Tshwane’s urgent court application against Kleinfontein has angered residents, who claim the city is targeting the Afrikaner settlement.
The Kleinfontein informal settlement has accused the City of Tshwane of wanting to get rid of the Afrikaner community after the city lodged an urgent application in the High Court in Pretoria.
This move was to order Kleinfontein, east of Pretoria, to stop any form of construction, developing, advertising, allocating or selling of shares or stands at the informal settlement, and to supplement its application in terms of older legislation pending since 2013.
Republican Conference of Tshwane councillor Lex Middelberg said it wasn’t true the city wanted to get rid of Afrikaners.
Not true that Tshwane wants to get rid of Afrikaners – Republican Conference of Tshwane
“They’ve got it twisted,” he said.
Political analyst Piet Croucamp said while Kleinfontein was a society that does not share the values of South Africa and its constitution, the question remains: was it legal or illegal in terms of the constitution?
“The values of the constitution are one thing, but the rules and regulations of the constitution were another,” he said.
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Croucamp said he had no doubt that municipal officials would act in a way that was more spiteful than effective and efficient when they are confronted with a phenomenon such as this.
Kleinfontein board CEO Stefan Wiese said they were disappointed by Tshwane’s move to get rid of the Afrikaner community.
“Kleinfontein has been served with a notice of motion on 12 August, where Tshwane is taking the Afrikaner community to court,” he said.
Kleinfontein served notice of motion
“The community has made several attempts to resolve the long-standing and still pending rezoning and formalisation application dating back to 2013.
“Several undertakings by Tshwane to fast-track the application have been made over the years and Kleinfontein engaged with no less than five mayors to attempt to resolve the situation.”
Wiese said then mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa, who is now electricity and energy minister, committed to prioritising the formalisation of Kleinfontein in a 2013 statement during his tenure.
“This sentiment was echoed by subsequent mayors,” he said.
“It is disturbing that Tshwane is choosing to approach the courts when Kleinfontein, in 2024, has presented Tshwane with a proposal that would have seen a task team from both parties finalise the application in good order.
Double standards
“Despite correspondence from Tshwane as recently as May 2024, Tshwane now seems to argue that Kleinfontein’s completed Integrated Development Plan township application can no longer be processed and has to be replaced by a Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act.”
Wiese said the clear double standards applied by Tshwane were utterly disappointing.
