It is a tale of two cities.
The grandeur of Woodlands estate’s mink and manure and across the road, the squalor and stench of Cemetery View, are encroaching on Pretoria East’s cemetery space.
Since 2011, when there were only a few shacks hidden away in the bushes close to the cemetery, a whole new township of approximately 350 plastic and tin shacks have mushroomed.
Most of these, over the past year, in full view of Woodlands Estate homeowners who are now on the receiving end of polluted water from this new informal settlement.
Investigating the area, it was found there were no ablution facilities of any description and no fresh water.
According to some of the ‘tenants’ in the squatter settlement whom Rekord spoke to, crime was rife.
Residents of the squatter camp use a tap in the cemetery for water.
This is about 150m from the settlement.
Laundry and personal hygiene is taken care of in a stagnant stinking marshy pool which trickles into the Woodlands Estate, eventually finding its way to the Moreletaspruit. Refuse is piling up daily and the surrounding area is steadily stripped for firewood.
A vibrocrete fence between the settlement and the cemetery has been broken down twice and replaced on both occasions.
It had presumably been erected by the Tshwane metro to close off the cemetery. Currently it is almost completely broken down for a third time.
A makeshift soccer field has also been erected on the cemetery grounds between the shacks and tombstones on a space earmarked for future graves.
Jahno Engelbrecht, of the Democratic Alliance (DA) provincial legislature tasked with environmental matters, visited the Cemetery View settlement and described it as ‘absolutely shocking’.
Sipho, a labourer at the cemetery said that the encroachment of the squatter camp is already causing some problems for the cemetery.
“I think people are much more unwilling to visit their deceased family members because they fear the crime which is associated with squatter camps.”
Margaret Ndlovu, one of the squatters living in Cemetery View, said the number of squatters is growing daily.
“People have nowhere to live and in this community you will find people from Zimbabwe, Nigeria and a mixture of any nationality you can think of. Yes, it is growing bigger every day and our living conditions are appalling with no water or lights or proper ablution facilities, but that is all we have.”
Engelbrecht said the dire circumstances people are living in is very visible and real and it is obvious the metro is not capable of doing anything about it.
“It is clear this informal settlement started unlawfully next to the cemetery. It started in 2011 and since then the metro has done nothing about it. Up to now they have not supplied water or ablution or facilities of any sort.
“The spruit is being polluted by human faeces which eventually ends up in the Pienaars River and property prices in this area are going for a nose dive with this settlement on their doorstep.
“I am most definitely going to table this state of affairs in the provincial legislature and direct my questions to the member of executive council for environmental affairs and the member of the executive council for local government to ask them what they are going to do about it,” he said.
Engelbrecht said the squatter camp should be regarded as a social festering which demanded immediate and decisive action before it develops into a total uncontrollable situation.
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