Durban – Two days before the official move to Temporary Emergency Accommodation, KwaZulu-Natal premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube visited flood victims at Truro Hall in Westville to see first-hand what living conditions they had endured.
The hall accommodates 47 families who will now be moved to a building in Reservoir Hills where the flood victims were originally living before floods struck in April.
The premier said that the building identified to accommodate these victims has 50 rooms.
“As we relocate these families, earthworks and construction are under way a few kilometres down the road from here (Truro Hall), where the Department of Human Settlement and Public Works is building 80 new state-of-the-art three-storey buildings that will become permanent homes for our citizens, whose lives and livelihoods were devastated by the floods,” she said.
The block of flats used to be a student housing complex and has 50 lockable rooms with two or three beds in each unit (112 beds in total), CCTV cameras and hot water. It is fenced, has a security gate and biometrics, a kitchen with four four-plate stoves, a lounge, children’s homework area, en-suites and common bathroom and a guard house.
Speaking during an update on the progress made since the floods in April, Dube-Ncube said the government has put in place a practical plan to move people out of community care centres by the end of November 2022.
She said to date the provincial government has reduced these centres from 135 to 80.
“As was announced, the National Department of Human Settlements has since granted a total amount of R325 764 000-00 to the Provincial Department from the Provincial Emergency Housing Grant for the provision of Emergency Housing solutions. This has enabled the Delivery of Temporary Residential Units (TRU) which to date stand at 1315 Units Provincially,” said the premier.
Dube-Ncube said remarkable progress has been made for the disaster victims especially those still housed in community care centres.