Residents in Moshate Gardens in Ga-Rankuwa, one of 17 illegal townships, have welcomed the City of Tshwane’s approach of working towards regularising their settlement, instead of demolishing it.

They believe the city’s decision would spare them millions of rands in investments after many of them had unknowingly purchased plots from unauthorised sellers and built houses without following proper procedures.

On Saturday Tshwane officials, led by MMC for Housing and Human Settlements, Aaron Maluleka, met with the affected residents to discuss the future of the illegal township.

The city indicated it will engage with residents in all the illegal townships, including the Afrikaner-only settlement called Kleinfontein, as part of the council-sanctioned consultation process.

Head of Housing and Human Settlements Department responsible for policy development, Lebogang Nkadimeng, said: “We are here just to try to find pointers or guidelines on how to come up with a strategy of legalising the settlement.”

She noted that many residents purchased stands without being aware of the necessary procedures to secure full land ownership.

According to her, the city does not have a policy response to deal with the illegal townships.

Group head of the department, Nonto Mamela said: “The sub-committee has been sanctioned with the responsibility to come up with a policy framework that seeks to respond to illegal townships. Whatever policy framework that we come up with will be within the ambit of the law. We are not going to be breaking any laws,” she said.

The city, she said, will also consult other stakeholders such as the Gauteng Department of Environment and Agriculture, Rand Water, Eskom and the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs.

Maluleka said the first phase of consultation would focus on 17 illegal townships “but there are more that have knocked on our door to say they also want developments”. 

He mentioned that the city started the consultation process to regularise the illegal township after realising it is losing revenue because of ongoing contraventions in these areas.

He stated the city will consult everyone extensively and provide feedback on the discussions before presenting a solid policy instrument to council to curb illegal developments.

“Otherwise, if we were to fold our arms, we would continue to lose revenue in terms of water, electricity,” he said.

A resident Daniel Mogotlane expressed his gratitude towards the city’s efforts to address the issues in the area.

“The kind of people that stay here, most of them are regarded as the missing middle. A lot of them do not qualify for your RDP houses and a lot of them may not even qualify for bonds,”  he said.

He appreciated the government’s posture in solving their problems, saying: “It is a posture that is solution-driven (because) they ask what can we do to legalise the area?”  

According to him, the residents of Moshate Gardens have a certain level of affordability and are capable of paying for rates services.

Community leader Thabo Radebe said: “We have been eagerly waiting for such an interaction that will explore developments in this area and make us settle peacefully with our families. We want to have access to basic services such as water and electricity. We are ready to pay for the services. The place was started illegally because we were misled by people who sold us the land that it is lawful.” 

rapula.moatshe@inl.co.za

Source link