Government relocations: One more losing battle for shack dwellers

Various reasons have been given for the relocations taking place in informal settlements around Ivory Park, Thembisa; Protea South, Soweto; and Lehae. But a visit to the residents tells a sorry story – the relocation exercise is, at best, deeply flawed.

Ivory Park residents were told by local ANC councillor Joe Mahlangu that they were being relocated in readiness for the allocation of houses. Lehae residents, too, were promised houses. In Protea South, they were promised by their local councillor Mapule Khumalo that the exercise aimed to neatly align shacks in readiness for electricity installation.

However, the promises have not materialised. Some residents have had to spend nights without shelter because they lacked the materials to complete their new shacks. The relocation teams do not supply extra materials except in limited cases in Protea South, where some families were given two bags of cement and a packet of nails. Two problems arise here: firstly, not everyone was given assistance and secondly, shacks are not made of nails and cement.

Still, if there was money to buy cement and nails it means either provincial or national government did provide a budget to assist residents. This money should have been used to buy corrugated iron, however, because that’s what shacks are made of – not cement. This would have prevented people spending nights without shelter.

“We are poor, but this project has taken the little dignity we had,” said 29-year-old Sibusiso Madi from Protea South. “When they imposed this exercise on us, we did not know that it would leave our shacks worse than they were.

“I was forced to sleep without any shelter for four days because they did not help me with extra material to complete my shack, which they had made slightly bigger. I had to borrow money and buy second-hand corrugated iron at the local scrapyard. My furniture was also badly damaged, and now I am left with a huge debt.

“It’s not only that; the first rains at the weekend ruined our shacks.”

Ivory Park residents gather at the community centre to try and find solutions to their housing woes and elusive Councillor.

Gauteng Provincial Human Settlements MEC Jacob Mamabolo, however, says that the relocations did not cost the residents anything.

“If relocations are a government initiative, the government carries all the costs of the relocations, and none are incurred by residents. It becomes the government’s responsibility in this case to ensure that all the costs of the exercise are taken care of.”

According to Sibusiso, all Protea South residents know that the area to which he and about 60 other families have been relocated is uninhabitable when it rains. Many of the 60 families spent the night on their feet as it rained hard for the first time at the weekend.

36-year-old Linda Baloyi said water had never been a problem at their previous location. Now, however, it is rainy season, and that can mean one thing for the families: they will be anticipating the worst. Baloyi’s seven-year-old daughter lost most of her stationery and her school uniforms were ruined. The young girl spent the rest of Sunday morning frantically trying to drive a stream of water out of their shack and out of the small yard.

Residents’ fragile belongings get damaged because little care is exercised during transportation. Belongings are roughly handled and thrown at the back of the trucks, residents say.

In Protea South one woman, who did not want to be named, said her whole bedroom suite was irreparably damaged because her shack inexplicably had to be moved three times over the same area.

“I was totally surprised when they moved my shack three times over the same area and completely damaged my bedroom suite. Its clear that there is no proper plan for this project. We are just aimlessly being driven to hell and surprisingly we all seem to have said yes to that. I was left to pick up the pieces of my damaged furniture.”

Residents allege that stands are being sold illegally by some in the relocation teams and they cost between R1,000 and R3,000. In Protea South, the local DA leadership had to turn away a woman who had just offloaded her shack and was ready to settle. The woman, known only as Noluthando from Diepkloof, flatly denied that the stand had been sold to her, but she eventually folded after intense interrogation. She confessed that she was to meet with the person who sold the stand to her for R1,000, reaching out for the bank notes to back up her confession. The alleged seller then failed to show up to collect the money because of the presence of the group that was questioning the woman. The seller’s phone number has been unreachable, going straight to voice mail since.

A tug of war between the local ANC and DA leadership in the area is something of a spectacle, with the two constantly at each other’s throats with regard to contrasting positions on community matters. Relocations are one such example where the parties have failed to agree.

On the other hand, the national DA leadership has for a long time been calling for the establishment of an inter-party committee to audit housing needs in the province and assess current projects and allocations.

Local DA PR councillor Maureen Mnisi said, “All we want is that there should be proper consultation with residents from which they would also be able to make an input. We would have liked to see the community’s full participation, since it’s a matter that directly concerns them. It is clear on our side that there was no proper planning. Why would residents well known to be living in shacks be relocated in winter when Eskom will only install electricity in 2016 in the area; why put them through that?

“The court requested a detailed plan for the relocations, which both the Johannesburg municipality and council failing to provide one till today but relocations are ongoing. Many residents have come to me to complain about their flooded shacks after the first rains at the weekend.”

Ivory Park residents said the worst thing was that their land was being sold to foreign nationals while many locals were still in need. They are blaming the local ANC councillor, the abovementioned Mahlangu. Jeffery Khomola, a 39-year-old from Ivory Park, said their councillor was ever-elusive. The councillor has seven mobile numbers but is reachable on none of them.

Fed up: Jeffery Khomola

“You cannot get hold of him. We have gathered and marched to his offices and home several times but he keeps eluding us. He has allocated stands to foreign nationals from Mozambique; maybe its because he is also from there. We have grown tired of him - we want him removed. There are many capable local individuals who can do a better job.

“We were never even consulted when the exercise began, yet it affects us,” said Khomola.

MEC Mamabolo added: “An agreement must be reached with residents [on how the project is to be carried out] because indeed it’s their lives that are directly affected in the process.”

Efforts to get hold of Ivory Park’s Councillor Mahlangu on his phones were unsuccessful as he was constantly unavailable. His office numbers could not be reached either.

In Lehae, residents said they encountered the same problems, but they were eventually awarded the promised houses.

71-year-old Elizabeth Mathetsa from Ivory Park said strangers were squeezed into the yard where she has been running a pre-school for the past 24 years. Mathetsa said it had since become hard to operate in that kind of environment.

“My own children attended the same pre-school. It’s old but now I do not know where to go. I wasn’t even consulted about this. People just showed up and erected shacks on the councillor’s instruction,” Mathetsa said.

Protea South councillor Mapule Khumalo said residents had no problem with the relocation exercise but that there were those misleading the community for their own political and personal gain.

“We haven’t forced the exercise on people. No resident has ever come to me to say that they were opposed to it. Those people who do not want to move are left alone and it’s not true that they will be sidelined when the project reaches fruition. The problem is that there are some in the community who are using vulnerable residents for their own political and personal gain.”

Mamqbolo added: “Relocations should not be confused with evictions. We are a democratic society; we do not just evict people. When evictions are carried out, it’s usually on the back of a court order that gives the green light to this effect, and the government does not pay for costs incurred by residents during evictions.”

However, the question still arises regarding the human rights of residents, and whether they are not being undermined by the manner in which relocations are being carried out in some areas. Residents’ rights to dignity, sanitation, health, safety and privacy suffer serious blows, but the way in which they continue to be made to feel inferior perhaps perpetuates the belief that they can do nothing about it. DM