Cape Town - Five families in Joe Slovo in Langa who have refused to move from an area earmarked for a R480 million housing development will be moved by authorities on Wednesday, the Western Cape Human Settlements Department has said.
MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela announced on Tuesday that the department would enforce a court order that the five families signed on April 16, agreeing to move in order for the project to go ahead.
“If people have to be moved in this way you do expect resistance but we have no choice. We won’t allow five households to stand in the way of providing 2 051 families with homes. We will be setting a very wrong precedent,” said Madikizela.
Madikizela said they had spent more than a year trying to engage with the families and had sent them three more notices subsequent to the court order.
“They are shifting the goalposts every time the officials go there and they have not told us why they do not want to move,” he said.
“It’s a very strange thing. Why would a community and certain community leaders not assist in a case where we want to build homes for people?” Madikizela asked.
Xolile Tolobisa, who lives in one of the five households, said they were refusing to move because the city had not given them anything in writing saying where they would be relocated to or if they were entitled to a house in the new development.
“We have been waiting for them to give us something in writing but we found a letter slipped under our door on Monday saying they are coming to relocate us,” said Tolobisa.
“I don’t know what their plans are but I will be at work tomorrow (Wednesday) and when I come back I won’t have a house.”
The department and the Housing Development Agency (HDA), plans to build 2 639 houses in the Joe Slovo Phase 3 Project and has budgeted R480m for this. The projects benefits families who earn less than R3 500 per month.
Madikizela said another 90 families, who had also been living in the same area as the five remaining families, have already voluntarily relocated within the project areas.
“This order stipulated that they would relocate to vacant sites within their environs, that they would be assisted to move, would not incur any costs and would also be provided with the same basic services they currently enjoy,” said Madikizela.
“This delay also means that the department faces the risk of having to pay the contractor appointed to build the houses because of the losses the business has incurred due to the stoppages.”
Community leader and chairman of the Langa South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco), Michael Dumo said the department was consulting the wrong community leaders.
“We are now representing the community and this relocation is news to us.”
“We are not against the development of the area but we want a proper consultation to be done.”
Cape Argus