IFP leader cleans up ‘squalid’ camp
IN a last push, as elections edge closer, IFP president Velenkosini Hlabisa got his hands dirty during a clean-up campaign at the eMathinini Transit Camp in Lamontville yesterday.
His visit followed The Star’s sister paper, Daily News article last week that exposed the squalid living conditions at the transit camp where some residents have been living since 2008.
Hlabisa – accompanied by the party’s senior leadership – including spokesperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa, cleaned the flea-infested transit camp.
He bemoaned the poor state of the transit camp and lambasted the ANC for “neglecting” downtrodden citizens.
“We came here today because the ANC has completely turned a blind eye to the plight of millions of poor South Africans. This is just not acceptable,” he told Daily News.
The transit camp comprises oneroom corrugated iron shacks that house thousands of people, including children.
As the IFP fights to dislodge the ANC from power, Hlabisa said if people elected the IFP, the party would provide proper houses with proper sanitation.
“No person shall live in a filthy place like this. But we are not shocked because everything is crumbling under the ANC-led government.
“People must vote for us so that we give them better houses,” he said.
It has been 16 years now that the residents have spent at the camp as they wait for the government to provide proper houses.
Making matters worse for them, was the lack of services as a pile of rubbish remained uncollected, and the makeshift toilets were in a poor state. Some did not work at all, while others were broken.
Hlabisa said the IFP was the only hope for the thousands of residents who lived at the transit camp.
He said the IFP was well on track to reclaiming KwaZulu-Natal from the
ANC at the May 29 elections.
“The signs are there. We can’t wait to take over the government and be able to remove people from these inhumane transit camps,” he said.
Some residents jumped into action, joining the clean-up campaign, although some expressed frustration at only seeing politicians during the election season.
A resident, Thabiso Ngema, said: “We are happy that some politicians do remember us, but this only happens when we approach the elections. No one comes here if it is not the election season.”
Ngema was among the first people to relocate to the transit camp when his house was washed away in the 2008 torrential floods.
IFP member, Dr Bonginkosi Buthelezi, who was part of the clean-up campaign, said the living conditions at the camp were a recipe for a string of diseases – including tuberculosis.
“The smell here is just horrible. There are flies everywhere and this could result in people getting infected with diseases that would easily spread from one person to the next,” he said.