Shacks rebuilt and conditions improved
The devastating fire in Plastic View that cost five people their lives has authorities taking a new look at the immediate future of the informal settlement.
Shacks destroyed in the deadly fire that ravaged Plastic View more than a week ago, have been rebuilt while conditions in the informal settlement would be improved, the Tshwane metro said.
Five residents lost their lives and hundreds were left homeless and destitute by the blaze, believed to have been caused by a candle that fell over in the early morning hours of Sunday 3 July.
Gauteng MEC for Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs and Human Settlement, Paul Mashatile, has established a committee led by Tshwane Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Housing and Human Settlement, Joshua Ngonyama, to deal with the tragedy and its aftermath, said Tshwane mayoral spokesperson Blessing Manale.
“The committee was formed to ensure the long-term planning of and solution to the plight of Plastic View residents, including improving the current conditions of Plastic View/Woodlane Village as an informal transitional human settlement,” Manale said.
“It needs to be re-emphasised that as the metro, we see this tragedy as a period of reflection and rededication to an all-encompassing and realistic resolution to the current impasse (regarding the future of the residents).
“We call on all parties not to manipulate [the situation] to further any other aims except the legitimate needs of the residents of Tshwane and those who find themselves on our shores as a result of the various socio-economic conditions in their countries of origin,” he said.
Manale said residents had started rebuilding their shacks from the materials donationed by the public in the past week.
Residents were urged to contribute to the emergency relief efforts by sending donations to NG Church Moreletta in De Villebois Mareuil Drive.
The tragedy seemed to have placed a hold on the metro’s recent announcement that it would go to court to have people in the illegal settlement known as Woodlane Village but commonly referred to as Plastic View, moved.
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR), who represents NGO Tswelopele Step by Step, which acts on behalf of the residents Plastic View, last week strongly objected to a claim by the metro that it had halted negotiations for a formal resettlement of the squatters.
LHR was also critical of Rekord for not asking it for comment about negotiation regarding Plastic View, adding that the metro had distorted the facts.
The Plastic View saga started in March 2006 when the metro and police carried out an “illegal” operation in which they had burnt down the shacks of the occupiers and in the process destroyed most of their possessions.
Subsequent legal proceedings in which LHR represented the residents of Plastic view, the Supreme Court of Appeal ultimately found that the actions of the metro reminded it of the brutality of the apartheid era.
Since 2009, the North Gauteng High Court had made a series of orders regarding the informal settlement at the instance of home owners’ associations in the vicinity aimed at the relocation or the regularisation of Plastic View.
“At all times LHR supported the efforts by the metro to find a lasting solution to the housing needs of the occupiers,” LHR said in a statement.
Negotiations were still ongoing when the metro last year, decided to sell the land on auction but the move was halted by the high court.
Despite the underhanded approach by the metro, we immediately resumed trilateral negotiations.
“An agreement in principle was reached which would have seen all the occupiers moved to a site on the other side of Garsfontein Road where they would have been accommodated in container housing,” according to LHR.
“It was made very clear in that agreement that all the occupiers, irrespective of their nationality or residence status, would be accommodated. A process of building formal social housing would have commenced at the same time and this would eventually accommodate all those occupiers who qualified for social housing.
“At that stage, all non-qualifying residents would have been relocated elsewhere,” according to LHR.
The organisation said that it had at all times accepted that the majority of foreign nationals would not qualify for formal housing assistance and that they would ultimately have to be accommodated in another informal settlement.
LHR said Garsfontein residents objected to the occupiers being moved closer to them but negotiations between the lawyers and the metro continued and a broad framework was established.
But, LHR said, the metro then suddenly stopped talks, refusing to relocate any of the foreign nationals.
“For obvious reason those occupiers who do not qualify for social housing, cannot accept a settlement that will see them thrown out onto the side of the street,” LHR stated, adding that at no time did it bring the negotiations to a halt as claimed by the metro.
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