Mashaba appoints attorneys for Mamelodi flood victims
“The only way to get the attention of the government is taking a legal route,” he says.
It seems there is light at the end of the tunnel for flood victims in Mamelodi.
This came after the former mayor of Johannesburg, currently, founder of and president of Action SA, Herman Mashaba, appointed legal representatives to Mamelodi flood victims to assist them with the relocation process – free of charge.
Mashaba appointed private attorneys to help the flood victims with the relocation process that Tshwane metro has been dragging for months.
He was accompanied by members of Action SA John Moody, Abel Tau, attorneys and other members of Action SA on Friday.
After presenting the lawyers they also visited the areas that were mostly affected during the floods which swept away more than 700 shacks in December 2019.
READ MORE:Flood victims’ move postponed – again
Mashaba said “the only way to get attention from government is taking a legal route”.
The flood victims were very happy to see that Herman Mashaba has kept his promise.
“We have appointed an attorney and their legal team to assist the flood victims and we are going to take care of legal cost as Action SA,” said Mashaba.
The government must be held accountable for all the empty promises they made to the flood victims,” he said.
He also advised flood victims not to take their frustration to the streets but to take the legal route.
“We live in a democratic country and it’s up to South Africans to act as one. I’m very happy that I can be of assistance,” Mashaba.
December Matlala, a representative of flood victims, said they will finally be able to take Tshwane metro to court and hopefully settle the matter soon.
“Government officials came right after the flood and promised to relocate everyone to a safer place before the end of 2019,” said Matlala.
However, that never happened. Today it’s almost 16 months later.
“We are still waiting to be relocated, instead the metro postpones the relocation process every other week.
“We have been struggling to raise funds to get legal representatives and take Tshwane metro to court,” said Matlala.
He said that it seems like the government is waiting for someone to die first before they can take the matter seriously.
Matlala added that people are living in fear, scared of the next flood, especially at night.
“The law, justice and order will come for them and take charge of the matter. Once we have established what the issue is and how it happened, we will take the legal route on the matter,” leading attorney from Mkhabela Huntley attorneys, Wendel Bloem, said.
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