Joburg mayor Dada Morero confirms Ginger Park relocation plan for Paulshof residents
Alternative accommodation must be secured before the municipality can act on a court order to clear the Paulshof informal settlement.
Ginger Park informal settlement residents in Paulshof are waiting for clarity on their future after Johannesburg Mayor Dada Morero confirmed that the municipality has a court order to proceed with their removal.
Morero said the City of Johannesburg is ready to act but is still finalising alternative accommodation for South African citizens living in the settlement.
“Let me just announce to the residents around Paulshof that we have the court order now in place,” Morero said. “The only thing that I’m still finalising is where I’m relocating the South African citizens in Ginger Park.”
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He said the city was legally required to provide alternative accommodation to residents who are removed and could not bypass this requirement.
“Once I remove you, I must provide alternative accommodation,” he said. “It’s the law, and I cannot bypass that part.”
According to Morero, the legal requirement to provide accommodation has contributed to delays in implementing the court order.
“And the delays in dealing with Ginger Park have been as a result of that Constitutional Court judgment,” he said.
Morero said city teams have already met and were prepared to carry out the operation once the accommodation issue was resolved.
“We are ready to come in; in fact, we were ready even in July,” he said. “But we have to wait for Human Settlements in the city to finalise that portion. Once that is finalised, we will then act.”
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Morero also said businesses operating around the settlement had committed to fencing the area once the land had been cleared.
“Once we clear, they will also put up the fence,” he said. “We’re still working on the one just adjacent to Paulshof, which still requires certain work to be done, but this one on Main, we can act immediately.”
The mayor’s comments come after months of uncertainty surrounding the settlement.
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