Hundreds of frustrated residents of Ekangala unilaterally cut housing stands for themselves recently at an area called Camel Park.
This as they are of the opinion that authorities at local, provincial and national government are taking them for granted and are delaying in building houses for them.
Community leader Sfiso Khoza told Tshwane Talks the following: “Today we have embarked on a strategy to cut sites for ourselves so that we can solve the housing backlog that we have, because since 2004 no RDP houses were ever built in Ekangala,”
“We have been crying for houses from the government as the youth of Ekangala since 2009, but we have been pushed from pillar to post, so we have decided that maybe the establishment of an informal settlement is the way to go,” Khoza vehemently.
“All members of the community who are in need of houses are here, we are giving one another sites and planning how we are going to live going forward,” he said.
“And if anyone from government entities wants to come and stop us from doing what we are doing here, then that person will have to tell us who the owner of this land is, so that we can hold the said owner responsible for having neglected us for so long,” enthused Khoza.
“National government, City of Tshwane as well as both the Mpumalanga and Gauteng Provincial can’t be owners of the piece of land called Camel Park and Ekangala as a whole because they have admitted that they don’t know who owns Ekangala and that it is a challenge for them to develop it,” he said.
“Ekangala township was developed by the former KwaNdebele government during the days of apartheid, but it is now difficult to tell whether it is a government or private entity under the present democratic system of government.
Khoza called upon the government to expropriate the piece of land called Camel Park without compensation to whoever might be its owner so that the people of Ekangala may have a place to stay and build their own house.
“There is no way we can move from this land and if anyone wants to move us, where will they move us to, we have nowhere to go, we will lay our lives for this land, because this land is part of our identity.
He outlined a three-pronged solution to the issue of occupying the disputed land, namely:
1.Using matchsticks and tyres and fight for Camel Park in the streets.
2.Letting government officials to sit in boardrooms with our community leaders and come up with a solution to the matter.
3. Hand the matter to a powerful law firm that will provide assistance to them on a pro bono (free of charge) basis so as to expose the so-called ow we of the piece of land once and for all.
“The land issue is huge and problematic here at Ekangala because we have registered for RDP houses several times and some of our parents even died without getting the houses they had registered for, and each time we build housing structures for ourselves One of the residents the authorities demolish theme, ” said a woman resident.
“We have been told I formally that the land belongs to a bank, but our resolution is that anyone who will try to move us from thus land will have to tell us as to where we must go,” she said.
“The problem with Ekangala us that it is no-man’s-land as we are not sure whether we belong to the Mpumalanga or Gauteng Province, this as sometimes we are sent either to Gauteng or to Mpumalanga to check on our status regarding eligibility for RDP houses,” said a concerned lady resident.
Another woman resident emphasised that the piece of land they call Camel Park doesn’t belong to the City of Tshwane and therefore the Metro’s officials don’t have the right to tell them not to cut sites for themselves there.
“The City has made several empty promises to us for many years now and the last time was when they took our documents and stand numbers of our parents’ homes checked with the Department of Housing to ascertain that indeed we don’t own houses at all, but now instead of building us houses they sent the Metro Police to demolish and steal and burn our shacks,” said a 42- year-old woman resident who lamented the fact she was still staying with her children in the backyard of her parents’ home.
“We want to put it on record that we have the ability to build houses for ourselves and that all we need from the City of Tshwane is permission to stay on this piece of land peacefully without being harassed by the Tshwane Metro Police,” said yet another woman resident.
She told Tshwane Talks that after voting in the recent elections she thought she would get the house that she was promised but that has not happened.
Community membee Leslie Lesele told Tshwane Talks that there is no housing development in Ekangala and many residents live as tenants while others live with their parents and children of their own under overcrowded conditions, yet there are vast areas of land which are empty and may suitably be used for housing.
Gauteng MEC for human settlement spokesperson Tahir Sema said the Department of Human Settlements is not aware of people occupying land in Ekangala.
The Department will assess the situation and take action where necessary.
“Ekangala is a cross border area which falls between Gauteng and Mpumalanga and the houses then were constructed by the Mpumalanga Province.
The Allocation function was devolved to the Department in September 2016, to date, no houses were handed over for allocations,” said Sema.
Sema explain that there are 12 573 people who have registered on the National Housing Needs Register.
The Department is not aware of fraud or corruption in this regard. The Department would like to encourage people of Gauteng to report all criminal activities to 0800701701.