Residents of Plot 61, also known as Smith informal settlement are demanding service delivery from the City of Tshwane and the national government.
The plot or informal settlement is situated next to the N4 highway and the industrial place in Nellmapius, south of Mamelodi township.
According to local Ward 86 Councillor Kholofelo Kgomotso, the area used to be a farm that belonged to a white man called JJ Smith, who left the farm in 2017 and went to settle in Cullinan, and now the area is under the control of the government and depends on the City of Tshwane municipality for services.
Tshwane Talks visited the area on Sunday to hear from the residents as to what their grievances are regarding the situation wherein, they find themselves.
Some of the residents there told Tshwane Talks that they were born and raised in the informal settlement and that they have now also raised their own kids and have their own families in the selfsame area.
66-year-old James Lodi told Tshwane Talks that he was born at J Smith/ plot 61 and never attended school as he grew up working as a farm labourer for J Smith in exchange for his family to continue living in the house that had been provided to them by the selfsame J Smith, who was the farm owner and landlord.
Lodi said all in all 8 families used to work for farmer Smith and that their duties on the farm back then entailed tilling the farmland, working as shepherds and milking the cows and also feeding farmer Smith’s pigs.
“But life was better back then because farmer Smith gave us sacks of mealie meal every month and paid us monthly salaries,” he said.
He said in 2917 Smith sold one part of the land to the government and the other to businesspeople who have now established an industrial hub in the area.
“Although Smith wanted us to relocate to Cullinan with him, there was no way we could do that because this farm us where we were born and raised and the graves of our ancestors are also here,” said Lodi.
He told Tshwane Talks that they survive on rental money that is paid to them by tenants of the many shacks that are on plot 61 because they don’t have any other source of income at the moment.
“Our main grievances are service delivery issues because at the moment we are struggling to access water and electricity,” he said.
“We used to have water and electricity on the farm but the owners of the industrial site cut off these services after buying the piece of land from farmer Smith,” lamented Lodi.
He said in 2010 they won a court case after the industrial site owners had threatened to evict them from the area because the area belonged to them now after purchasing it from farner Smith.
Lodi told Tshwane Talks that the court ruled that the industrial site owners had to find an alternative place for them before evicting them.
Lodi also pointed out that recently a government or municipal officials known to them only as Masango, who used to drive a 1400 bakkie, threatened them with eviction but local chief King Lekhukeni cane to their rescue and ordered that they must not be removed from the plot.
Local residents say City of Tshwane official Sello Chipu held several meetings with them whereby he promised to install Apollo lights, fix the streets and build RDP houses in the area, yet nothing in that regard has ever happened.
“We are still waiting for service delivery as we were told many times they we would be included in the budget to ensure that our area gets developed and we have been patient for a long time and no one in our area has connected water or electricity illegally, we don’t embark on service delivery strikes, we are waiting for the municipality to deliver as promised,” said one resident.
“Due to lack of electricity, we can’t use fridges to store our meat is this means we can’t but neat in bulks but have to buy it in small amounts every day, which us costly,” said the resident.
The plot 61 residents also revealed that they were also affected by heavy floods that affected various informal settlements of Mamelodi.
“We want a main road which will make it possible for the police, ambulances and other important service providers to access all the corners of our area easily because at the moment police and ambulance services take a long time before coming into the area and sometimes, they don’t come at all as the roads are inaccessible,” said a lady resident.
They expressed concern that during election time parties come to campaign in their area but when they demand service delivery they are told that their area is not officially known to the City of Tshwane.
Crime and illegal dumping are also some of the issues which the readers complained about.
“For me staying here is not good at all as there is no service delivery and when kids have to go to school on a rainy day they can’t do so as they can’t walk in the muddy roads,” he said.
Due to lack of facilities, Plot 61 residents have to cross over to the nearby Nellmapius in order to purchase food, liquor and also when they want to watch soccer matches.
But this scenario means they have to come back late in the evening to Plot 61 and they get mugged on their way back.
“We are surrounded by malls and other infrastructure development areas, but at Plot 61 we are isolated and feel like we are living in a rural area,” said the aggrieved residents.