BlikkiesDorp - The Zille legacy

Backyarders mark ‘their plots’ in Philippi

Cape Town - Backyarders from various townships marked plots on an open piece of land in Philippi on Wednesday, saying they were tired of waiting for housing.

The group used sticks, pangas and pegs to mark off pieces of land where they plan to erect structures near the Joe Gqabi transport terminus off Stock Road.

The residents were from Langa, Gugulethu, Samora Machel and Site C, and received help from community leaders.

One of the leaders, Joseph Makeleni, said they would continue to assist residents who wanted to invade open land.

“Law Enforcement and police came to remove us, but we were peaceful and some of the people left and others stayed.

“People have been waiting for housing for a long time, they are on the database for a long time and nothing is happening.”

Makeleni said they would continue to take land as a way to make the city notice them and their need for housing and proper service delivery.

“We feel rejected by the government and we will provoke them until they give us services.

“It is the only way to get their attention, by taking over the land that they boast about but don’t use.”

Makeleni said most of the privately owned land belonged to “rich white businessmen”, which was unfair.

Charmaine Mkoni, a community leader from the Marikana informal settlement, said they were forced to fight for themselves as their elected councillors were not doing much about their lack of housing and service delivery.

“We are planning on sleeping here because people are entitled to have spaces and housing.

“We will help each other to put up shacks and stay here,” Mkoni said.

City Law Enforcement spokesman Neil Arendse said they responded to the invasion but it was quiet and no serious incidents were reported.

Arendse said they remained in the area and officers were also focusing on other land invasion hotspots.

“Even though some of the land is privately owned, at some point it becomes a city problem. When the owner doesn’t do anything about it (invaders), the city has to step in,” Arendse said.

yolisa.tswanya@inl.co.za

- Cape Argus

Humble locations with exotic names

Cape Town - Ever wondered how exotic locations such as Barcelona, France and Taiwan became the names of local informal settlements?

Residents offered some explanation about the names last week, pointing out that conditions in them did not quite match the famous names.

Barcelona informal settlement in Gugulethu was named after the Spanish city because some residents wanted to draw international attention to the plight of the people in the area situated adjacent to the N2, said resident Mongami Mbili.

“It was around 1993 when I arrived here and there were several shacks, not many of them. This place was occupied by people who were mostly backyard dwellers from various areas, and some who were living with their parents and looking for their own place,” said Mbili.

A stone’s throw from Barcelona is the Europe informal settlement in Nyanga. Resident Thanduxolo Temba said the name simply surfaced - then it stuck.

“Europe has existed since 1992. It was formed by people who were mainly from the township area called Lusaka. This place was a dumping site, and people cleaned it up and erected their structures. Committees were then formed. It has grown fast over the years,” said Temba.

In Khayelitsha, France informal settlement was named after residents from Site B were given the go-ahead to occupy the open ground near OR Tambo Hall in 1997.

“People were told they could build on the land the same weekend Bafana Bafana qualified for the World Cup in France for the first time. There was a national campaign Siyaya eFrance (We are going to France).

“Residents were overjoyed and decided to name this place as a reminder of that moment,” said Sithembele Nongauza.

He said residents were promised development, but 18 years down the line the place is still the same.

The city also has its own Marikana, which is situated in Philippi. Marikana was informally named after the Rustenburg township where striking miners were killed during a clash with police almost three years ago.

“There were few shacks in that land before people from various places came and occupied it. Most of the people who stay here were backyarders,” said community leader Xolani Joja. He said it was named Marikana because residents were evicted many times and their building material taken away.

“We clashed with the police. They used rubber bullets, tear gas and stun grenades, but we never backed down. We kept fighting until the end. Now this place belongs to the people. This place is home to many people,” Joja said.

About a kilometre from France, backyarders from TR Section and Site C in Khayelitsha illegally occupied land and named it Azania.

Their occupation did not last long as the land owner, arms manufacturer Denel, obtained an eviction court order.

Xolani Jack, a former TR resident, said:

“I named the place Azania and other residents liked the name. We named it after Azania because this is our country. We are the people of Azania.”

Adjacent to Mitchells Plain is the Siqalo informal settlement, which is home to more than 1 200 families.

The settlement, on private land, has existed for less than five years.

“Siqalo means beginning. This place was a forest and people used to dump here.

