Metro ‘reluctant’ to formalise settlements
The DA claims the Tshwane metro has only formalised 16 out of the nearly 1 000 informal settlements since 2011.
Andrew Ngozo
The Tshwane metro has been accused of being reluctant to formalise informal settlements mushrooming all over.
DA councillor Elmarie Linde, shadow MMC for housing and human settlements said according to a performance report for the first quarter of the 2015/2016 financial year, the metro had only formalised 16 informal settlements since 2011.
The metro currently has around 950 informal settlements, said Linde.
“At this rate of formalisation process, some residents are doomed to stay in shacks for the rest of their lives,” she said.
Formalisation is too slow, and it is time the responsible department upped its game to fast track it for a better life for all.”
Linde said the metro had failed to reach its target of building 622 community residential units, with only 48 having been realised in a period of more than four years.
“Such is unacceptable and reflects a metro that is unable to deliver services to the people,” said Linde.
The DA accused the metro of not “consciously making an effort to ease the housing backlog”.
Linde’s DA colleague, councillor Yolanda Duvenage said the grants and subsidies report for the period ending 31 August, showed “the human settlement capacity grant was being reviewed and transfer [of money] had been stopped until further notice”.
“According to the report, ‘there were delays in the signing of the service level agreement in respect of the social infrastructure grant. Is this due to a lack of commitment from the city manager, or maybe the governing party, to real development or is it a lack of competence?” said Duvenage.
The same report, she said, indicated the metro had underperformed by 63% on the urban settlement development grant for the period under review.
“From this report we can draw a simple conclusion that the municipal manager does not comply with the annual division of Revenue Act,” she said.
Metro spokesperson Lindela Mashigo had not responded to questions sent to his office last week and mayoral spokesperson Blessing Manale had also not responded at the time of going to print.
Do you have more information about the story? Please send us an email to editorial@rekord.co.za or phone us on 072 435 7717.
For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites:
For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram.
- We have exciting news! We’re offering a free alert to help you always be in the loop. Send an email with the word ‘Subscribe’ to breakingnews@rekord.co.za to receive your free daily breaking news update
