Pretoria - Many places earmarked by the City of Tshwane for the relocation of the 2019 floods victims living in different informal settlements in Mamelodi will have no electricity and water.
This was disclosed by city officials who appeared before a portfolio committee on human settlements at the Gauteng legislature on Thursday.
Victims were left stranded after their shacks, built on a river bank at Eerste Fabrieke informal settlement, were swept away by raging floods in December 2019.
Divisional head of City's Human Settlements, Sello Chipu, told the committee that there was a relocation plan in place but it was yet to be implemented.
He said the City was still in negotiation with the seller of the land planned for resettlement.
According to him, the city must first finalise the transaction of the land before everybody can be relocated in line with the approved plan.
Chipu said: “But we have also put a disclaimer. We have said where we are relocating you there is no bulk infrastructure. We don’t expect you tomorrow to go and close the street and say you want electricity. We don’t want you tomorrow to say you need water because Rand Water has actually capped us.”
He said the water utility had said it didn’t have the capacity any more, especially to provide water for new settlements in region 5, region 7 and part of region 6.
“They are waiting for the completion of Lesotho Highland in 2027 and 2028. Over and above that we have said that Njala, which is a sub-station, is currently running at 745 megavolt amp (capacity). So there is no person who is going to get electricity now around that area,” Chipu said.
He further said that the City would use rudimentary services to take care of the communities’ needs.
Also at the meeting hosted by the portfolio committee were representatives of different informal settlements.
They criticised the City for failing to update them about the developments related to the relocation process.
Mpho Matlala, from the Solomon Mahlangu informal settlement, lashed out at the municipality for making “excuses” with regard to why people had not been relocated.
He wanted to know whether the City would prioritise people who have been on the waiting list since 1996 or those in the informal settlements.
He also said there were other shacks, which were excluded because they were not on the map. “What you do is just to speak but nothing happens,” Matlala said.
Chipu said that the flooding at the time affected the whole city but the most affected were in Region 6, which included people living near Moretele River and those in Centurion.
He flatly denied that the City had failed to communicate with the community, saying the message was relayed to ward councillors and community leaders.
“Even when we started to have problems, it was actually communicated to them. Some of them went to the Chapter 9 institutions and to the media,” he said.
Sello Modise, one of the victims, said he wanted to know about a date for relocation and nothing else.
Chipu said they were waiting for the adjustment budget to be passed and that the relocation was likely to commence in March or April until November this year.
Human settlements MMC, Abel Tau said: “On January 21, I released a statement reiterating our commitment to relocate the Mamelodi flood victims and deal with the issue of informal settlements and squatter camps. We believe we don’t have to be reminded of our work.”
According to the progress report presented to the committee, the City recently acquired portion 20, 364, and 415 of the farm Mooiplaats and was in negotiations regarding the acquisition of the proposed Pienaarspoort ext 15, 16, 22 and 23.
Pretoria News