“There were a few people from Tafelsig in Mitchells Plain living here too. People who were backyard dwellers could no longer afford rent and identified this land.

“It was named by residents. This land is not suitable for us to live on, but we have nowhere else to go,” said resident Sinazo Tempele.

siyavuya.mzantsi@inl.co.za

- Cape Times

Five dead, scores displaced by fires

Cape Town - Five people were killed in three separate fires in the Cape Peninsula on Sunday morning, the City of Cape Town Fire Service said.

“Just before 3am this [Sunday] morning the City’s Fire and Rescue Service responded to an informal settlement fire, Salamander Road Command, Hout Bay,” said spokesman Theo Layne.

A man, a woman, and two minors were killed in the blaze which swept through the informal settlement, destroying 30 shacks.

Approximately 120 people were left displaced.

Police were on scene to investigate the cause of the fire.

An hour later, a man was killed when one shack was razed to the ground in Solomon street, Mfuleni.

Earlier on Sunday morning, 25 people were left displaced when seven shacks were destroyed during a fire at the Village Heights informal settlement in Lavender Hill.

- ANA

No case yet on gang building protection

Cape Town - Police say “information from ground level” about protection money being paid to the Hard Livings gang by city-contracted construction companies refurbishing flats in Manenberg is not enough to warrant an investigation.

On Sunday, Jeremy Vearey, head of Operation Combat, a police operation targeting gangsterism in the province, said he had been notified of the situation in Manenberg, but needed a statement under oath to officially investigate.

“We received information from ground level which indicated these activities were taking place, but information is information. We need a statement under oath to form the basis of a case docket and then we can investigate,” Vearey said.

Vearey mentioned a report published on Sunday in the Weekend Argus, the Cape Times’s sister newspaper, that revealed an e-mail from safety and security mayoral committee member JP Smith to other city officials, dated December 12, had been leaked.

Smith confirmed this on Sunday. He said he had been made aware of the allegations in December last year.

“In the e-mail, I basically said that all the information we have needs to go to the SAPS because it is a criminal offence in terms of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act and must be criminally prosecuted.

“I made it clear that the dossier be handed over and the complaint made to a senior police officer,” Smith said.

Vearey said: “We have not seen or received any dossier yet.”

Smith said he would be meeting with the city’s human settlements department and the construction companies this week.

“Either we will hire city law enforcement as security or we will select a panel of security companies and choose one to work there,” he said.

Mayco member for human settlements Benedicta van Minnen said the city was investigating two construction companies.

“Initially there was H & I Construction, and now there is Good Hope Construction. We are busy with our investigation and will be meeting again this week to discuss the way forward. The refurbishments will continue this week and we are on track to finish in June,” she said.

Good Hope Construction chief executive Raziek Rajah denied that his company was being investigated.

“It must be made clear that according to the city, we are not under investigation. They have made contact to confirm this.”

Rajah refused to be drawn on whether his workers were asked to pay gangsters protection money.

Attempts to reach H & I Construction for comment proved fruitless.

carlo.petersen@inl.co.za

- Cape Times

'Political instigators' blamed for land grabs

Cape Town - The City of Cape Town is set to lay criminal charges against “political instigators” of a spate of illegal land invasions which have hit the metropole in recent days.

Metro Police and the SA Police Service officers were called to intervene in at least three land grabs in Khayelitsha, Wallacedene and Kalkfontein in the past week.

“The City is investigating reports of possible political interference pertaining to the Kalkfontein violence but it must be emphasised that a trend of political instigation is already visible in the attempted land invasions which have taken place recently, including in Khayelitsha,” said the City’s mayoral committee member for human settlements Benedicta van Minnen.

“We condemn land invasions and the incitement to invade State- or privately-owned land in the strongest possible terms. We urge residents not to be misled by miscreants who are preying on the poor to build their political profiles and to create havoc in the city.”

On Sunday night, a group of protestors who were prevented from invading land in Kalkfontein, near Kuils River, set a church alight.

“We will not tolerate this behaviour, which is placing strain on the City’s law enforcement agencies, the South African Police Service (SAPS), and the City’s broader service delivery efforts at the expense of law-abiding residents,” said Van Minnen.

“The City will use every available resource at its disposal to prevent land invasions and we will make sure that those who are responsible for any incitement to violence, land invasions and other criminal acts face the full consequences of the law.”

