Jubilation and ululations were the order of the day for over 400 families from various mass care shelters as they packed their belongings in preparation to move to their new homes where they will spend Christmas.
KwaZulu-Natal Premier, Nomusa Dube-Ncube, assisted the flood victims from the Tshelimnyama shelter when they packed and loaded their belongings into trucks that were provided by government.
This week, the provincial government, led by Dube-Ncube facilitated the process of moving over 1 600 flood victims from various mass care shelters to more dignified accommodation.
To-date, 96 out of 135 mass care shelters that were housing families since the April flood disasters, have been permanently closed.
Dube-Ncube said that over the next couple of days, the provincial government will facilitate the relocation of all families to ensure that there will be no flood victims living in mass care shelters in KwaZulu-Natal on Christmas.
“We have mobilised all available resources and are undertaking every effort to ensure that we rebuild and rehouse flood victims. We thank all our citizens for their patience because every day we are seized with the task of ensuring that our province fully recovers from the flood disasters,” Dube-Ncube said.
The Premier acknowledged that their capacity to meet all the needs at once has often been stretched and at times, “we have had to attend to lifesaving and critical areas first”.
She reaffirmed that government is working tirelessly to fast-track the relocation of all flood victims to end all the frustration and anxiety.
“We have made significant progress if you consider that over 14 449 people were displaced after the flood disasters with 4 983 people left homeless. Seven months later, we are very close to closing down all mass care shelters.
“We made the commitment to the people of KwaZulu-Natal that as their caring government we will do everything in our power to ensure that before Christmas all flood victims move out of mass care shelters and are housed in decent accommodation.
“From the agony of being deprived of privacy and uncertainty, we have practically restored the dignity of our flood victims became families will now be able to regroup and plot their future in a safe and habitable place,” Dube-Ncube said.
The Premier also express profound appreciation to all the communities for the patience, calm and understanding, as the provincial government continues to work tirelessly to rebuild the province.