Durban — The Department of Social Development said it would return to the communities of Mariannhill and Malukazi where flood victims were still living in halls.
Minister Lindiwe Zulu and MEC Nonhlanhla Khoza, in commemorating Women’s Day, visited the communities along with NGOs where social relief distress in the form of food parcels was given to flood victims.
“The Department of Social Development along with other departments will come back here to make sure that we have programmes that are sustainable for the communities,” said Zulu.
Zulu and Khoza had been conducting oversight visits as part of the National Women’s Month Programme to assess the situation of women and girls in temporary shelters.
She said the department was looking at small and informal businesses in the area and would work with the Department of Small Business Development to empower the community.
The communities’ needs went “beyond being given food parcels but we do understand that their biggest need is food. However, we also think other departments such as Human Settlements are departments that we have to work with and ensure that the houses that were washed away are replaced”.
Zulu said that the communities needed to be supportive of each other.
“We have been told by them that some organisations who had been bringing relief in the form of food to the hall where they were housed were no longer doing that. What's important is that they are moved and get housing. We can’t afford to have people living in a hall this long.”
She said the department was aware of complaints that men, women and children all lived in one hall.
“We have also been made aware of abuses that have started to show, where youngsters who sometimes don’t come back and they never know where the teenagers are. They also complained about alcohol and abuse which means the community members already had problems even before they came into the hall but the social ills are finding it easy to get to them because they are all in one hall.”
South Korean organisation, We Love You, donated food parcels as well as the local NPO Action Development Agency.
She said the aim was to support communities affected by the April floods, adding that the department planned on working closely with the Action Development Agency (ADA).
“We are hoping that the work we are doing here will be sustainable and not just (the) work of coming here today and giving food parcels. We are looking at what can we do to sustain the community, give them opportunities that can help them sustain themselves.”
MEC Khoza thanked ADA for reaching out to the two affected communities.
“They are ploughing back into the community here in Malukazi, giving out 150 food parcels.”
Daily News