Van Minnen declined to name the politicians the City would be laying charges against regarding the Kalkfontein incident.

The City had, however, already laid charges against Economic Freedom Fighters Western Cape leader Nazier Paulsen who led a group of people to occupy land in Khayelitsha during the Easter weekend.

The City had since managed to remove the structures erected on the land next to the Nolungile railway station.

Law enforcement officers were also called to Wallacedene in Kraaifontein at the weekend. Thirty four structures were removed from the land.

The City on Monday called on private landowners to contact the City and relevant law enforcement agencies if they detect the illegal occupation of land.

“Landowners need to act immediately,” said Van Minnen.

“If landowners or residents are aware of any other illegal activity, such as political instigation or criminality, they must approach the SAPS to conduct an investigation and for assistance.”

- ANA

Cape land invaders refuse to move

Cape Town - Illegal land invasions have spread across Cape Town from Khayelitsha, Kalkfontein near Bonteheuwel and now to Wallacedene in Kraaifontein.

JP Smith, the mayco member of safety and security for the City of Cape Town, said seven people who occupied land illegally in Kalkfontein were arrested on Saturday.

“There were protesters in the area who were burning tyres and throwing stones near the lane of the R300 earlier on Saturday afternoon. And, firemen in Hamilton Estate were also assaulted after trying to put out a fire. One man was injured and the others refused to go back to control the fire because of the danger that they were in,” Smith said.

In light of the sporadic land grabs that took place across the city last week, Smith provided a breakdown of the city’s intervention.

“(A total of) 20 illegal structures and 920 pegs were destroyed in Khayelitsha, 100 pegs were destroyed in Lwandle (Strand). Thirteen illegal structures were demolished in Kalkfontein.”

He said public spaces in Wallacedene were under threat. “More of these illegal structures are being erected. (On Sunday) police will be in the area to stop these structures from disturbing public spaces.”

When the Cape Argus visited Kalkfontein on Sunday, people remained defiant and continued to erect illegal structures, saying they have nowhere else to go.

Elliot Malgas was adamant that he and his family would not move willingly. “We still want to build here. On Saturday, law enforcement demolished our homes but we haven’t got any other place to stay.”

After being evicted, Malgas said: “It was terrible, I am not happy. Everyone here has bought all the materials for their houses, now we have to spend more money to build. I have lost my TV, clothes and even my ID.”

He said this was the third time in one week that their homes were destroyed.

A church was set alight during the violent protest.

“It’s confirmed that the church has been set alight. Apparently it appears it was set alight by protestors,” said police spokesman Colonel Thembinkosi Kinana.

No injuries were reported.

“No arrests have been made so far. The investigation is still ongoing,” said Kinana.

Joshua Njingo, who was shot in the head on Saturday said: “They came to shoot at us while we were building. It’s terrible. The South African law enforcement can’t just come from behind and just shoot you.”

Banele Ntlangani, 22, another Kalkfontein resident, feared losing his eight-month-old baby, Uminati.

“We were busy building and law enforcement came. They said they were here just to break the shacks without people living inside them. Afterwards they surrounded the whole area with hippos and then just broke all the houses.”

Police spokesman Colonel Thembinkosi Kinana said: “Eight protesters were arrested for public violence on Sunday and they are expected to appear in court (Monday).”

matthew.vanschalkwyk@inl.co.za

- Cape Argus and ANA

Cape Town Stadium may cost another R60 million

Ratepayers are not done paying for the Cape Town Stadium just yet, because a draft environmental assessment report released for public comment reveals it could cost as much as R60 million to refurbish parts of the stadium to make it suitable for commercial activities.

The consultants working on the assessment, the Environmental Partnership, said this was an "approximate" cost that would depend on the stadium's full commercial potential being realised. With more limited specifications, the amount could be drastically reduced.

But the use of the stadium for office and retail space could bring in an annual revenue of R31m.

It has cost the City of Cape Town R4.4 billion to build the stadium for the 2010 World Cup, and the facility has been running at an annual loss of R39m since then.

Luke Stevens, spokesman for the Camps Bay Residents' and Ratepayers' Association (CBRRA), said: "Our greatest fear as ratepayers is that the city will throw significant amounts of good money - such as R60m - in speculative redevelopment to discover that even after the removal of the constraints to business activity, the stadium remains technically unprofitable."

