Johannesburg - Residents of the Kya Sand informal settlement were supposed to have been moved into proper houses about three years ago.
No one knows why that never happened. Last week, they paid the price when a raging inferno razed more than 1000 shacks leaving twice that number homeless.
Gauteng Co-operative Governance MEC Jacob Mamabolo revealed during his visit to the area on Tuesday morning that the residents of the sprawling informal settlement were supposed to have been moved a few years ago.
Mamabolo walked in the scorching sun to check the devastation for himself and also assess how the relief efforts are coming along.
During a media briefing he said residents were supposed to have been moved to an area called Lion Park, and it was not known why that had never happened.
“I need to get to the bottom of why it was not done years ago. I am working hard to find out exactly what the issue is.
“I need to do a thorough study and will also visit the site next week, check the readiness and also see what infrastructure is there and what needs to be done.”
He said the people needed to be moved quickly as floods were coming. Also, more fires could start.
Mamabolo said their plan was to ensure they got rid of the informal settlement after the residents were moved to the new place as part of the government’s plan to end informal settlements.
He could not say when the residents would be moved to the new area, but said they had already deployed security guards to prevent new people from moving into the settlement, as the accommodation at Lion Park was limited.
The security guards will also ensure the informal settlement is not rebuilt after the residents have been relocated.
Mamabolo said he needed to establish who owned the land on which the informal settlement was built, but he had heard that both a private person and the government owned it.
However, if it was privately owned, they would ask the owner to maintain the land, but if that did not happen and it was left to the mercy of squatters, Mamabolo said, they would expropriate it.
“In future, there should not be a Kya Sand informal settlement,” he said.
The Star