Pretoria - Tshawane mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa has told residents of the white enclave Kleinfontein that while they have a right to live as they please, as stipulated under article 235 of the constitution, they should ensure they do not infringe on the rights of other citizens.
Article 21 of the constitution stated that “every citizen has the right to enter, to remain in and to reside anywhere in the republic”, he said.
The mayor visited Kleinfontein, a cultural community 30km south-east of the city, for the first time on Wednesday.
Ramokgopa arrived with an entourage of city officials – including Tshwane manager Jason Ngobeni and metro police chief Steven Ngobeni – mayoral committee members, and Freedom Park Trust representatives to meet the people who live in Kleinfontein.
The visit was intended to discuss the residents’ application for Kleinfontein to be declared an independent town and to enable the mayor to learn about the community - which turns 21 this year.
“We are so glad. We’ve been trying to get the mayor here for more than a year,” said Marisa Haasbroek, volunteer spokeswoman for Kleinfontein, as residents waited anxiously outside the community hall for his arrival.
Jan Groenewald, chairman of the Kleinfontein board, welcomed the mayor and confirmed the community’s willingness to co-operate with authorities.
The community had the capabilities to look after and provide for itself within the confines of the law and wished to formalise the informal settlement, he said.
Groenewald assured the council that the community was not a “destabilising force” and did not intend to divide the city.
Using an Afrikaner analogy, he said the community was like General Koos de la Rey from the Second South African War.
“Like De la Rey, we want peace. We do not want war,” he said, adding they wished to retain possession of their “homestead”.
Ramokgopa said his intention on Wednesday was to have a conversation with the community.
“We did not come to close you down. We came to talk about your aspirations as a community.”
The mayor said the city aimed for “democracy through diversity” and welcomed the rich heritage of the Afrikaner people.
He also welcomed the community’s self-sufficiency and said he was grateful they took developments into their own hands.
All people in the country had to abide by the constitution, Ramokgopa said.
He said Kleinfontein’s screening process and security measures seemed to be in conflict with article 21 of the constitution because only Afrikaners could, at this point, live in the community.
Ramokgopa said he was confident the city would reach an agreement with Kleinfontein residents.
“We are not here with guns blazing. We will resolve our differences but no one is above the constitution.
“We need to reach a balance,” the mayor said, referring to the community’s exclusion of non-Afrikaners.
After taking a tour of the 800-hectare community, Ramokgopa said there were many positives to his visit.
The people were warm and welcoming, contrary to reports in the media over recent weeks, he added.
“I am convinced we can get a great story out of an adverse one.”
Ramokgopa appointed Nava Pillay, executive director for the region in which Kleinfontein falls, to lead a task team to oversee the community’s application to be declared a town within the Tshwane municipality.
The application process could take anything from three to six months to finalise, he said.
The process was stopped before because sections of the Development Facilitation Act, which governs the formalisation process, were deemed unconstitutional.
“When the required documents are in place, we will open the floor to the public to interrogate the application,” Ramokgopa said.
“If there are any objections we will have to look into them before finalising the process.”
Any non-conformities or illegalities would have to be remedied before the community could be declared a legal entity within the City of Tshwane.
Experts are to assess Kleinfontein’s environmental impact and water treatment and sewerage works.
In the City of Tshwane there are more than 40 informal settlements that have to be formalised.
“We want you to have an address and an identity. We want to be part of your future,” Ramokgopa said.
Haasbroek said the community had spent more than R3 million on reports and documentation in the application process.
It had yet to finalise its environmental impact analysis.
Pretoria News