Stevens said the association did not object to the commercialisation of the stadium precinct, but had "very little faith" in the business plan upon which the projected revenue streams were based.

The city had yet to adopt a business model for the stadium, and work on this was being done as a separate exercise, said the Environmental Partnership.

Stevens said this process "remains opaque and we continue to suspect, given the competencies of the International Risk Mitigation Consultants who compiled the business plan, that the hidden emphasis in the business plan's terms of reference was to find a way to dislodge Western Province Rugby from Newlands rather than to find real alternatives for Cape Town Stadium".

An estimated 20 000m2 of potential lettable space for offices, restaurants or retail outlets was available within the stadium structure. The proposed commercialisation of the precinct was limited to the stadium and would not infringe on the Urban Park.

The Environmental Partnership said the remainder of the shortfall would be made up from various revenue streams, such as the development of suites, commercial parking, advertising and the development of the Granger Bay Precinct.

The development of this precinct could bring in between R27m and R98m, depending on which proposal was accepted.

There was a separate environmental impact assessment under way for the Granger Bay area but the legislation was changed last December, and the proposed redevelopment was no longer a listed activity and therefore did not require an environmental authorisation. However, the development would still need land use and heritage approvals.

Given the ongoing operational and maintenance budget shortfalls for the stadium, the city needed to find a sustainable business model that would make the precinct commercially viable.

This could only be done if the existing environmental authorisation that restricted these activities was amended.

"It is anticipated that the income generated from commercial activities will assist in reducing the annual deficit of R39m incurred by the municipality and subsequently the ratepayers. From an economic point of view, the stadium's viability needs to be improved and municipal spending on this existing facility reduced," said the report.

The draft environmental report forms part of this process.

After feedback from the Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning, it was recommended that two rezoning proposals should be considered - general business and a split zoning, which would allow the South Forecourt to be used for general business subzone 1, while the remainder would be for subzone 7.

While both zones would allow for commercial activity that include retail, business or office space, places of worship, a multiple parking garage, a service station, places of entertainment or hotels, the South Forecourt would have a height restriction and floor space restrictions.

Additional use rights include an adult shop subject to certain provisions.

The split-zoning was the preferred alternative, as it would be more likely to protect the integrity of the South Forecourt while allowing this portion of the precinct to become more functional.

Some of the major impacts identified in the report include the additional lighting at the stadium, potential traffic impact on event days, and future development risks associated with the South Forecourt.

The report also recommended conditions of approval, such as the use of signals on the Green Point traffic circle to cope with the increased traffic and a heritage assessment of any development on the South Forecourt.

This area of the stadium must be used as a functional open space, said the Environmental Partnership. This condition was welcomed by CBRRA. "We stress that open space is vital to the promotion of a healthy and productive society. These spaces are not fallow, wasted areas," said Stevens.

The findings of the draft environmental impact report will be available at an open meeting at the stadium on April 21, from 4pm until 8pm, with a presentation starting at 6pm.

- IOLProperty

Church set alight during protest

Cape Town - A church was set alight during a violent protest in Kalkfontein, near Kuils River, on Sunday evening, Western Cape police said.

“It’s confirmed that the church has been set alight. Apparently it appears it was set alight by protesters,” said police spokesman Colonel Thembinkosi Kinana.

“As I understand it, it’s a continuation of the land invasion protests that were going on the weekend,” he said.

No injuries were reported.

“No arrests have been made so far. The investigation is still ongoing,” said Kinana.

Kinana could not confirm whether the protests were linked to similar protests late in March when a council home rented by a law enforcement officer was petrol-bombed, allegedly by a group of people evicted from land they illegally occupied.

Members of the public order policing unit would remain on the scene, Kinana said.

Since March, the area has seen an invasion to occupy a stretch of land belonging to the city council.

- ANA

‘Gangsters were hired’

Manenberg, which fuelled gang warfare in the already volatile area.

If the allegations that a city-contracted construction company or companies paid gangsters for security are found to be true, the city, on a mayoral committee member’s admission, could be implicated in contravening the Prevention of Organised Crime Act.

Weekend Argus is in possession of leaked copies of e-mails and minutes of a meeting that show that, despite knowing about the matter in December, the city is still, months later, deciding how to address it.

