yesterday had a video conference meeting with leaders of community organisations and nongovernmental organisations over the matter.

During the meeting, the minister was informed of ongoing evictions, including in eThekwini. She then appealed for the evictions to be halted, also pleading with municipalities and property owners to prioritise measures aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Citizen understands civil society organisations have committed themselves to working with the department and to do their part in trying to curb the spread of the disease.

The organisations further assured the minister that they would help the department to point out areas that were still struggling with reliable access to water.

In a statement, Sisulu said her department was in the process of providing water and sanitation to informal settlements and public areas, including taxi ranks, as well as rural areas in its bid to combat the spread of infections.

She said the department had already made 20,000 water tanks available to help in this regard. She added that some tanks have been connected to the water infrastructure and were providing much-needed water to communities, while others were currently being transported to communities identified as having a need.

“We are therefore calling on municipalities and communities to look after their infrastructure and water tanks which have been put in place to assist them with water,” said Sisulu. “We also appeal to people who are installing tanks to take the necessary precautions to minimise the risk of infection.

“While it remains our responsibility as government to provide basic services to our communities, the situation we currently find ourselves in warrants us to do things differently.”

Sisulu said it was for this reason that they were appealing to borehole companies across the country to extend a helping hand by drilling boreholes for communities which were in desperate need of water.

“We implore our municipalities and property owners to understand that preferably, the only movement of people that should occur now is through the de-densification initiative that was recently announced by my department, which is aimed at preventing densely populated settlements from being overwhelmed by Covid-19,” she said.

“We are doing this in the best interest of our people, and it will be in their best interest to work with us.”

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