The Western Cape government has identified five available sites to which families affected by flooding during winter's heavy rains can be moved.
The province's relief programme, for which R96 million has been allocated, will help 1 774 families move out of flood-prone informal settlements.
Western Cape Premier Helen Zille and provincial Housing MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela met Khayelitsha residents on Monday night to outline the programme.
Zille explained that the programme should not be confused with a housing project.
"A housing programme works on a housing waiting list. There are people living in water who won't get helped, because there are many before them on that list," she said.
Madikizela said that after meeting affected communities, the provincial government had decided to include backyarders as beneficiaries.
"There are many backyarders and to be fair we have decided to split it 50/50 between backyarders and flood victims," he said.
He said residents were supposed to have moved into dry structures as of June 6 and he blamed community leaders in Khayelitsha for delaying this process by complaining about the size of the new plots and structures in the five designated sites.
Zille urged the residents to work with local authorities to make the programme work, saying the R96m allocated to it had to be spent by the end of June.
If people within the community spent the whole of winter arguing with authorities, she said, everyone would be stuck in water-logged areas and no one would be able to move to dry land.
"We can't solve everyone's problem at once - we need to take one step at a time and this causes conflict.
"If there is conflict over development we can't do a lot. We have got to deal with the conflict first," said Zille.
The province's relief programme, for which R96 million has been allocated, will help 1 774 families move out of flood-prone informal settlements.
Western Cape Premier Helen Zille and provincial Housing MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela met Khayelitsha residents on Monday night to outline the programme.
Zille explained that the programme should not be confused with a housing project.
"A housing programme works on a housing waiting list. There are people living in water who won't get helped, because there are many before them on that list," she said.
Madikizela said that after meeting affected communities, the provincial government had decided to include backyarders as beneficiaries.
"There are many backyarders and to be fair we have decided to split it 50/50 between backyarders and flood victims," he said.
He said residents were supposed to have moved into dry structures as of June 6 and he blamed community leaders in Khayelitsha for delaying this process by complaining about the size of the new plots and structures in the five designated sites.
Zille urged the residents to work with local authorities to make the programme work, saying the R96m allocated to it had to be spent by the end of June.
If people within the community spent the whole of winter arguing with authorities, she said, everyone would be stuck in water-logged areas and no one would be able to move to dry land.
"We can't solve everyone's problem at once - we need to take one step at a time and this causes conflict.
"If there is conflict over development we can't do a lot. We have got to deal with the conflict first," said Zille.
- Cape Argus
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