As South Africa enters day 39 of the national lockdown, the executive mayor of Johannesburg Geoff Makhubo says there has been an increased attempt to illegally occupy land and buildings in and around the city.

The mayor was speaking to Radio Islam on Monday about a wide range of issues including lockdown regulations, food security, informal trading permits and the Hlapa Matsoho campaign.

Last month the city of Johannesburg claimed a syndicate was taking advantage of vulnerable people looking for shelter during the nationwide lockdown period.

Makhubo says the city of Johannesburg is aligned with government where it has a policy in place to ensure that there are no evictions allowed during the lockdown period.

“But what the city does not allow is for people to invade during this particular period of time, to illegally occupy land. So the city has been doing work to prevent those kinds of invasions. The most publicized one has been the issue of Lawley.”

Makhubo says city also has a plan in place to assist with food security by providing permits to informal traders during the lockdown.

“We again in this regard, took an early decision that we would grant access to those registered traders within the city who are informal traders. But beyond that we also then realized there was still a need especially among those who are unregistered at the time, but had an interest in registering as informal traders.”

Makhuboa also touched on the Hlapa Matsoho campaign saying it’s a very important initiative encouraging people to wash their hands, abide by the lockdown regulations and urging them to stay at home as the country battles the COVID-19 pandemic.

Faizel Patel 

(Twitter: @FaizelPatel143)

Listen to the interview with Joburg Mayor Geoff Makhubo