The delay is due to Yakoob Baig….the building materials have arrived but, unlike in Kennedy where the community organisation distributed them, here the councillor has to distribute them and he is nowhere to be found……

http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4637793

Call for temporary homes to be fast-tracked

October 01, 2008 Edition 1

GUGU MBONAMBI

Thousands of frustrated residents at the Foreman Road informal settlement in Clare Hills, Durban, are calling for the eThekwini Municipality to fast-track the construction of temporary shacks after more than 2 000 shacks were destroyed by fire two weeks ago.

The residents said they were tired of living in squalor and seeing their children get sick because of the unhygienic living conditions.

Fezeka Cetshe said her 6-month-old daughter became ill a few days after she moved into the tent erected for residents as a temporary shelter.

“My baby has started vomiting, she has diarrhoea and rash all over her body.

“When I went to the clinic, the nurses told me that the poor living conditions were causing my baby to get sick . . . I feel so helpless because I have nowhere else to go,” she said.

Zanelanga Mditshwa said his baby was bleeding through the nostrils and he feared that young children would die if the municipality continued to ignore their plight.

The settlement’s spokesman, Michael Skhosana, said material to construct temporary shacks had arrived, but they were waiting for a municipal representative to facilitate the building process.

“We told our councillor that it would be best if the municipality arranged contractors to build temporary shacks because there are far too many women and children who don’t have the skills to construct proper shacks for their families,” he said.

Mditshwa said the residents were grateful for the blankets and food they had been provided with, but said they could not contemplate living in tents for much longer.

Attempts to get hold of Ward 25 councillor, Yacoob Baig, and eThekwini housing department head, Nigel Gumede, were unsuccessful at the time of going to press.