MBOMBELA – Some houses in Msholozi may have to be demolished to allow the municipality to provide standard services to the area.
Owners have refused to demolish their structures and engineering solutions may have to be negotiated that could prove substandard.
Mbombela Local Municipality (MLM) has spoken with the national Department of Public Works for years to have the illegal settlement next to Phumlani transferred to it, and is formalising Msholozi.
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Umsebe Development Planners, the consultant planning the provision of services, submitted a report to council this week. The stand boundaries around structures left insufficient road reserve to provide the normal standards of sanitation, water, storm water and electricity services.
National standards prescribe a road reserve of 16 metres to allow sufficient space for a two-way tarred road and pavement space. Less space causes problems to provide bus routes and to accommodate refuse removal and fire-protection vehicles and ambulances. In Msholozi the road reserves are between six and eight metres in places. “To apply standards lower than the nationally prescribed minimum will effectively compromise the safe utilisation of services,” the report states.
“To create sufficient road reserve widths, the alternative would be to demolish certain structures which have been erected too far in the front portion of the stands. Past experience has proved that it is impossible to get such owners to demolish these structures.”
Settlements in environmentally sensitive areas, such as on steep slopes and under the flood line, as well as the allocated area for the planned P166 road, needed be relocated.
MLM spokesman, Mr Joseph Ngala, said this was not a new phenomenon.
“All informal settlement areas where formalisation is done have similar problems and engineering solutions in this regard must be negotiated with the affected occupants.
The scope of the existing service provider will be extended to identify areas where a normal standard of engineering services cannot be provided and (will) advise council of the reduced level of service based on the actual settlement on the ground,” he said.
Once the report on the extent of dwellings to be demolished have been approved, public information sessions will be arranged to explain the standard of services which can be provided.
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