DA in KZN to lodge a complaint with SAHRC over ‘inhumane conditions’ flood victims live in

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in KwaZulu-Natal says it intends to lodge a complaint with the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) regarding what it’s calling ‘inhumane conditions’ at community halls where flood survivors are being accommodated.

Over 3 800 families have been living in 82 community halls since April’s floods.

They are largely from informal settlements that were badly hit by the floods.

DA provincial leader Francois Rodgers says the provincial government has missed its deadline to relocate the victims to temporary housing units.

“The hall that I visited yesterday [Wednesday] is inhumane. It is absolutely disgraceful that people have to live under those conditions. We will now lodge a complaint with the human rights commission. I will further engage with the SAHRC chairperson to invite him on the ground to join me to have a look at this situation. According to our information in eThekwini, not outside, there are only actually about 80 units built. There are more units being built but it is outside eThekwini,” says Rodgers .

The provincial Human Settlements Department says the construction of over 1 800 temporary residential units spread across the affected areas is underway.

Spokesperson Ndabezinhle Sibiya says some units are already complete.

“About 567 temporary residential units have been completed to date, with others on different stages of construction. We can also indicate that 44 land parcels from the national Department of Public Works and KwaZulu-Natal Department of Public Works and eThekwini Municipality have been identified totaling 78 hectares. Out of 82 mass care centres, 44 have been linked with possible land parcels identified by government,” adds Sibiya.

The video below is reporting on the impact of the floods: