PLANS TO MOVE EERSTE FABRIEK RESIDENTS IN MOTION.

According to Abel Tau the MMC of Human settlements of City of Tshwane, he is confident that by the end of October, all of the persons displaced by floods in Mamelodi’s Eerste Fabrieke informal settlement will have been relocated. Residents said the delay had been exasperating and that they were tired of promises. In 2019, the neighbourhood made headlines when floods hit the informal settlement, causing thousands of people to be displaced. After being flooded for the first time in 2019, the region was hit again over the weekend due to strong rains.

Tau said “he is the first to recognize that since the floods ravaged the area in 2019, they should have already turned things around’’. Three years later and nothing has been done another disaster has stroke again what is to be of the Mamelodi residence?. Various obstacles, including overpricing, the budget to pay for the expense of relocating the families, and the cost of providing them with basic needs such as water and chemical toilets, have slowed the efforts to obtain property for the people, according to Tau.

Mandla Mahlangu one of the residences said “How many more heavy rainstorms will we have to experience before we are moved in October?  We’re in a very perilous scenario because the rains have been coming down heavily recently”. Leofi Leshabana, the EFF whip in council, and other party members were supporting people who needed to rebuild their shacks. They also provided clothing to a few folks.

Tau claimed that after re-entering office as MMC, he has learned that a contract for a piece of property large enough to accommodate 15 000 housing settlements, including the Mamelodi flood victims and other communities in need of land, fell through. “The reality is that we are consumed with the need to find a long-term solution” said Tau.

By: Palesa Maneli.