This week police said they had received complaints from Manenberg residents about the matter, but that no formal statements had been made.

In a leaked e-mail from safety and security mayoral committee member JP Smith to other city officials, dated December 12, Smith said: “The city needs to hand over all the information they have to SAPS around the paying of gangsters by city-contracted housing contractors working on the CRU (Community Residential Units). This is a criminal offence in terms of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act and other legislation, and needs to be criminally prosecuted.

“The city is implicated in this, and we need to make a formal submission to SAPS with all the information we have.”

Smith, in the e-mail, said he had suggested the human settlements department ask the contractors to put in writing what they knew.

He also asked the Metro Police to take the submissions to the police, “so the city has fully disclosed what we know”.

Asked to comment, Smith con-firmed to Weekend Argus he had sent the e-mails, adding that he was trying to alert his colleagues to a housing issue.

This week, various sources told Weekend Argus recent flare-ups in gang violence in Manenberg were rooted in the employment of rival gang members for security by construction companies which were upgrading council flats.

Late last year, this had fuelled fighting between gangs, unhappy with their rivals taking over construction sites, and last week the already tense situation was exacerbated when a hit was put out on an Americans gangster, and his allies then retaliated.

Residents reported that machine guns were used in the fighting.

In a terse response to a list of questions from Weekend Argus about the contractors paying gangsters, the city’s mayoral committee member for human settlements, Benedicta van Minnen, said only: “The city can confirm that an investigation is under way, and the necessary actions will be taken once the outcome of the investigation has been confirmed.”

But details of what has been happening are contained in the leaked e-mails.

In an earlier e-mail from Smith, dated December 2, he said a meeting needed to be set up with the head of one of the construction companies “and the contractors working for human settlements in Manenberg about the protection money being demanded by the Hard Livings, and being paid by one of the contractors”.

Minutes from a meeting between city officials dealing with the Community Residential Units upgrades, held on February 6, were also leaked to Weekend Argus.

The minutes show that a senior safety and security official had attended.

It mentions a “dossier of alleged contraventions” involving Manenberg, and says a Metro Police head advised that a charge should not be lodged at the Manenberg police station, but that a complaint should instead be made to a senior police officer.

But the senior official advised the issue be placed instead on the agenda for when mayor Patricia de Lille had her next monthly meeting with provincial police commissioner Arno Lamoer.

De Lille was then meant to hand over the dossier for Lamoer to investigate at a provincial level.

This week, Lamoer said he did not know about the dossier, and provincial police spokesman Colonel Tembinkosi Kinana said they had not received any such dossier.

De Lille’s spokeswoman Zara Nicholson said the matter was being dealt with “by the relevant authorities”.

On Saturday, police General Jeremy Vearey, who heads up Operation Combat, the provincial police’s operation targeting gangsterism, said some Manenberg residents had complained about construction companies paying gangsters.

“But none of these reports have resulted in statements,” he said.

Vearey said if the allegations and suggestions were found to be true, it could result in charges of racketeering and corruption being investigated.

This week, Raziek Rajah of Good Hope Construction, a company working in Manenberg and which was named in one of Smith’s e-mails, told Weekend Argus that late last year its security providers were checked by police.

Rajah said his company hired employees from a City of Cape Town database that did not specify who was or was not a criminal.

- Weekend Argus

Interim order against land invaders

Cape Town - The Western Cape High Court on Friday granted Denel an interim order evicting land invaders who this week occupied land in Khayelistha that belongs to the state-owned arms manufacturer.

Judge Monde Samela explained to the land invaders, who appeared in court without legal representation, that it allowed them until the return date of April 21 to find lawyers to argue their case.

“I explained to them that effectively I am sitting on the fence (in granting an interim order),” he said after allowing the respondents, some of who wore shirts bearing the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) logo, to ask him questions to clarify their legal position.

“In isiXhosa, one who sits on the fence is a monkey. So he told me I am a monkey and I said he must be careful now,” Samela chuckled as he translated the exchange to Denel’s lawyers.

On Monday, some 250 people seized land near Nolungile train station in Khayelitsha and began building shacks. The EFF said they were facilitating the process.

Police intervened and Denel, in a first urgent court application, obtained an interdict preventing the erection of further structures on the contested land.

Denel’s legal team on Friday told the court they were seeking the second order to maintain the status quo at the site, which most of the invaders left after their structures were removed, and to gain added protection should there be a fresh attempt to invade the land.

