Community adamant that their township is not for sale
They allege that countless attempts were made to meet with the executive mayor, but their efforts were in vain.
Community members from Hillsview in White River marched to the Office of the Premier (OTP), Refilwe Mtshweni-Tsipane, on Tuesday to hand over a memorandum of demands.
Among their demands was the withdrawal of an alleged lease of land to a farmer.
Unfortunately the premier was not available at her office to personally receive the memorandum and Peter Shube, a deputy director general of the OTP, accepted it on her behalf.
According to Makukule Peter, spokesman for the Hillsview residents, on May 14 the community was alerted with great dismay that the elderly women who were farming on plot 52 were evicted with immediate effect by a farmer who claimed that the land has been leased to him by the Mpumalanga Economic Growth Agency (MEGA), for the purpose of farming passion fruit.
He said the community then had an urgent mass meeting, at which a resolution was taken to remove the farmer by blockading the road in an endeavour to get the attention of MEGA and the City of Mbombela Local Municipality mayor, Cllr Sibusiso Mathonsi.
“Cllr Busi Ndlovu, MMC for human settlements, came to address the community and indicated that to the best of their knowledge as council, plot 52 was still earmarked for human settlement development for the community of Hillsview. The same message was conveyed by the delegation from MEGA, led by Mr Jeff Velelo,” said Peter.
He said, since May 15, countless attempts were made to meet with the executive mayor, but their efforts were in vain.
“It is for these reasons that the community of Hillsview demands the withdrawal of the said lease of the land from the farmer. In line with the president’s directive of an immediate release of unused government land for human settlement purposes, plot 52 must be released to the community of Hillsview as promised in 2009.
“We also demand the implementation of the Department of Human Settlement’s plan of servicing the sites. We further demand thorough investigation to be conducted with regard to the illegal sale/lease of our land,” added Peter.
The residents gave Mtshweni-Tsipane seven working days to respond on their demands, effective from Wednesday.
“Failing that, we will be left with no option but to organise ourselves and peacefully invade the plot, and place ourselves on our land accordingly,” continued Peter. The area of Hillsview comprises 80 households with an estimated population of over 800 crammed in these homes.
Peter said some of these residents share their homes with their children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and even in-laws from both sides.
He said as residents of Hillsview they were expected to be crammed in smaller houses, lack a high school of their own and their kids are forced to go to private schools, which their poverty-stricken community cannot afford.
“We have no health facilities, no recreational facilities for our children, who end up being trapped in alcohol and drug abuse. We have to drive far distances for shopping and other facilities and are forced to live under appalling conditions,” concluded Peter.
Ncube said they will give the memorandum attention. He denied that the land has been leased out.
“We will give a response as soon as we can. As far as I know, I understand that land has not been leased to anyone.
