Durban — Shallcross community members have threatened legal action against eThekwini Municipality if three housing projects in the area continue without fixing the infrastructure first.
The community in the suburb of Chatsworth, Durban, has been up in arms pushing back against the projects, and demanding proper planning and due diligence before development continues. The community’s argument was that building more housing units and bringing more people into the already strained water and electricity systems spelled disaster and would further cause severe water and electricity shortages.
Speaking on behalf of the Shallcross Ratepayers Association, Marcus Richards said the residents were not against the building of houses, especially those for the 2022 flood victims. He said the problem was that the area had been without water and other services for many days because the current infrastructure was not coping with the increased population of ward 17.
Residents demand that before bringing more people into the area first, the municipality must fix the infrastructure and improve the provision of basic services so that it will cope with the growing population, he said.
He likened their situation to what happened to the electricity grid when the government did not heed the advice of building more power stations in anticipation of an influx of people to urban areas and the growing need to electrify rural areas after 1994, which later led to the problem of load shedding.
“The government is failing to provide basic services to the current population of ward 17. However, it wants to add another 1 200 people and this will burden the already strained infrastructure which the City is failing to maintain. The community is not in essence opposed to the housing project per se. We all recognise the need for housing and shelter, and the rights of every citizen to such. However, we are calling for proper and due diligence to address poor and failing infrastructure in our suburbs,” said Richards.
“Shallcross cannot currently cope with the poor state of the infrastructure, so how does one then expect those who will be coming into Shallcross to also suffer?” he said.
Ward councillor Sibusiso Khwela defended the government’s decision, saying that the government did not require permission from residents to build houses for needy people, especially those who were displaced by the 2022 floods. Khwela said the land belonged to the government.
He added that he had held several meetings with the concerned community members, and explained to them that the water issue was being addressed by the government and was not unique to ward 17.
He also defended the municipality’s decision to build houses in the park, which residents had opposed, saying that as much as the government understood the need for parks, a shelter for the people was more important.
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