Flood victims demand date of relocation

The Mokebe family from Soul City informal settlement, lost their second shack due to the recent raging floods in Mamelodi.

They said their first shack was among the 700 shacks that were swept away in December 2019.

Since the first floods they were promised to be relocated to a safer place.

Pulani Mokebe (34) said she is traumatised by the whole incident and blamed the Metro’s human settlement department for their empty promises.

She said they were among the families who were staying on the flood line. When Tshwane metro started relocating flood victims they were left behind because of corruption.

“We were nearly swept away by the first floods. I was forced to send my children away for safety while I was waiting to be relocated to a safer place as promised by Tshwane metro,” said Mokebe.

She said she had nowhere to go and was forced to start all over again and rebuild her shack.

Now the second flood swept her shack away again.

Mokebe said this time she managed to take a few things before her shack was gone.

She recalls the day before the floods.

“On Friday during the day the water levels at the river banks kept rising, but it was safe. Just after midnight the water level was rising very quickly and residents started blowing whistles to inform everyone to vacate the area for safety.”

Mokebe said everything was happening so fast. Within minutes her shack was swept away and she could not do anything about it.

She is currently unemployed and have nowhere to go. She said the government officials came again and made the same promise they made in 2019.

“They told us they will relocate us within the next five days. The residents vowed to embark on a protest should the government fail to deliver this time.”

Mokebe said despite losing everything, she is ready to relocate to a safer place.

“There is no need for the government to provide us with transport. They must just give us land and we will relocate.”

She further said they had been pleading with Tshwane metro to speed up the process and stop making empty promises before the second disaster but no one bothered to listen.

Zanele Nyembezi (27) said they were left behind in 2019 and three years later their shacks are swept away again.

“We have launched complaint after complaint at Tshwane metro, begging to be relocated to a safer place before someone lose a life but no one listened,” said Nyembezi.

Nyembezi said the government failed them.

“Now we lost one of the residents who drowned in the floods while trying to remove his valuables from his shack.

“The City’s human settlements department told us there was a relocation plan in place but it was yet to be implemented. Nothing happened up to date,” said Nyembezi.

“We were told the City’s was still in negotiation with the seller of the land planned for resettlement.”

The residents have planned a big protest should their demands not be met.

They threatened to relocate themselves to a safer place should they get no answer within a week.

Most importantly they want a date of relocation.

MMC for Human Settlements, Abel Tau said over 800 families affected by the floods are receiving relief assistance from the City, while other families have been temporarily relocated to community halls.

“My department is working towards finding a lasting solution.

“We are fully committed to ensure that all affected residents are relocated once land has been acquired and properly prepared for allocation,” said Tau.

He has been on the ground since the past weekend’s heavy rains.

Some of the greatly affected communities include Eerste Fabrieke in Mamelodi, Gomora, Nellmapius and Sebothoma.

“The unfortunate reality is that the land acquisition process is highly complex with budgetary constraints, but we are working to unlock and expedite this process.”

He added that this matter is a human settlements emergency, and he intends to engage his colleagues in the City’s leadership to collectively deal with the relocation matter with the urgency it requires.

Tau concluded that following his oversight visits this week, they reached an agreement with community leaders to meet next week Tuesday to discuss and map a way forward.

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