Nelson Mandela Bay municipality, in partnership with Statistics South Africa, will conduct a registration campaign for backyard shack dwellers across the city next month.
The launch of the backyard shack dwellers registration drive took place at Babs Madlakane Hall in KwaNobuhle last week, following a two-day training programme conducted by Stats SA with community members from various wards.
The trained community members will in turn be conducting the registration.
The city has selected five people per ward to be field workers. The training of the field workers included conducting a credible and quality data capturing service.
The registration drive will include a head count of all the backyard shack dwellers in the city and the information will be fed into a database for the municipality’s human settlements directorate to determine how many people are still in need of low cost housing.
City mayor, Zanoxolo Wayile, appealed to residents to be cooperative and honest when approached for information.
“Our field workers will be given the necessary tools to get the job done, but we will need the participation of the residents to work with them,” Wayile said.
Portfolio chairperson for human settlements in the metro municipality, Fikile Desi, said: “This is the beginning of a process to restore people’s dignity. We want to build a solid foundation for human settlements based on credible information.” – Sithandiwe Velaphi
Article source: http://www.thenewage.co.za/66199-1008-53-New_hope_for_shack_dwellers
