Durban — Residents of Reservoir Hills have expressed unhappiness with the sudden relocation of flood victims from Westville’s Truro Hall to Manton Crescent in Reservoir Hills.
The provincial Department of Public Works and Human Settlements moved 47 flood victims into a building that had been used to provide student accommodation.
The flood victims were told that the arrangement was a temporary one until a permanent place was made available.
Reggie Naicker, a Reservoir Hills resident who has been living in the area for almost 30 years, said he had planned to sell his house and had already found a buyer.
“I received a call this morning (Monday) from the buyer, who informed me that he is no longer going to buy following the reports of the flood victims coming to move here,” said Naicker.
The residents claim there was no communication from the owner of the building and that they only found out about the relocation of the flood victims through the media.
Another resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said their main concerns were sewage, security and noise since 60% of the people in the area are elderly and could not cope with that.
“We do sympathise with the victims and we have helped a lot of them during the crisis. However, we feel it is inhumane to put a lot of people in such a small building as it inconveniences them,” he said.
Themba Cele, who is moving into the building, said it feels like their dignity has been restored. He said the new place is closer to almost all facilities, while they had a lot of challenges at Truro Hall as accessing taxis from there was difficult and that made job-hunting difficult.
“This is life-changing as people are going to be sleeping individually or some will share – as a family. It is going to give people the space that they required all along. We were able to allocate people using numbers and names and there is going to be no havoc,” he said.
“People need not worry that the building is going to be a mess or there will be commotion in it because there will be a committee that ensures that the building is clean and runs smoothly.”
However, Pravesh Vallabh complained that he had moved into the area five years ago and he was worried that the value of his house, which he had paid a lot of money for, was going to depreciate. He claimed that moving the flood victims there was like “the final nail in the coffin”.
KZN Public Works and Human Settlements spokesperson Mlungisi Khumalo said the department noted the residents' concerns.
“We have had engagements with the homeowners, community leaders and various stakeholders to listen to their concerns. We were pleased with the outcome of the engagements. Agreements were reached, one of which was that flood victims can stay in the building until a permanent dwelling is found. The department appreciates some community members who have shown support to the victims,” Khumalo said.
Daily News