Displaced flood survivors sleep outside Durban’s Bayside Hotel after eviction. Families, including children and the elderly, were left without shelter on Tuesday night. Image: Supplied/Department of Human settlement
(The Post News)- About 150 flood survivors were forced out of Durban’s Bayside Hotel on Tuesday night, left out in the cold with nowhere to go. The group made up of families, children, and elderly people had been using the hotel as temporary housing since the deadly KwaZulu-Natal floods of 2022.
KZN Department of Transport spokesperson Ndabezinhle Sibiya told the SABC it was unfortunate that the hotel owner chose to evict vulnerable people in distress. He said the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Human Settlements and Transport had spent R185 million on hotel accommodation for displaced families including those at the Bayside Hotel but an additional R128 million is reportedly needed to continue providing shelter.
Efforts were made to move the displaced group to a temporary shelter in Chesterville, but not everyone agreed to relocate, according to KZN Department of Transport spokesperson Ndabezinhle Sibiya. “We arranged buses and meals, but there are those who are being mobilized to resist relocation,” said Sibiya.
He added that verifying who qualifies for government assistance has been difficult, especially in cases involving undocumented foreign nationals or individuals unwilling to share identification.
Sibiya said the department had raised the issue with the South African Human Rights Commission, explaining that while they are doing their best to provide shelter, their priority is to accommodate communities genuinely in distress. During the verification process, he said, officials discovered that some individuals were foreign nationals, while others refused to provide identification. When they were advised to approach Home Affairs to apply for ID documents, some reportedly fled the scene.
“We have been conducting verification processes to ensure that the communities that are relocated are legitimate communities,” Sibiya said.
Sibiya also noted that the government had attempted to build permanent homes for flood survivors in Shallcross in 2024, but the project was halted after community members in the area rejected the development and chased away contractors.
Sibiya admitted that the situation is a crisis and said government officials are doing everything they can to provide meals for the affected families. He added that more organisations have stepped in to assist during this difficult and unfortunate time.
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