Gomorrah residents refuse proposed move to north

A group of 15 community leaders from the Melusi 1 Gomorrah informal settlement in Pretoria West are calling on the Tshwane metro not to relocate them.

The group caused a commotion at Tshwane House on Monday morning when they staged a protest, demanding to see human settlements MMC Abel Tau.

In February, the metro said about 300 informal settlement dwellers originally from Gomorrah would be relocated to land owned by the metro in The Orchards, Akasia.

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However, according to the community leaders, residents don’t want to be moved.

Jabu Skhosana, a community leader, said the metro promised them last year December that the development of Gomorrah would begin on January 12, but nothing had happened since.

“The metro has been avoiding our calls,” said Skhosana.

“They brought in surveyors, but we still don’t know what is going to happen. We have been in Gomorrah since 2007 and it has never been developed.

“They moved some of our people to permanent stands at a wetland. Now that there’s a problem, they want to move them again.”

Another community leader, Elmont Boshielo, said they don’t have any water, toilets, electricity and roads – despite promises by the metro that they were formalising their informal settlement.

Boshielo said they wanted a written agreement from the metro as to when services will be brought to Gomorrah Melusi 1.

“We don’t want to move to The Orchards because we do not know what problems we might encounter. We want development in Gomorrah. The community cannot be told to leave here after 15 years.”

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Tau told Rekord that the metro planned to relocate about 450 residents to The Orchards extension 110.

“We are aware that there has been some contention between those who want to move and those who do not want to move,” he said.

“Apparently, promises were made to the community that they will be given services in that area.

“The majority of them have moved. So far, two-thirds of them have been moved to The Orchards.

“A third of them, about 150 people, have been left behind and are refusing to move,” Tau said.

“They say they have already established their lives and their children go to schools nearby. They also say they cannot be moved because they have been moved before and they cannot be moved again.”

Tau admitted that the previous move was flawed.

“We have a policy that we do not move someone from one shack to another one. You do not move people from one squatter camp to another squatter camp.

“It was the wrong decision. People are supposed to be moved from a shack number to a stand number but it was not what happened in this case,” Tau said.

Tau, however, defended the planned move.

“The area earmarked for the move supports the automotive industry. There are huge opportunities for them in the long run [at the new location].”

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