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The DA has called on KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Human Settlements MEC, Sipho Nkosi, to take urgent steps at Lindelani 1 transit camp in KwaDabeka as prefab housing faces collapse (view here) following recent heavy rains.

The appeal was made in the form of a motion in the provincial legislature last week.

The residents of Lindelani 1 have been living at the transit camp since 2009. This, despite having been promised housing within six months by KZN’s ANC-run government.

Apart from the danger of prefab houses collapsing, the camp is in a deplorable state. Toilets are rusty, broken and filthy while the camp can be likened to a refuse dump and is unfit for habitation. (view here, here)

Many of the residents include families. Those who were children in 2009 when they first moved are now adults and in need of their own houses for their own families.

They claim to have written to eThekwini Mayor, Mxolisi Kaunda more than a month ago regarding their plight yet they are still waiting for a response. In an act of pure desperation, they have now threatened protest action.

KZN’s Taliban faction ANC government has a duty to prioritise those living in informal settlements. Residents should not have to resort to protest action to get attention.

It is both sad and shocking that the residents of Lindelani 1 have had to wait for help for so long, while their situation only becomes worse.

It is also ironic that the ANC’s motto is 'leaving no one behind', when the residents of Lindelani have clearly been left behind for the last 14 years.

The DA expects MEC Nkosi to urgently intervene before there is any loss of life. He also needs to commit to transparency and proper information being filtered down to residents so that they do not feel completely abandoned.

The DA will continue to be a voice on behalf of society’s most vulnerable and to hold this ANC-run government to account.

Issued by Marlaine Nair, MPL - DA KZN Spokesperson on Human Settlements