“They can’t just come and bulldoze us like this”
Riverlea Extension 3 fights against property developers.
Street visits, burning tyres, petrol, tree branches, fencing, bottles, and rocks amongst many other resources were used on Monday, February 26, by residents from Riverlea, Extension 3. Residents took to the streets to embark on a protest to stop the planned development of flats in the area.
This protest is the second since last year when residents protested on March 14. At the time, residents sent a memorandum to Mayor Herman Mashaba but nothing has been done about the residents’ plea’.
This round, residents were upset that a fence was placed again around the property after they took it down last year.
“We’ve been living here in Extension 3 for so many years, they promised us parks for our children to play in and a shopping centre. Until today, our children must play in the streets and we must travel out of the community to go buy groceries. Riverlea doesn’t even have ATM’s we must go to the filling stations to draw money,” said a frustrated resident.
David Williams said: “We were one of the first residents to move into this area, we still paying a lot to live here. The DA came for our votes but now they messing us up, we don’t see Mmusi Maimane, Herman Mashaba, we don’t see Basil Douglas and he is the one pushing this project.
“We don’t know what is going on here. Has Riverlea been captured like the state has been captured? They need to explain to us because with this RDP development the value of the houses will decrease by more than half.”
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Residents heard that the development will be RDP flats and that it is private property but as one resident stated that when looking at the town plans, it showed that the land was allocated for a park and a shopping centre.
“How can they develop flats if we cannot build double storeys here. We don’t want flats here because we know that the drug lords will take over, prostitution as well and the value of our houses will decrease,” said Tshepo Mokgethi.
Riverlea Extension 3 and Zone 1 residents have claimed to be hearing voices under their houses. The voices are said to be those of the illegal miners in the tunnels.
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With the weight of the planned flats, many are concerned that the ground will sink into the mine tunnels along with their homes and themselves inside.
“There’s something underhanded going on here because anywhere where there’s a development, the developers will put up boards stating what’s coming up there, who the contract developers are, who the parties are that’s involved but nothing like that happened here. There’s something illegal there.
“There was no public consultation, no public involvement, the place was just cleaned and fenced then we heard that the development is taking place. We are not going to accept this because it’s not going to benefit our community. They can’t just come and bulldoze us like this,” said Randy Petersen.
According to residents in the area, nothing has been communicated to them, they see drones flying and taking photos of the area. A few speculations that are going around is that the plan of the flats is a front.
“They building these flats so that the ground can sink and then they want to condemn the whole Riverlea because of the gold that is still in this area,” assumes a resident in the protest.
After a cancelled meeting with Ward Councillor Basil Douglas, Westside Urban will do a follow-up story with the Councillor or the City of Joburg so that we can inform the community on what will really be happening to their area.
