Squatters not gone

POLOKWANE – Nothing much has happened regarding the illegal occupation of land at the Leeuwkuil smallholdings since October last year.

The smallholdings have not yet been rezoned from agricultural to residential land and hundreds of families have settled on Leeuwkuil smallholdings 20 and 21 since August last year.

The land was bought and handed over to land claimants by the department of rural development without making provision for rezoning. The land was classified as agricultural land and municipal regulations state that only one dwelling can be erected on agricultural land.

Practically overnight some 80 shacks were built on the land in August and the number of shacks had increased since, without any sewage or other municipal services being rendered to these settlers.

Neighbouring smallholders said they were afraid that underground water would be contaminated. A land developer who preferred to remain anonymous, told Review that the price of surrounding land had dropped significantly and willing buyers could not be found.

The leader of the group who occupies the land, Esrom Mogano, accused the neighbouring landowners of racism at the time. He said the land was handed over to the claimants on June 17 last year and they had waited long enough for their land claim to be settled.

He said the municipality was at fault and they knew about the claim, and should have seen to it that services were provided. The municipality had, however, not planned or budgeted for any such settlement and said it would get a court order to remove the people, who were squatting illegally on agricultural land. This seemingly never happened and discussions between involved parties followed.

At the time the municipality had also decided that no new residential areas could be developed, due to insufficient water and electricity services in the city.

Nicholas Magada, spokesperson for the rural development department, told Review that town planners were busy with plans to turn the area into a sustainable rural settlement after consultation with the Capricorn District Municipality and the Polokwane Municipality.

He could not supply Review with a timeframe of when development would begin.

“After the planning is finalised, we will have discussions with the community and municipality,” he said.

The department’s sustainable rural human settlements programme is based on eco-friendly principles to assist people with inadequate access to services and public infrastructure in rural human settlements. It is based upon the pillars of environmentally sustainable developed services and infrastructure to build climate resilience.

The municipality did not answer any of Review’s questions over the last few months about the proposed court order they would have obtained.