About 160 South African passengers of a ship that must now be quarantined in Durban for 14 days in a place in the “sub-village” of the tourist city are very unhappy.
They say the place is dirty and in an environment where drugs are apparently in circulation. The place is also next to a strip club.
This group of troubled people asked DA MP Tim Brauteseth to come and speak to them. They are so dissatisfied that they refused to go to bed in the rooms on Thursday night and instead stayed in the entrance hall with their luggage.
Margot Moore, 28, one of the passengers who now lives in these Coastlands self-catering units in Durban, says it seems to her that until recently the place could still have been used as a kind of hostel.
Moore says the ship, Carnival Fascination , arrived in Durban from America on Wednesday and the passengers already under quarantine had to be quarantined for another 14 days before properly boarding ashore on South African soil.
She is from Stellenbosch and has been working on Carnival Cruise ships around the world for the past six years.
Moore said after being on the ship for 80 days, they were brought back to South Africa.
“Carnival Cruise has returned some of its employees on ships to their respective countries of origin. Some are back to America or England and others to European countries. A large number of people were brought back to South Africa. “
When the South Africans arrived in Durban on Wednesday, they had to go to different places to stay.
According to their surnames, they were divided into three groups and some were sent to the City Lodge Hotel in Umhlanga Rocks and others to the City Lodge Hotel in Durban. The third, of which she is a part, went to the Coastlands self-catering units in the “Durban” Durban.
“The others stay in neat and clean conditions with Wi-Fi, but we stay in this dirty place.”
She claims the bathrooms are dirty and some of the toilets don’t want to flush.
“The food does not look bad at first, but after seeing pictures of the kitchen and seeing pots on the floor, we are scared to eat. Most people now order food from elsewhere. ”
Moore says her employer, who has always looked after them very well at Carnival Fascination , is apparently negotiating with the Health Department in KwaZulu-Natal to relocate them. The employer also paid for a private business to come and test them all for the coronavirus.
According to her, the DA is now also going to apply pressure to get them moved.
The ages of those trapped there range in age from 20 to their 40s.
* Brauteseth says the facility is by no means a quarantine facility and is one of the worst except for the one other one he saw in Mpumalanga.
“The conditions are shocking. The place does not have air conditioning and feels like a sauna on the inside. It is located in a poor part of Durban with a lot of noise. ”
He has already spoken to Carnival Cruise and wrote letters to the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health. The National Department of Health is also in talks with the National Department of Public Works to get the people moved.
* The KwaZulu-Natal Health Department’s comments could not be obtained in a timely manner.
