Durban — Concerns have been raised over the growing number of informal settlements within the eThekwini Municipality that are impacting on service delivery to ratepayers.
Uncollected piles of litter, the deterioration of roads and rampant theft of electricity around informal settlements were some of the concerns raised by ratepayers.
Active Citizens Coalition councillor Imtiaz Syed said that Durban is a beautiful city overcome by informal settlements. Syed said settlements in and around the city were expanding at an alarming rate.
“There are smaller settlements popping up on vacant plots in between streets in developed areas. This impacts heavily on service delivery, health and safety and living conditions.”
Reservoir Hills ratepayers voiced their concerns on their WhatsApp group chats on Monday.
A resident who wished to remain anonymous who lives near Shannon Drive informal settlement said dirt has been dumped on her property for more than a decade.
“We complained to the municipality for some time. They did nothing about it. We had to pay someone to do the job. After we cleaned the place they are still throwing dirt in our yard. We get insulted by the shack dwellers and they say we can do nothing to them. We must pay rates and be abused,” she said.
Another said motorists had to drive along one lane on Shannon Drive because of the litter thrown into the road from the informal settlement.
“The informals have thrown so much dirt on the road … and nobody from the municipality gives a damn to clean it but happily takes our rates every month. Is this how ratepayers are going to live with the new temporary squatter camps?”
In response to Syed’s questions at a full council meeting councillor Zama Sokhabase said there were 595 informal settlements but could not provide the number in each ward.
Sokhabase said the city does have a formalised census of residents in the settlements.
“Land monitors conduct an exercise which is called ring-fencing during which they allocate house numbers to each informal settlement and compile a list of residents in each informal settlement. This database of residents is updated periodically according to observed expansion, densification or a new settlement.”
With regard to Syed’s query about electricity and how much revenue was collected, Sokhabase said electricity was provided to 300 settlements, some partially and some fully electrified, and to those who met the criteria for electrification.
“Information that we are providing is from the informal settlement database. All settlements are connected via prepaid electricity meters, she said.
Sokhabase said all settlements received waste collection services either weekly or biweekly.
“According to the database provided there are 1 368 communal ablution blocks. They service 100 000 households. There is a breakdown using a snapshot taken on June 30, 2022. Ablution blocks 1 139, community standpipes 439, water dispenser 1 601, which gives a total of 3 233.”
Statistics available for overall water consumption between January, February and March 2022 indicated the use of 735 582 litres.
Daily News