City has not settled on decision to upgrade Marry me housing

An angry mob disrupted the opening of the Klip-Kruisfontein Cemetery in Soshanguve. Picture: Jacques Naude

An angry mob disrupted the opening of the Klip-Kruisfontein Cemetery in Soshanguve. Picture: Jacques Naude

Published Mar 15, 2017

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Pretoria – People at Marry Me informal settlement in Soshanguve will have to wait until next week to hear if the City of Tshwane has plans to formalise their place as per their demands.

The residents of the squatter area went on a violent protest two weeks ago.

The protesters demanded that the city formalise and upgrade the area into a proper residential area.

They delivered a memorandum of grievances to MMC for Agriculture and Environmental Management Mike Mkhari, who was in the area to officially open the Klip-Kruisfontein Cemetery.

Earlier that morning, a meeting he had held with council Speaker Katlego Mathebe was disrupted by ANC members, who stormed the community hall.

The pair were forced to abandon the meeting after chairs, tables and spoons were hurled at them in an attack which saw their VIP drivers, who tried hard to keep the attackers at bay, assaulted. Some municipal vehicles were also damaged.

Mkhari and Mathebe were whisked away to the Akasia police station where they opened cases of malicious damage to property, assault and public violence.

“The investigation into the case is still ongoing,” he said.

Due to the violent incident, Mkhari was barred from opening the cemetery.

Speaking to the Pretoria News on Tuesday, Mkhari said he referred the memorandum to the offices of the mayor Solly Msimanga and Human Settlement MMC Mandla Nkomo because it dealt with issues outside the mandate of his department.

“I am still waiting to get feedback from the two offices and I am expecting to have it by the end of next week."

“The proper answers would be handed over to the community,” he said.

Residents bitterly complained about the empty promises made by the government to build them RDP houses.

They also wanted taps and sanitation infrastructure installed.

Mkhari said the city was in the process of formalising all informal settlements within its municipal borders.

“Should the city decide to formalise Marry Me, it would first have to ascertain if the land on which the community lived belonged to the municipality or not."

“You can’t bring in infrastructure and services in a place that is not formalised,” Mkhari said.

Some residents had previously been moved from the settlement to Extension 17 in Soshanguve by the ANC administration.

“I have also talked to the South African National Civic Organisation leadership and proposed to them that we should sit around the table because we have an open door policy."

“It is through constant discussion that we would be able to deal with some of the issues,” he added.

He said the intention of the municipality was to have proper engagement with the community in future.

Pretoria News

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