News24 | Eastern Cape storm victims still without houses 6 years later

Siyeni Zenze stands in front of the ruins of one of three mud houses he lost during a storm in 2020. He is still waiting for the RDP house he says he was promised.

Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik/GroundUp

• In 2020, a storm destroyed about 100 homes in Cwaru village in the Eastern Cape. The victims were promised state houses, and they registered for them.
• About 60 victims received houses in November 2022, but about 20 are still waiting. Meanwhile, some people whose homes survived the storm have been given new homes.
• Siyeni Zenze, who lost three mud houses in the storm, says he registered for a house, but the provincial human settlements department says he was never on the list.

Residents of Cwaru village, near Middledrift in the Eastern Cape, told GroundUp they are still in the dark over how RDP houses were handed out, six years after a storm levelled roughly 100 homes in the community.

At least 58 people received RDP houses in November 2022, but about 20 residents who lost their homes in the disaster told GroundUp they are still waiting for houses.

They say that after the storm, they registered for new housing with people they believed were sent by the ward councillor. Later, they discovered their names did not appear on the provincial human settlements department’s list.

Neither the department nor the municipality has explained what happened to the names collected from residents or how the beneficiaries were selected.

Siyeni Zenze, 63, lost three mud houses in the storm. He said municipal officials visited the area after the disaster to assess the damage, and he registered for housing through that process.

The Raymond Mhlaba disaster housing project aimed to build 345 houses.

In 2022, when the housing project began in the area, Zenze thought he was finally going to get a home. Building materials were delivered to his property. But the house was never built. He said the contractor returned in early 2023, only to remove the material from his property.

“I wasn’t given an explanation as to why the material was removed from my house. I watched them move it to another house. The only thing I was told was that the contractor was still continuing with the work,” said Zenze.

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In 2024, the project had completed 227 houses.

Community leader Nomfuneko Tamba, who also lost her home in the disaster, said people were confused by the criteria used to identify who should benefit first, given that people like Zenze, who lost everything, were left behind.

“The house he lives in is also not in good condition. One heavy rain could destroy it,” she added.

Zenze lives with his daughter, whose house was damaged in the storm by a tree falling on the zinc roof. He and his family repaired it using cheap materials, which was all they could afford. The roof still leaks.

No one in his household is employed. They survive on Zenze’s old-age grant of R2 400 and his grandchildren’s child support grants.

Community leader Nozintombi Mdanga said some people whose homes survived the storm had received RDP houses.

Mdanga added:

We did not question this because we were told the project would return. Most people here are sinking in debt, trying to rebuild their homes.

Human settlements spokesperson Yanga Funani said the department’s Amathole regional office had verified disaster-affected families in various villages around Middledrift during the 2022/23 financial year.

Funani said Zenze’s name did not appear on the verification list and does not appear on the department’s Housing Subsidy System.

The department did not say whether Zenze’s name was submitted by the municipality, whether he was assessed and excluded during the verification process, or how the final beneficiaries were selected.

GroundUp asked Raymond Mhlaba Local Municipality spokesperson Sivenkosi Mtiya about the disaster assessment, the process used to register affected residents, whether Zenze was registered, who submitted the names to human settlements, and how beneficiaries for the housing project were selected. She did not respond.

Ward 16 councillor Monwabisi Zamo (ANC) declined to explain why some disaster victims were left out of the housing project and referred questions to the municipality.