Metro favours shacks over prefab structures for displaced people

Nelson Mandela Bay City Hall
HOUSING MATTERS: Nelson Mandela Bay City Hall
Image: WERNER HILLS

Instead of being housed in prefabricated structures that cost R100,000 a house, displaced residents in Nelson Mandela Bay will be given a shack to live in. 

This was the plan put to the human settlements committee on Wednesday.

Human settlements executive director Tabiso Mfeya said this would save the city money and allow the metro to accommodate more people if shack building material was purchased.

“Paramount to us resettling people is the issue of resources to do so.

“The intention is that if you want to accommodate as many people as possible, rather do away with the costly transitional residential units (TRUs),”  Mfeya said.

“However, if you purchase new material for informal structures [shacks] you will cover many people.

“We have a standard design that we have come up with.”

Mfeya said the material would not be supplied to the beneficiaries because it could get sold, but teams would be appointed to build them.

“This process is at an advanced stage and there’s an advert placed in The Herald which will expire on November 7.”

Mfeya was responding to a motion of exigency tabled by Ward 54 councillor Lunga Minyayo that requested the relocation of 28 families often affected by severe flooding due to blocked stormwater drains in the area.

“The current location of these households is a high-risk flood zone without sufficient stormwater drains,”  Minyayo said. 

“Each flooding incident leads to property loss, health hazards and significant community displacement.

“Immediate intervention is necessary to ensure the safety, dignity and wellbeing of these families,”  the motion reads.

Minyayo said he had identified pieces of land the families could be moved to if the committee and council approved it.

DA councillor Noxolo Mafumana said the city was wasting funds by relocating people to flooding areas every time people were displaced.

“Whoever identified the sites must ensure the land is assessed by qualified engineers so that people are not moved to places that are prone to floods and will have to be moved again.

“I support this motion but we need to be sure about the land we move people to.”

ANC councillor Nomxolisi Phezisa said she was in support of the motion taking into consideration the mass displacement in Kariega due to recent floods.

HeraldLIVE


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