Johannesburg is the most populated city in the country.
The City of Johannesburg will not sit back and allow illegal foreign nationals to build informal settlements in the city, says housing MMC Mlungisi Mabaso.
Mabaso has been overseeing a campaign that is auditing most of the informal settlements in Johannesburg.
The campaign is part of efforts to reduce illegal settlements and provide interim services to informal settlements that are earmarked for formalisation.
During this process, informal dwellings belonging to illegal immigrants have been demolished.
‘We are pushing the undocumented out’
Speaking to The Citizen on Wednesday, Mabaso said that this is to ensure they do not benefit from services intended for South Africans.
“We are verifying, especially in areas where we are going to be providing services like electrification and water. In our operations, we have got Home Affairs, so if we find that you are undocumented, we will take you out of the informal settlement and we will dismantle your shack and then we will take you to a safer space.
“We are pushing all the undocumented out so that we can provide services to those who are documented,” he said.
Informal settlements in Joburg
Mabaso said this audit will happen in all informal settlements in Johannesburg. He refused to disclose which ones.
“We have got more than 300 informal settlements in Johannesburg and we are expected to provide services to most of them, but what we are not going to do is to take the taxpayers’ money to provide services to illegal immigrants,” he said.
Mabaso said in some instances South Africans lease their shacks to undocumented immigrants.
“When we do the audits, we do not inform them. We come unannounced so that we are able to root out criminality and help our people,” he said.
Land invasions
He said the issue of land invasions is a challenge for Johannesburg.
“So, us as human settlements, we are not the landlord in Johannesburg, the Johannesburg Property Company (JPC) is, and we also do not enforce by-laws, so we are not the ones to respond when there are invasions.
“We come in last to audit, verify and provide interim services so it’s hard to deal with the land invasion issues because we are not mandated to respond to invasions,” he said.
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He said in some cases his department had taken the establishment of some informal settlements to court and won. This enabled the city to demolish the settlements.
“There have been cases where people invaded land that is earmarked for development and we have taken that to court,” he said.
Claims of xenophobia
Mabaso said the city’s decision to demolish shacks that belong to undocumented immigrants is not xenophobic.
“There is nothing xenophobic about dealing with lawlessness and anarchy. Illegal foreign nationals in the country is tantamount to lawlessness and points to a government that is failing to protect its citizens,” he said.
Mabaso said it would be irresponsible to provide service to people not officially known in the country.
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