EDITOR – The informal settlement near the Bluff’s municipal garden refuse site has been in existence for more than 15 years.
As with all such settlements, its presence has elicited controversy.
Like other settlements in the eThekwini metro, its inhabitants live in the hope that one day they will be uplifted into proper township housing (SUN, 1 February).
Phola Park, as it is called, comprises 20 structures or homesteads, which is up from 13 back in 2015. It has an ablution block with free water and a pre-paid electricity connection. Within its precinct it has a spaza shop, shebeen and a pool games room. There is even a connected DSTV dish.
The duration of its existence means it has acquired a sense of permanence. Appeals to Metro Housing to relocate its inhabitants to formal housing are futile, as I discovered when I was ward councillor. With a 40 year waiting list, Phola Park’s permanence is a reality. Promises to prohibit the number of structures within it from growing have no credibility, as I found out years ago. When more accommodation space is needed, extensions to existing structures are added.
As much as one might want the settlement closed down, is it not time to recognise the reality that Phola Park has evolved into a formal, mini township? Surely, the most practical way forward is for Metro Housing to survey the place, fence it off, remove the shacks and upgrade it by installing 20 formal housing units?
Failing that, the quietly growing state of Phola Park with its attendant squalor and health issues (TB is common) will simply continue, along with its negative effect on neighbouring property values. It is a social issue that needs a decisive solution rather than ad hoc attempts to service it.
DR DUNCAN DU BOIS