They said they would bring more substantiating documentation on April 1.

Regional EFF official Tlhabanelo Diholo said the party would try to assist the squatters with finding lawyers but did not have money for the legal fees in the party coffers.

“We are not steering this process, we have just tried to assist the community wherever we can,” he said.

After the order was granted some 30 Khayelitsha residents sang protest songs outside the court building.

Student Vugile Thando held a poster proclaiming: “People of Azania take back your land, the rest will follow.”

He said he was not a member of the EFF but was among the roughly 250 people who had invaded the land at the beginning of the week and began building shacks.

“I’m from Khayelitsha site C. I took all my materials and my sleeping bag and they broke it all down and now I’m homeless again.”

- ANA

Land invaders in face-off with cops

Cape Town - The loud bangs of stun grenades filled the air signalling the start of evictions outside the Nolungile train station in Khayelitsha on Wednesday morning.

While squatters threatened to stand their ground, waving tools they had used to erect 20 structures on the private property on Monday, they were quickly dispersed by a large police contingent.

Led by members of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), squatters said they had taken over the land because of overcrowding in the township’s Site C.

Major Mali, who built a shack on Monday, said the land had been vacant since 1985.

Police arrived on Wednesday morning brandishing what appeared to be an eviction notice. There was resistance from the protesters, many waving crowbars, spades, sticks and pangas as they shouted for the police to leave.

While some of the shacks had been completed, many were nothing but skeletal wooden frames jutting from the pockmarked earth in between tufts of yellow grass.

A group of protesters and land invaders holding crowbars, sticks and pangas gather in Khayelitsha on Wednesday morning. Picture: Cindy WaxaCAPE ARGUS

When police moved to dismantle the structures they acted swiftly, firing rubber bullets at a group of people camped in the bushes with rocks in their hands.

Protesters at first stood their ground, but the first of two stun grenades sent them screaming towards the property’s boundary line with the township.

Within 20 minutes the shacks had been brought down, demolition crews pulling them apart and hammering at the tinder buried in the ground.

Residents watched from the train station. But as the last structure fell, their interest waned and the enthusiastic crowd began to thin.

However, some minutes later a band of protesters set tyres, rubbish and debris alight on a road nearby.

The City of Cape Town has outlined plans to clamp down on any land invaders attempting to occupy the vacant field in Khayelitsha.

Mayoral committee member for safety and security JP Smith vowed to take action against illegal occupants who erected shacks on privately owned land in the TR section on Tuesday morning.

“We will be laying charges against anyone who can be identified putting up shacks on the privately owned land. They have been warned about this on Monday,” said Smith.

He added that the land invasions weredrawing much-needed police resources away from gang flashpoints. “We had two very violent gang flare-ups in Manenberg and Ottery. There was machine gun fire. This land grab pulled resources away from that.”

Pockets of land across the city have been under threat from members of the EFF and Ses’khona People’s Rights Movement over the past two days. EFF Western Cape leader Nazir Paulsen said they supported residents’ invasion of the land.

“The EFF supports the residents as they deserve this land to build bigger housing. There is nothing wrong with what we are doing. The city can contact my lawyers if they have a problem,” said Paulsen

The DA condemned criminal acts of land invasion by the EFF and welcomed any charges against Paulsen. “As the ringleader of the EFF action and member of the Western Cape Parliament, Nazir Paulsen has encouraged and facilitated criminal conduct.

“The DA welcomes the City of Cape Town laying criminal charges against Nazir Paulsen, and urges the SAPS to investigate…”

- Cape Argus

RDP housing breeds poverty, says Makhura

Over 2 million state-subsidised houses, popularly known as "RDPs", built since 1994 "are nothing but incubators of poverty".

That is the view of Gauteng Premier David Makhura, who was speaking at the launch of a giant provincial housing project in Illovo, northern Johannesburg, yesterday.

Makhura blamed the collapse of planning at all levels of the government for the state's haphazard approach to housing in the past 20 years.

"We've had a virtual collapse of planning. Municipalities say they are planning with [environmental impact assessments] but they are just wasting time," said Makhura.

"Serious planning will stop private-sector, municipal and provincial projects that are not desirable. We are breaking away from the old mode of development of small projects and [will]develop large-scale projects of no less than 15000 units."

