A Democratic Alliance councillor claims that residents in Ward 11 are suffering while R10-million allocated by the province to fix damaged houses is yet to become available.
A Democratic Alliance councillor claims that residents in Ward 11 are suffering while R10-million allocated by the province to fix damaged houses is yet to become available.
The DA’s Lena May said she submitted a list of 54 houses that needed to be repaired in Ward 11 and even forwarded a quote to the Mayor for repairs. To date no houses in the ward have been repaired yet.
“Their houses are in a terrible state,” she said.
The provincial housing department received a list of 161 disaster claims from the affected houses for processing.
Cold comfort
Ward 11 resident, Patricia Bouwer says that her house was badly damaged from the strong winds that blew her roof off. She said the only help she received from the municipality was a heavy duty plastic bag which they used to cover the hole so her family is still being exposed to the cold.
Another resident, Martha Farao says her house was also damaged. She said her husband passed away last year from a lung disease which Farao attributes to the bad condition of the house. Farao has also been diagnosed with the same disease.
“The municipality does not care about us. The residents of ward 11 are marginalised by the municipality,” said Farao.
May spoke about the irregularities with the allocation of fold-up temporary structures (known as wendy houses) that were provided by the Provincial Housing Department after the tornado struck in 2008.
“I asked them what criteria is used that allocates these wendy houses. They said it was a provincial responsibility,” she said.
Temporary housing
Makana spokesperson, Thandy Matebese said municipal officials were helping the provincial department of housing to assess the damage. He said assessments were not ward specific.
The provincial department decided which homes were the most damaged and these were provided with temporary housing.
Matebese said that R10-million has been allocated to the municipality to rebuild the houses that were partially and totally damaged.
“The tenders are out and it is in an adjudication phase. After that, they will make an appointment of the service provider [contracting company]”.
Since no help has been granted to the residents, May said she plans to approach businesses as they have done in the past.
