Durban - More than a decade of promises, but no action, is what residents of a transit camp in Malukazi, south of Durban, say they have endured since they were moved to the area in 2009.
As a cold snap hit KwaZulu-Natal this week, The Mercury visited the camp to speak to residents about their living conditions.
Removed from informal settlements in different parts of Durban – including Uganda informal settlement in Isipingo, and KwaMnyandu in uMlazi – ahead of the 2010 Football World Cup, they have lived in single-room dwellings ever since. Their plight was one of many uncovered by the ad hoc committee on land-related matters in the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature.
A report of the ad hoc committee, chaired by Ntombikayise Sibhidla-Saphetha, said the families in Malukazi were moved by eThekwini Municipality as part of the Slums Clearance Programme ahead of the 2010 World Cup.
The report, which was debated at the KZN Legislature two weeks ago, noted that while the families were promised to be moved to better accommodation in eManzimtoti, more than a decade later they were still living in poor conditions.
“There is a lack of privacy and decent sanitation services and a high rate of crime. It was reported that the area is infested by rats,” said the report.
Residents told The Mercury this week that despite recent visits by Members of the Provincial Legislature (MPL), and the compilation of the report, they did not believe that anything would change.
“We have been promised a lot since we moved here in 2009. We have been told that we will be moved to a better place by different people, and there is no disaster whose impact we have not felt in between all of that,” said Sikhumbuzo Mchunu, a local activist.
He told of how he arrived as a teenager in 2009 after being removed from Uganda informal settlement, expecting that he would stay for a short time, but had seen the years go by and he was now a father of three. “We thought that maybe there would be changes after 2010, but nothing has happened. In fact, my sense is that one will be watching more World Cups in future right here.”
Another activist, Tholakele Mlambo, told of how she had also hoped that her placement in the camp would be short. “When I arrived here, my son was doing Grade R, today he is in matric and this has been his reality all his life. That is not something to be proud of,” said Mlambo.
She told of how she had attended many meetings involving eThekwini officials which have not yielded results.
“Yes they (MPLs) were here a few weeks ago and we told of how we arrived here and our situation, but honestly, to say one expects something to emerge from this, following past experiences, would be wishful thinking,” she added.
Located next to a sewage treatment plant, with refuse that seldom gets collected piling up around them, and toilets that are inadequate and not serviced, the transit camp is a breeding ground for disease, residents said.
They also live in fear because the structures do not offer adequate protection. “Given the condition of these structures, it helps to have something like a cupboard so that if a bullet aimed at somebody goes through, it hits another object and does not hit you with the same force,” said Mchunu.
The two activists added that if there were job opportunities, they were not considered because they were regarded as outsiders.
In its report, the committee said it would report the matter of transit camps to the Human Settlements portfolio committee for further investigation in the hope that it would get attended to urgently.
The transit camp in Malukazi is one of many land-related issues the ad hoc committee has covered since it was formed in 2020. It covered all KZN districts as part of the research.
The eThekwini Municipality had not commented by the time of publication.