A group of Mthatha flood victims temporarily housed at an Anglican church in Slovo Park are accusing the OR Tambo District Municipality of relocating some residents without proper consultation, leaving them feeling abandoned and cut off from essential services.
The dispute stems from the municipality’s decision to move a number of displaced individuals from the church mass care center to the OR Tambo Hall. Residents who remain at the Slovo Park facility claim the move was done unilaterally and that services are now being redirected to the new location, leaving them in the lurch.
“We are homeless and we are no longer getting the services that we were getting when we were housed at the mass center at Slovo Park because the services are now targeted to the people who are now housed at the OR Tambo Hall,” a representative for the group stated.
In response to the allegations, OR Tambo District Municipality Communications Manager, Ms. Ncebakazi Kolwane, asserted that proper consultation had been conducted with all victims in the mass care centers. She suggested that the concerned individuals were those who had initially chosen to leave the formal shelters.
“The people who seem to be having a problem now are people who decided voluntarily not to stay in the mass centers because they had their own places that they would be able to sleep at,” Kolwane explained.
She addressed the core fear head-on: that being moved or not being in a designated mass care center would remove them from the list for temporary housing units (THUs). Kolwane sought to allay these fears, stating that the beneficiary lists for temporary housing are fixed and will not change.
“We assure the people… The lists are not going to change. Anyone who was deemed to be qualifying for a temporary housing unit due to homelessness or any other reason will remain a beneficiary,” she said. She clarified that priority for the initial rollout of THUs would be given to vulnerable groups, including the elderly, those on chronic medication, and child-headed households.
The interview also touched on the critical issue of verification, a common challenge in disaster relief efforts. Kolwane detailed the municipality’s process to prevent fraud, explaining that assessors physically took individuals to point out the homes they owned that were destroyed by the floods. This rigorous verification is intended to ensure aid does not go to those who were merely renting or working in the area as domestic workers or herdsmen, and not legitimate property owners.
“We have tightened our verification processes to ensure that there is no undue beneficiation,” Kolwane stated.
Despite these assurances, the situation highlights the tensions and anxieties that accompany large-scale disaster recovery efforts. While the municipality emphasizes its structured process to deliver aid fairly, the displaced residents at Slovo Park feel their immediate needs and voices have been overlooked in the relocation process.
Construction of the temporary housing units is reportedly already underway at Maiden Farm, as the district works to move all verified flood victims to more permanent and safer accommodation.
