Sol Plaatje must turn streetlights on for festive season
| by Fawzia Rhoda, MPL – DA NC Spokesperson for COGHSTA |
| Error! Filename not specified. |
| Date: 30 October 2019 |
| Release: Immediate |
| The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Northern Cape is making an urgent call on COGHSTA MEC, Bentley Vass, to coordinate a roundtable discussion with all stakeholders involved in the King Senare informal settlement in Kimberley.This comes amidst fears that growing discontent relating to the poor management of informal settlements in and around Kimberley, is threatening to culminate in a citywide shutdown if not urgently addressed.Since the invasion of the informal housing settlement of King Serane in 2016, a lack of decisive management on the part of the Sol Plaatje local municipality, has created confusion amongst local residents, who have been allowed to reside on the land for the past three years.While an eviction order, effective from 31 November 2019, has since been granted by the court, Executive Mayor Patrick Mabilo has allegedly struck a gentleman’s agreement with residents, stating that they can remain on the land.The DA finds the situation untenable.We cannot accept this ambiguous type of management of land. People’s houses are places of refuge for themselves and their families.The allocation of housing must therefore be done in a coordinated and sustainable manner and it must be recorded in black and white – verbal agreements simply cannot suffice.The eviction order states that 41 out of the 61 households at King Senare must be relocated. It further provides the names of the 20 households who have been given permission to stay. Should the gentleman’s agreement with the mayor be overridden by the court order, which seems like it will be the case given that there appears to be no action on the part of Sol Plaatje municipality to reverse the court order, the matter will undoubtedly result in unrest and innocent women and children will get hurt.This matter must therefore be urgently dealt with.In my capacity as COGHSTA spokesperson, I tried to facilitate a meeting with Sol Plaatje about three weeks ago already, but this has not materialised. For this reason, the DA now wants COGHSTA to intervene and facilitate a meeting with Sol Plaatje and all affected roleplayers. This should include the initial intended beneficiaries of King Senare, who have since been allocated alternative accommodation at Soul City.The court order states that a certain amount of people must be removed from King Senare, while the others can remain. In this regard, we need to know whether an interim allocation committee was convened and what criteria was used to determine which 20, of the 61 households, can stay. This is of particular importance given that all 41 households that must relocate, appear to be on the National Housing Needs Register (NHNR).At the same time, there remains uncertainty as to whether the remaining 20 households are indeed registered. There also appears to be duplication on the list of those who can stay. We further need to be furnished with the names of the 35 new beneficiaries who will be moved to King Senare settlement. We specifically need to know if they are registered on the NHNR as well as get access to the recorded criteria for selection as per the Housing Allocation committee.It is critical that housing allocations are done in an open, transparent, fair and consistent manner, that the law is upheld and that all agreements are formalised. This is critical to prevent only connected cadres from benefitting. This is also essential to ensure that beneficiaries can reap the long term benefits of security of tenure by way of title deeds and ultimately of being given a fair opportunity to become the owners of their homes. |
| Media Enquiries |
| Fawzia Rhoda, MPLDA NC Spokesperson for COGHSTA082 408 8070 Shelley De WittResearcher082 847 1387 |
Related posts