Foundation to honour late KZN MEC Dumisani Makhaye on the cards

Plans to start a Dumisani Makhaye Foundation are on the cards to have his to ensure that his legacy lives on.

Makhaye died due to lung cancer on October 24, 2004, and he was the first MEC in the country to pass away in office.

In his honour, the M5 in Durban was named after him. The highway stretches for approximately 16 kilometres. It connects Duffs Road in KwaMashu to Dinkelman Road in New Germany, providing a strategic link between the west and north of Durban.

It also offers a new alternative route to the King Shaka International Airport for traffic from Pietermaritzburg and Upper Highway areas.

His sister Thobi Makhaye said on Thursday, his death anniversary, that the family and some ANC members including Makhaye’s long-time friend Mlungisi Ndlela went to the Redhill cemetery to lay a wreath on Makhaye’s grave.

She said before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the country there were plans to have a Dumisani Makhaye Foundation.

She said her brother wanted people to benefit from what the ANC fought for and that included them having dignified homes.

“We want his legacy to live on forever and I believe that he has been respected since there is a road named after him,” she said.

Makhaye said it often made her sad when she heard about the protests that take place on Dumisani Makhaye Drive, as the road was named after an honourable man.

However, she said she understood that communities were protesting over issues like service delivery.

The ANC chairperson and MEC for Transport and Human Settlements Siboniso Duma said their target was to assist 4,559 families in rural areas through the Rural Housing Programme by March 2025 as a tribute to the late politician.

Duma said they wanted young people to be part of the acceleration of the implementation of Rural Housing Development Projects.

“We want to solve the migration of people to big cities where there is competition for land and accommodation. We are training young people to work with Amakhosi aseNdlunkulu, councillors, and other leaders of society throughout the corners of the province as part of rural housing development. We are eradicating mud houses and unsafe makeshift shelters,” said Duma.

He said his department delivered 6,939 houses through the Rural Housing Programme even in the most remote parts of the Province last year.

“As we reported months ago, since 1994, over 200,000 houses have been built for people living in rural areas, and close to 37,000 of these replaced mud houses,” he said.

Duma said they would focus on handing over title deeds in November.

He said the target was to issue another 2,885 title deeds by March 2025. This will be in addition to 15,730 title deeds issued since 2019. This is part of the eradication of the 123 000 provincial title deeds (both pre and post-1994) backlog.