Councillors on the human settlements committee want the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality to identify land quickly and relocate thousands of informal settlement residents who live in flood-line areas to avoid another disaster.
The committee made the decision after a presentation by human settlements director Sandisile Mahashe.
Mahashe presented reports on verified informal settlements and the status of housing development in the city.
He said the city was allocated R81m, of which R76m was set aside for new houses and R3m for rectification units.
The Eastern Cape human settlements department transferred R114m to the municipality for the 2023/2024 financial year.
Combined with a rollover of R39m from the previous financial year, the total funds available for housing construction amounted to R153m.
A total of 364 units were budgeted for from the R39m rollover.
A total of 290 houses have already been completed and handed over.
The remaining projects are in Red Location and Doornhoek.
Doornhoek is nearly completed.
“There is a challenge regarding Raymond Mhlaba’s outstanding four units as the community has refused the development of four houses, citing that the sites where the affected beneficiaries are approved should be used as a playground or a park for children,” Mahashe said.
He said the matter was yet to be resolved.
However, councillors were more interested in what the municipality was doing to reclaim illegally occupied land and when it planned to relocate people who lived in dangerous areas.
ANC councillor Gamalihleli Maqula said there was an urgent issue of people living in areas unsuitable for habitation in adverse weather.
“But we allow them to stay in these areas until there is a disaster and we start to identify and avail land to move them, sadly after lives have been lost,” he said.
Heavy rains wreaked havoc in Nelson Mandela Bay, causing death and destruction earlier in June.
“My question is, why are we not proactive by ensuring that we move the people from these dangerous areas and relocate them to areas which can be developed and are safe for settlement so they can get services?”
Maqula said land to relocate flood victims was identified in two days, but there were scores of people who lived on flood-lines for years.
“We must take the blame for what happened in Kariega as this committee and apologise to those people because we allowed that situation.
“We could have prevented the disaster, but we didn’t.”
DA councillor Mxolisi Breakfast said the metro must urgently release land for mass social housing to eradicate its housing backlog.
“We have a huge housing backlog which is hovering between 90,000 and 100,000.
“As a city, we’re chasing a moving target.
“I wonder if we will ever address the backlog if we rely only on government funding.
“It’s high time we start releasing land for social housing projects to assist the so-called missing market that doesn’t qualify for a bond.”
Breakfast said the city needed to rope in the private sector to make a dent in the housing backlog.
Human settlements political head Thembinkosi Mafaya said all relevant officials who could identify land for relocation and initiate court processes were at the meeting.
“All the officials are here and we agree that we need to speed up the process to identify land so that people can be relocated to serviced sites.”
Mafana said funding for housing construction shrank every year.
HeraldLIVE
Councillors call for relocation of informal settlement residents to avoid flood calamities
We could have prevented the Kariega disaster, but we didn’t, says ANC’s Maqula
Image: WERNER HILLS
Councillors on the human settlements committee want the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality to identify land quickly and relocate thousands of informal settlement residents who live in flood-line areas to avoid another disaster.
The committee made the decision after a presentation by human settlements director Sandisile Mahashe.
Mahashe presented reports on verified informal settlements and the status of housing development in the city.
He said the city was allocated R81m, of which R76m was set aside for new houses and R3m for rectification units.
The Eastern Cape human settlements department transferred R114m to the municipality for the 2023/2024 financial year.
Combined with a rollover of R39m from the previous financial year, the total funds available for housing construction amounted to R153m.
A total of 364 units were budgeted for from the R39m rollover.
A total of 290 houses have already been completed and handed over.
The remaining projects are in Red Location and Doornhoek.
Doornhoek is nearly completed.
“There is a challenge regarding Raymond Mhlaba’s outstanding four units as the community has refused the development of four houses, citing that the sites where the affected beneficiaries are approved should be used as a playground or a park for children,” Mahashe said.
He said the matter was yet to be resolved.
However, councillors were more interested in what the municipality was doing to reclaim illegally occupied land and when it planned to relocate people who lived in dangerous areas.
ANC councillor Gamalihleli Maqula said there was an urgent issue of people living in areas unsuitable for habitation in adverse weather.
“But we allow them to stay in these areas until there is a disaster and we start to identify and avail land to move them, sadly after lives have been lost,” he said.
Heavy rains wreaked havoc in Nelson Mandela Bay, causing death and destruction earlier in June.
“My question is, why are we not proactive by ensuring that we move the people from these dangerous areas and relocate them to areas which can be developed and are safe for settlement so they can get services?”
Maqula said land to relocate flood victims was identified in two days, but there were scores of people who lived on flood-lines for years.
“We must take the blame for what happened in Kariega as this committee and apologise to those people because we allowed that situation.
“We could have prevented the disaster, but we didn’t.”
DA councillor Mxolisi Breakfast said the metro must urgently release land for mass social housing to eradicate its housing backlog.
“We have a huge housing backlog which is hovering between 90,000 and 100,000.
“As a city, we’re chasing a moving target.
“I wonder if we will ever address the backlog if we rely only on government funding.
“It’s high time we start releasing land for social housing projects to assist the so-called missing market that doesn’t qualify for a bond.”
Breakfast said the city needed to rope in the private sector to make a dent in the housing backlog.
Human settlements political head Thembinkosi Mafaya said all relevant officials who could identify land for relocation and initiate court processes were at the meeting.
“All the officials are here and we agree that we need to speed up the process to identify land so that people can be relocated to serviced sites.”
Mafana said funding for housing construction shrank every year.
HeraldLIVE
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