Baghdad informal settlement residents demand adequate accommodation

Residents of the Baghdad Informal Settlement recently staged a protest outside the Department of Public Works (DPW) head office in the CBD.

The protest, held on March 7 was against the Salvokop Precinct Development plans to build a road that will connect the area to the Kgosi Mampuru Prison.

The mixed-use project launched in 2022 and aims to build government headquarters, commercial buildings and housing in the area.

Though the construction has begun, Baghdad residents are adamant that they are staying put and should they move, it would be to adequate and formal housing only.

Not too far from the informal settlement, the government has begun erecting homesteads out of zinc sheets for the residents to be relocated.

The community feels that these homesteads are not habitable for humans and don’t even have windows.

During the march from the informal settlement to the DPW’s Head Office in Bosman Street, the disgruntled group handed over a memorandum to a department representative.

Among the demands of the memorandum included:

– A detailed presentation of the department’s relocation plan for the residents.

– Ensuring adequate accommodation is provided in the area they will be relocated.

– An independent investigation into the budget of the relocation plan.

– An immediate halt to all ongoing construction pending feedback on the demands.

From March 7, the DPW has 14 business days to respond to the residents or, they threaten, additional and more aggressive protests.

EFF PR councillor Benjamin Mathebula said the residents decided to take this step, choosing to march at midday, when the sun was at its hottest, to get the department out of their air-conditioned offices and feel what it was like residing in the zinc shacks.

“The services cannot continue until this issue is resolved. We want you to feel what we felt when we were marching and what we felt every night when we stayed in those fish tins that you provided for us,” Mathebula said.

Chairperson of Ward 80 Nare Lemao said residents did not hand over a memorandum for ceremonial purposes but they expect to see changes.

“We have explained the urgency of what is happening there. Next time, if someone dies there as a result of this project, even the police are not going to stop us. Today we will behave but let someone die, let someone be hurt because of this project and it will be your responsibility. Go and tell them to stop, especially by that side where our community stays. If a shack falls and people die, what then? It’s not your child so you don’t care, but we care,” Lemao said.

Lemao said the reason residents want an investigation into the spending at the project is because the amounts the government reportedly spent versus the quality of homes built are worlds apart.

He added that the entire process was done without proper consultation.

“We just woke up and they were setting up a camp there. Those shacks are so close that if one catches fire all of them will. That’s how much this government does not care about people. They are built on concrete slabs meaning there’s no plan for water or sanitation, which means we must just help ourselves,” Lemao said.

He also said that environmental laws weren’t taken into consideration either, suggesting the government simply relocating them 100m from where they previously lived is pointless.

“You can’t move people one metre or 100m from somewhere and say you are relocating them. The same dust is still going to affect them, nothing is changing and that relocation area is not permanent because when the time comes for more construction to be done in that area, they’re going to move again. We can’t be coming here every three months complaining that we are being moved, we need a permanent relocation plan, where we can stay and rest and that’s it,” Lemao said.

Lemao said even though it is an informal settlement children still study, they struggle because of noise and air pollution as well as traffic congestion and that it is the government’s responsibility to take them to something better and not just another Baghdad.

Thabane Rachidi, the acting chief director of the Salvokop Development Project, was in attendance to accept the memorandum and address the crowd.

Rachidi said the department will respond on March 24

“In between now and then, we will be having those engagements as your leaders have indicated,” Rachidi concluded.

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