Isipingo Transit Camp residents are still waiting to receive aid from the city’s disaster management unit after their belongings were destroyed and shacks damaged in the heavy rains on 7 and 8 May.
One of the residents, Zanele Mngadi (35), who has lived in the camp since 2009, said they were visited by municipal staff and promised aid. “They said they will bring us blankets and food, but we have received nothing from them,” she said.
Zanele and her three children, aged 13, 10 and seven, live in one of the small prefab houses in the camp. “My children’s school books were ruined, as well as my bed and cupboards. The inside of our house was covered by water.” A water mark about 50cm above ground is still visible, evidence of how dire the flooding was in the camp.
“All the houses in the camp were flooded and many people lost what little food and clothes they had. I’ve had to beg for food from my boss at work.”
Zanele said after the nearby river flooded in 2012, the municipality moved the residents to the Lotus Park hall and provided them with soup and a small blanket, but they were chased home after three days as the municipality was losing revenue by not being able to rent out the hall.
“This time they didn’t even offer us accommodation,” said Zanele, who was moved to the camp from Kings Rest on the Bluff.
Residents were also angry that none of them have been told who will be moved to new houses at Gonubie.
”I was supposed to stay here for two months and then the municipality was going to move me into a new house – I’m still waiting seven years later.
We were told we might move to Gonubie, but they haven’t told us which specific people will move or when.”
It is understood some families have been moved to new houses by the municipality and more will follow, but the Sun’s queries to eThekweni Municipality illicited no response.
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