Remarks made by the Executive Mayor of Tshwane, Solly Msimanga, during a follow-up visit to Mahube Valley.
Today, I am joined by some of the City’s leadership who visited Mahube Valley extension 1 and Mountain View informal settlement residents with a view to address the growing tensions that have escalated between the two communities in the recent past.
The tensions took a grim turn in June as a result of an electricity outage caused by ongoing illegal connections by the informal land occupants, in the process the formal bond owners burned down a mini-substation rendering the entire area without power, a couple of formal homes were petrol bombed and several shacks destroyed.
As such, it must be reiterated that the DA-led multi-party administration will not tolerate such acts of destruction to property during protest action. This administration fully supports the rights of South Africans to protest and understands the frustrations felt by residents of both sides of the conflict but this right must be exercised within the bounds of the law.
Because we are a responsive government we have tirelessly sought solutions to the problems faced by both communities which are all rooted in the issue of services.
Therefore I would like to inform members of the community through their local leadership of the long-term plans we will put in place to ensure that as many people of the community as possible get the services they need.
In honouring the commitment made to the community to find the long-term solutions to progressively cultivate a cooperative community and resolve the impasse we wish to announce the following:
- A dedicated desk has been set up at the Region 6 Customer Walk-in Centre to deal with high municipal accounts of formal home owners owing to the illegal connections by occupants of the informal settlement. Each case will be dealt with on its own merit;
- A process of installing of a bulk water metre to measure the consumption of water and ensure accountability is currently in the pipeline;
- Registration of potential beneficiaries and shack marking will be done simultaneously with cleaning up and reorganisation of the informal settlement.
Additionally, as has been announced, the City has made available rudimentary services such as mobile chemical toilets and water tankers including the installation of new 11KV feeder cable. The City has further repaired all vandalised water metres at Mahube Valley.
Shack markings to assess the eligibility of the number of households is scheduled to commence soon. In an effort to discourage the illegal electricity connections, the City has re-routed the electricity cable from Steve Biko Street to Solomon Mahlangu road to avoid its susceptibility to illegal connections.
The city has further obtained a court order banning the informal settlement residents from connecting illegally on the service infrastructure and also not to vandalise the City’s property.
The DA-led multiparty administration is indeed working hard to find lasting solutions to the problems faced by this community and we are doing everything in our power to do ensure that services are provided for all the residents of this area.
This administration has said time and time again that this will take time and that we need our residents to work with us while we fix a problem that predates our occupancy of the city’s leadership.
We equally encourage our residents through their leadership to negotiate in good faith and to not destroy what infrastructure that has already been provided to the community so that we do not work backwards but continue to make progress.
The administration is not here to tell you lies that there will be electricity tomorrow, equally the City cannot justify the jumping of ques in providing services. The institution is highly regulated by the MFMA and proper planning and budget allocations must take centre stage if we are to achieve our goals fairly. There are many other informal settlements established way back which are still waiting to be formalised to receive electricity and other rudimentary services under Project Tirane announced at the State of the Capital, and we are working hard to address their needs as well as yours but this requires patience while we take steps in the right direction to ensure that this is done properly and fairly.
It is important to note that Tshwane has:
- Approximately 24 000 people are waiting list on the housing needs register, backlog dates back as late as 1998
- 183 informal settlements
- the oldest informal settlement which was established in 1995
- Mamelodi which is home to approximately 60 000 people living in informal settlements
This puts into context the magnitude of the task before us which will not happen overnight.
Violence only delays the process and we implore our residents to act within the bounds of the law for we will have to let the law take its course against anyone who tries to destabilise the process of providing service to our people, many of whom are waiting patiently and following due process.
Every asset damaged sets the city back in its agenda to provide services for our residents and we encourage all residents to operate within the law and to use the channels available to them to air grievances such as the meeting held this evening.
At the time of the first notable conflict since assuming office, the Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Housing and Human Settlements, Mandla Nkomo, undertook to hold a steering committee meeting to deal with the underlying issues that resulted in the eruption of violence and civil unrest in Mahube Valley. The steering committee held on 28 June 2017 with representatives of the Mountain View informal settlement.
This was the first official meeting with affected residents after the tensions and subsequent confrontations that ensued between the two communities following an electricity outage which was caused by illegal connections by the unlawful occupation of land.
MMC Nkomo explained that the immediate objective of the meeting was to end the violence and find mutual agreement for the impasse faced by the two clashing communities.
That committee meeting resolved to:
- conduct an assessment and viability study in providing temporary rudimentary services to the informal settlement;
- conduct a feasibility study of the future development of the informal settlement; and
- hold another engagement with the formal home owners from Mahube Valley in the near future to consolidate inputs from both parties
The City of Tshwane is committed to inclusive human settlements agenda where more people get access to rudimentary services without unlawful connections which is something we hope to be eradicated throughout the city.