KaNyamazane community members still struggling with roofs

KANYAMAZANE -Since then the area has been classified as a disaster area and premier Refilwe Mtshweni urged contractors on the scene to be finished with the houses by the end of September.

That deadline was not met and a new one was set by the Department of Human Settlements for the end of December. More than 1 000 residents are still without roofs and with the rain season upon them, their belongings are now also being severely damaged.

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One of the locals, who did not want to have her name mentioned for fear of victimisation, said she needs to take off work every time there is rain to make sure that all of her belongings are protected. Since it has been raining, many rooms in her house have been damaged and she now has to share a room and bed with her 23-year-old son.

“We also had to borrow money to try and fix whatever we could and now that we are in debt, the department does not want to help us,”

she said.

Spokesman for human settlements, Freddy Ngobe, said “the department is not in any position to fix houses where it has been established that beneficiaries are able to fix
it for themselves and no refunds will be made.”

The resident also claimed that some of the other community members broke their own roofs after the storm in order to benefit from the money given by the department. Human settlements, however, denied such allegations.

“The department conducted its own professional condition assessment immediately after the storm damage. Owner self-inflicted damage to houses would not have been considered as, on assessment, it could easily be established whether or not the house damage is related to the reported incident,”

Ngobe said.

They have since added 12 new contractors to the site to ensure that the deadline is met.

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