Build One South Africa (BOSA) leader Mmusi Maimane has told people from the south of Durban, that each home should have at least one person who is employed. His visit to Wentworth, an area battling unemployment, gangsterism and poor housing, was part of a whistle stop tour in KwaZulu-Natal during BOSA’s election campaign.
The blocks of flats that Maimane visited overlooks the Engen refinery that was closed down in 2021. Maimane says having a job not only ensures an income but gives people dignity as well.
“The pain of not having a job is watching your own children not being able to eat at night. The pain of not having a job is when there’s tension in the house, you want to physically fight against each other . . . I’m not saying we must have gender-based violence, I’m just saying it starts with the fact that people are hungry, angry and frustrated.”
Meanwhile, Maimane told flat dwellers from Wentworth who have outstanding municipal bills of up to R200 000, that BOSA’s legal team will write to the eThekwini Municipality demanding an investigation into why the bills are so high.
Residents of the two-bedroom flats claim that they could get no explanation why they were suddenly owing the municipality thousands of rands. Maimane says on top of that, people are suffering from load shedding and water outages.
“There’s no electricity in our communities. Worse, in KZN there’s no water in our communities. Therefore, this is a government committed to making sure our people suffer even more.”
