Pretoria - Plans are afoot to formally develop Plastic View informal settlement east of Pretoria, after a raging fire that left five people dead, 350 shacks gutted and thousands homeless.
This was announced by the MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs and Human Settlements, Paul Mashatile, after his visit to the settlement on Tuesday. He was accompanied by the City of Tshwane’s MMC of Human Settlement Joshua Ngonyama and Special Adviser to the Premier, Eric Xayiya.
“We have agreed that we need a long-term plan, but obviously for now we need to respond to the immediate disaster to get some tents and blankets for people so that they do not get cold,” said Mashatile.
He said the land was close to an area which government could start preparing and the City of Tshwane had appointed a developer so that people could have proper sites on which to build suitable structures.
“Beyond the disaster, we are moving forward to a future permanent development for the area,” he said.
Mashatile said, for this to be achieved, government has set up a committee to be headed by Ngonyama.
He said the selected committee will include the community of Plastic View, government officials from the City, the Gauteng Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs and Human Settlements, the Department of Home Affairs, the church, ratepayers associations from the area and Lawyers for Human Rights.
“I believe that if we have the entire stakeholders in one place, it will be easy to plan. There will be no suspicions because everybody will be involved,” said the MEC.
He said this would also be done to avoid being taken to court by aggrieved individuals who may wish to prevent development from taking place in the area.
Mashatile said government was aware that most people in the area were foreign nationals and he told them there was nothing to fear.
“We are not here to deport people, we want to document people. We want those who lost their documents to be helped. Going forward we also want to know who is here and, if our policy does not allow you to get an RDP house, we will find other products like rental accommodation,” he said.
Mashatile said the main aim was to have orderly development in the area and having a committee reporting to him weekly would help a lot.
He said government was managing the situation and was also receiving assistance from the Department of Home Affairs in reissuing birth certificates, identity documents and death certificates.
The department would also reissue asylum permits after a verification process was concluded.
Pretoria News