About 60 families commonly known as part of the Mamelodi flood victims will finally be relocated to Pienaarspoort in November this year.
This was announced by MMC for Human Settlements in the City of Tshwane Ofentse Madzebatela at a sod turning ceremony held on Tuesday at the selfsame piece of land where they will be relocated.
According to Madzebatela, the new settlement area, which he described as a township, won’t cater for Mamelodi flood victims only, but will also be home to people who will be relocated from the nearby K54 informal settlement, as well as from Far East areas of Mamelodi like Alaska, Phomolong, Phase 3 and Stoffel Park.
The flood victims are currently living in shacks wherein they were flooded twice; in 2019 and 2022.
Some of them are living in temporary shelters while waiting for relocation in November to Pienaarspoort.
Several of them were relocated to Pienaarspoort in 2020, while 447 of them were relocated to Leeufontein in December 2023.
These 60 families are believed to be the last among the people who came to be known as flood victims after their shacks and valuable items were washed away by heavy rains in 2019 and 2022.
“These residents will be coming to a place which is near economic opportunities, and we are confident that we will meet the November 2024 relocation deadline,” he said.
Madzebatela revealed that the contractor known as Makapane is already hard at work in the area to make sure they the relocation process takes as planned.
Local Ward 100 Councilor Bekker said the following:
“I am delighted that the residents who will be relocated to this area will now live their lives in safety without fearing any disaster and they will now raise their families and make progress in their lives which were impeded by the flood disaster.”
Bekker pointed out that a reception committee has already been established to welcome the would-be relocated residents so that they would be able to settle in comfortably.
“Building for a new primary school in the area is near completion and an ECD centre and another school will also be built to cater for the growing population in the area,” said Bekker.
Be that as it may locally Ward 100 resident Fomolani Makombane expressed dissatisfaction regarding the way the relocation project is run by the City of Tshwane and the project manager.
“This relocation project must provide jobs for local Ward 100 residents but so far only six people in the area have employed in it and local businesses are also not given a chance to get involved in the project,” he explained.
He bemoaned the fact that they have formed a steering committee, but the project manager has not given them any scope of work.
Another resident Dumisani Khumalo said though it was a good thing that the relocated community will benefit in terms of getting permanent housing stands, the local residents won’t benefit at all as they have not been given 30% of the jobs but we’re currently meeting the project manager to allocate the said jobs to them.