A workshop to empower residents about criteria for low cost housing was taken over by victims of the 2008 tornado disaster who are still waiting for help from the Eastern Cape government.
A workshop to empower residents about criteria for low cost housing was taken over by victims of the 2008 tornado disaster who are still waiting for help from the Eastern Cape government.
The session was presented by Dumisani Zono, the Housing Consumer Educational practitioner at a recent ward 11 committee meeting which was attended by residents of ward 11 and other neighbouring areas.
When the meeting was opened to questions, residents who are still waiting for their damaged houses to be repaired expressed their frustration.
“The Scott’s Farm residents are sick and tired. Since 8 October 2008, they have said they will fix the houses and we are still waiting,” said one resident.
Another resident became emotional as she described how her roof is only covered by a heavy duty plastic sheet.
Ward 11 councillor Lena May had to step in to explain previous attempts taken to address the issue with the municipality.
She said that since the municipality did not have any funds available, an NGO called Operation Fix-it was established to raise funds to repair 12 houses.
However there are a number of houses that still desperately need assistance. Early this week, Dacre Haddon, a Member of the Provincial Legislature at Bhisho and Democratic Alliance (DA) spokesperson for Housing, Local Government and Transport, came to Grahamstown to view this situation himself.
He was joined by DA Member of Parliament, Annette Lovemore. Scott’s Farm resident, Ingrid Abdul informed Haddon that their whole roof had been damaged by the tornado.
“We couldn’t do anything to fix it, so our church helped us to repair it,” said Abdul. Haddon also spoke to Khathazile Wakashe, a Tantyi resident whose mud house had been destroyed by the tornado.
He was provided with a temporary fold-up house. Haddon was astonished that this problem had still not been resolved.
“Again we have vulnerable people suffering,” he said, adding that this is caused by the inability of government to move swiftly.
He appreciated what the government has done in terms of housing but believes that there is a need for a proper budget to be in place to deal with natural disasters.
He also said government should not build more RDP houses but rather provide service plots where people will not be limited to a 40×40 house.
He believes that residents should be allowed to choose how they want their communities to be set up and this can be done through the provision of service plots that can ultimately empower people with the dignity and pride of building their own homes.
He said this would help eradicate problems such as costly repairs to faulty RDP houses.
“We will take this up in the provincial legislature and ask the MEC of Local Government and Housing why they are taking so long with this issue,” he told the residents.
