More than 400 families were relocated in 2012 from an informal settlement near Dutywa, Eastern Cape, to make way for their RDP houses. They were moved to Zone 14 with their old shacks. The relocation site, meant to be temporary, is in a wetland several kilometres from the town.
Thirteen years later, they are still in the bog without proper housing and electricity. Residents depend on wood fires to cook and warming during winter nights.
However, some have illegal electricity connections.
Water is delivered by truck. Some of the communal toilets are blocked due to lack of maintenance and irregular water supply.
Most of the residents are unemployed. Some get piecemeal work.
About a kilometre away is a dumping site. Some people, mostly youths, scrounge at the dump for food. We also saw young mothers with their kids here.
A couple with their two children, aged one and three, have been scrounging the dump since 6am.
“Every morning we come here to collect plastic bottles and look for food. There are shops that dump expired food here. We eat it, and we also sell to other people in Zone 14 at a cheap price,” said the man.
“Sometimes we would find dead dogs here and we would have to move them so we can find what we are looking for, something to eat.”
Back at Zone 14 settlement, Nomaindia Gqola, 61, lives in a one-room shack with her four daughters and five grandchildren. The roof leaks. The zinc sheets for the walls are patched with old cardboard.
400 families scrounge for survival in swamp
Residents promised houses and told relocation only temporary
Image: Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik
More than 400 families were relocated in 2012 from an informal settlement near Dutywa, Eastern Cape, to make way for their RDP houses. They were moved to Zone 14 with their old shacks. The relocation site, meant to be temporary, is in a wetland several kilometres from the town.
Thirteen years later, they are still in the bog without proper housing and electricity. Residents depend on wood fires to cook and warming during winter nights.
However, some have illegal electricity connections.
Water is delivered by truck. Some of the communal toilets are blocked due to lack of maintenance and irregular water supply.
Most of the residents are unemployed. Some get piecemeal work.
About a kilometre away is a dumping site. Some people, mostly youths, scrounge at the dump for food. We also saw young mothers with their kids here.
A couple with their two children, aged one and three, have been scrounging the dump since 6am.
“Every morning we come here to collect plastic bottles and look for food. There are shops that dump expired food here. We eat it, and we also sell to other people in Zone 14 at a cheap price,” said the man.
“Sometimes we would find dead dogs here and we would have to move them so we can find what we are looking for, something to eat.”
Back at Zone 14 settlement, Nomaindia Gqola, 61, lives in a one-room shack with her four daughters and five grandchildren. The roof leaks. The zinc sheets for the walls are patched with old cardboard.
Image: Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik
“The material used to build this shack I bought more than 30 years ago,” she says.
She has a social grant and supplements it by helping people in town to carry their shopping bags.
When GroundUp visited the settlement last week, the residents, mostly elderly women, came out in numbers. They complained about their old shacks, about their poverty and unemployment.
The floor of the shack where Nomonde Mgoqi, 67, lives with her daughter and grandson is always wet from water rising from the ground. The roof and zinc walls are full of holes.
“I don’t know how many times I applied for an RDP house with no luck. We used to live closer to a town but our officials decided to dump us here. The only time they come here is when they want us to vote for them,” says Mgoqi.
Residents said without street lights the place is dark and crime is rife.
Despite the 13-year delay, Mbashe local municipality is planning to move three more informal settlements near town to the area: JPO, Mabhaceni and Agriculture – the oldest informal settlements in Dutywa formed more than 25 years ago.
All three lack services. In JPO, 20 families have to share one pit toilet. Most people relieve themselves in the veld.
Mbhashe local municipality spokesperson Babalwa Manqwanti said she could not comment as there are legal proceedings in the matter of JPO, Mabhaceni and Agriculture.
Regarding Zone 14, Manqwanti said the municipality is in discussion with the human settlements department but did not give details. – GroundUp
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