Makhura said his administration would deliver 700000 houses in four years, relying on funding of R11.2-billion annually - R6-billion from the Gauteng department of human settlements, R5-billion from the Urban Settlement Development Grant to Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni, and a R200-million grant from the government.

Gauteng, he said, would research the possibility of providing serviced stands to individuals, allowing them to build their own houses.

"We are doing away with poverty-stricken human settlements in which the day [after taking possession of a house] people have nowhere to go. What's called 'RDP houses' is a bad dream. There are no trees, no proper infrastructure and no integration," he said.

Makhura said old-style development was concerned with increasing the number of houses built, with little regard to efficient use of land and sustainable economic activity.

He said that one of the problems with the old approach was that the government built houses without knowing exactly for whom they were intended.

"We have been building houses without properly knowing whom we were building for. We want to make sure that when we build these houses the ownership is beyond dispute."

In place of the "poverty-stricken human settlements" "mega housing projects" will establish residential areas of from 15000 to 60000 units, complete with amenities such as schools, parks, health facilities, infrastructure and "light industry".

Although private developers are being encouraged to take part - 43 companies pledged their support for the projects yesterday - approval of their plans will depend on whether they cater for low-cost housing.

Makhura promised the private sector that all environmental impact assessments would be approved in three months.

- TimesLive

Residents peg out sites after land grab

Cape Town - About 100 residents from TR Section in Khayelitsha invaded a vacant piece of privately owned land near the Nolungile train station in Site C as threats of widespread land invasions were made on Monday.

Resident Rooi Nobatana said the people were taking the land “by force” because they had nowhere to go.

“We are paying rent in our siblings’ small shacks and there’s no space. If there is a fire in one of the shacks, the fire brigade cannot get to us and everything burns down.

“If the government can just provide us with this land then we will build our own houses,” said Nobatana.

Another resident, Nomzamo Nkolisa, said she decided to invade the land because they had not received answers after a seven-year wait for RDP houses.

“The houses that we are living in now are too small, we need basic services such as water, sanitation and electricity.

“We reported the lack of services and rat infestation to our ward councillor but nothing is being done.”

Nkolisa said she runs a crèche from her home and needed the space to run it effectively.

Mayco member for Human Settlements Benedicta van Minnen condemned the threats of a city-wide land invasion by the Ses’khona movement and the EFF.

“We condemn land invasions and the incitement to invade state or privately owned land in the strongest possible terms.

“Political instigators should start taking responsibility for the conditions that arise in settlements that are borne from invasions,” she said.

“I urge our residents not to be duped by organisations who claim to have their best interests at heart, while in reality they are actually driving a political or financial agenda.

“Some land invasions, which occur on a small scale and in an ad hoc manner, are borne purely of need – but others we consider to be orchestrated invasions and part of a general trend to invade both public and private land across Cape Town as part of a politically motivated campaign to make the city ungovernable.”

Van Minnen said authorities were not able to remove the people from the land as it was owned by Denel.

Denel’s spokeswoman, Vuyelwa Qinga, said on Monday: “We are not aware of the incident, but we will do our own investigations and see how to follow up with the situation.”

Ses’khona leader Andile Lili said he was aware that members from his organisation invaded land, adding that they will continue to do so until their demands were responded to.

“We don’t see anything wrong with it. We will take over any open land all over Cape Town, even as far as Atlantis and Grabouw. We have hundreds of thousands of members and the police will not have the capacity to control us.

“The government knows there are fires and floods and yet they don’t do anything.

“Our people need housing and it will be very difficult for them to stop us.

“We will overpower the police if they want to move us.”

The EFF could not be reached for comment.

nabeelah.mohedeen@inl.co.za

yolisa.tswanya@inl.co.za

- Cape Argus

Fire outside Cape Town kills one

Cape Town – A fire in the Wallacedene informal settlement in Kraaifontein in the early hours of Saturday morning claimed the life of one man and left several dozen people displaced, the City of Cape Town’s disaster risk management team said.

The victim was identified as Buyisa Nofemela.

According to the city’s disaster risk management spokesperson, Charlotte Powell, 23 adults and 14 children were displaced.

An NGO would provide the affected families with food parcels, blankets and mattresses.

The families would also be provided with “starter kits” to rebuild their homes. 

- African News Agency