Petition to stop growing east squatter camp
“We asked that he must respond to us within seven working days. He must indicate what he is going to do and provide a timeline,” DA councillor says.
A petition to stop a growing squatter camp on the corner of Delmas and Solomon Mahlangu roads was handed to head administrator Mpho Nawa’s office last Wednesday.
The land near the Wolwespruit has over the past months seen an influx of homeless people occupying it.
The petition titled “Stop the emerging Wolwespruit informal settlement!” was signed by 2 895 people in 30 days.
Ward councillor Francois Bekker said the petition was meant to get the administrators to “act and move the people”.
“We ask that he must respond to us within seven working days. He must indicate what he is going to do and provide a timeline,” he said.
“In 2016, 87% of the voters voted for me in ward 83. I will not be silenced or ignored. If we don’t receive a response we will approach the next level of government.
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“The administrator must act. And he must act rapidly and decisively.”
Residents in the area have complained about an increase in crime since people started living at the spot as well as unhygienic living conditions.
Bekker and neighbouring ward councillor Daryl Johnston said the area was an ecologically sensitive wetland and the informal settlement was causing untold harm to it.
“We call on the administrator to take action and relocate the informal settlement to a more suitable location,” Bekker wrote in the petition.
“Not only will this protect the environment, it will simultaneously provide the informal settlers with basic care and services, rather than the inhumane conditions under which they currently live.”
The councillor said residents wanted a solution to the problem as soon as possible.
The EFF’s Tshwane leader MoAfrika Mabogwane said they did not agree with the DA councillor’s stance and were in fact against the removal of the people.
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“We have said this before, it doesn’t matter where it is, whether it’s in affluent areas or not; where people see land and they think it is suitable for settling, they must do so,” said Mabogwane.
With the homeless being there “for years”, Mabogwane said the Tshwane administrator would have to ensure that they follow all the legal channels, including providing alternative accommodation before removing them.
He said the councillors were targeting poor people who had no choice but to live there.
“Tshwane must also be clear on the purpose of removing the people,” he said.
“If it is for the sake of development then they would need to find them an alternative and suitable area to settle. But if it just for the sake of moving black people from affluent areas, then we do not agree with it.”
Mabogwane said blaming the homeless people for crime was an “anti-black trait” of the DA.
“Crime is a problem everywhere in the country. You go to Mamelodi there is crime, you go to Sandton there is crime. No one can blame anyone for crime, but the actual criminals.”
A resident at the camp, who did not want to be named, told Rekord he left home in Mpumalanga to be closer to his work.
He said he worked as a garden assistant at a few homes in the east and could not afford to rent a place or travel from home.
“I work on-call; so sometimes I get enough calls to even buy me bread for the entire week, but I live in hope that each day will be better,” he said.
The man said he had been living at the area for nearly two years and had never committed any crime.
He said often people who committed crimes in surrounding areas ran towards the spruit to try and escape.
“If someone commits a crime and jumps into your yard and then jumps into your neighbour’s yard, none of you can be blamed for the crime. So why are we being blamed?
“Many of us here hustle, we do garden work, some are car guards and others beg. We do not steal.”
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