Faizel Patel – 11/03/2021
The MMC for housing in the city of Johannesburg Mlungisi Mabaso says all informal settlers who occupied land illegally are expected to be evicted.
Mabasa was speaking to Radio Islam about the city’s plan to stop illegal land grabs, as it gets ready to rollout services stands for people to build their own home.
The mushrooming of illegal informal settlements with exacerbated land grabs especially during lockdown has raised concerns among many suburbs in the city with many residents complaining about crime, frequent service delivery protests, loss of value in their properties and high utility bills among other issues.
Local ward councillors have in some instances failed to adequately address the issue making promises that have yet to be fulfilled what many residents say were made ahead of local government elections to garner support and votes.
Mabaso says the city is working with Johannesburg Metro Police, the South African Police, the Human Settlements and Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Department to evict illegal land occupiers.
He says the city has court and eviction orders and will serve them once the regulations allow, adding that Lenasia and Lenasia South are hot spots for illegal land occupation.
“The MEC was very clear to say we are going to evict all those that had illegally occupied pieces of land even during lockdown while they were taking advantage of the country while we were dealing with the pandemic.”
Meanwhile Mabaso says the city of Joburg is moving ahead with the rollout of serviced stands, which includes water, sewage and electricity services to allow people to build their own homes.
The Council for the City has approved the submissions of the Serviced Stands Draft Policy that seeks to address the housing backlog by providing home-seekers serviced stands to build houses for themselves.
The provincial government will release tend thousand service stands from next month until June.
“We are going to prepare the sites so that when we allocate them to our residents, at least they are for them. For them it will only be just to put a structure and the site will be ready.”
Mabaso says the Serviced Stands Draft Policy will not allow for temporary structures because the city is trying to eradicate the informal settlements that have mushroomed in various areas across the city.
Listen to the interview with Mlungisi Mabaso
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