Mozambique: Hulene disaster families desperate for rent aid

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Mozambique: Hulene disaster families desperate for rent aid

12:47 CAT | 03 Jun 2020

File photo: Lusa

Families who used to live near the Hulene rubbish dump, where 16 people were killed when part of the tip collapsed in February 2018, protested on Tuesday against the delays in the government’s rent subsidy.

“For two months we have been waiting for rent payment, but we are not receiving it,” said Antonio Massingue, a member of one of the families that were affected, quoted yesterday by STV television channel.

In question is an amount of 30 thousand meticais (€387) that the government makes available quarterly for each of the almost 200 families removed from the vicinity of the Hulene rubbish dump to pay their rents, while they wait for the completion of the new houses that are being built.

In protest at the delay, some of the 200 families were yesterday at the door of the Maputo City Council to demand clarification, and the municipal authorities promised to solve the situation.

“In fact there is a delay. We know that the families need the money to pay their rents, but we appeal for calm”, said Alice Abreu, a Health and Social Action councillor at the Maputo City Council.

In a first phase, the re-housing of families living near the Hulene dump was planned for the end of 2018, but the authorities extended the deadline to mid-2019, but even today the families are still waiting.

In the early hours of 19 February 2018, part of the capital’s largest rubbish tip, which is three stories high, collapsed due to heavy rain and fell on several precarious houses.

Sixteen people died on the site, seven of whom were children.

In 2018, the Mozambican government announced that the Hulene dump would be closed, in an operation estimated at 110 million dollars (€98 million at the current exchange rate).

Source: Lusa