Cape Town - An "Anti-land invasion template" has been developed to assist municipalities in identifying, and preparing for a quick response to, land invasions, says Environmental Affairs and Development Planning MEC Anton Bredell.
Bredell said: “The (provincial) department of human settlements’ land and asset management directorate have developed a special operating procedure (SOP) and anti-land invasion template, to assist municipalities in identifying and preparing for a quick response to invasions.
“This will hopefully curtail invasions, and this SOP has been distributed to all municipalities in the province.”
Bredell was responding to a written question from DA Western Cape spokesperson on local government, Derrick America, who had asked what measures were being taken against land invasions.
“The land invasions cause many challenges across the three spheres of government. Firstly, the onus is on the government to provide access to a safe and healthy living environment, ie to address basic needs. Water and sanitation provision to the communities has become a local government expense, which is unplanned in these instances,” said Bredell.
“Secondly, should the households be living in a dangerous or unsafe environment, it implies that they need to be relocated, which sometimes leads to the perception that invaders are queue-jumping the housing waiting list ahead of beneficiaries.
“Thirdly, this has a ripple effect upon other departments’ budgets, programmes and commitments as they need to prioritise these nodes in providing for socio-economic facilities. The alignment of these budgets can run into the long-term horizon.”
America said: “It is of concern that stretched budgets of municipalities and unforeseen expenses related to the appropriate response to land invasions hamper service delivery efforts in the short and long term.
"While the provincial government and municipalities in the province have allocated additional funds to complement SAPS (efforts) in containing land invasions, this is not a feasible permanent solution as it moves funds away from service delivery needs."
Cape Argus