The concern has been raised that if the illegal occupation of a piece of government-owned land adjacent to the Constantia Emporium is allowed to continue it might lead to a valuable asset being lost and a further drain on City of Cape Town’s resources.
On Friday 19 May, the newly appointed DA shadow minister for this portfolio, Sello Seithlolo, visited the overgrown grass field located on the corner of Ladies Mile and Spaanschemat River Road.
It was his third stop on a tour of four sites located in Ward 62 that are owned by the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI).
Emile Langenhoven, councillor for Ward 62, who had organised the site visits, told Seithlolo, and the members of the press gathered there, that the area had been identified as a crime hot spot.
“There have been people caught in this area with stolen goods from the areas in the surrounding Constantia,” said Langenhoven.
Langenhoven said the erf was logged as national government property in the municipality’s database.
“The City cannot apply for an eviction order for a property that does not belong to it. I have inquired whether the City has spoken to the national government about this property and await the response. At this point, that property is considered the ‘private property of national government’ and, therefore, we cannot provide any services to it or apply for an eviction,” he said.
According to Langenhoven, people started erecting illegal shelters on the field in late 2019 – close to the end date of construction of the shopping centre.
“People didn’t actually know how far it (the shopping centre) would extend. So once this was done, an opportunity was seen over here and then people started moving in. We could see one shack over there and then another, and then it just mushroomed out. So now we’ve got maybe 10 to 15.”
Commenting on the occupied land, and similar ones in other parts of the province, Seithlolo said you couldn’t have a situation where informal settlements were allowed to mushroom.
“And in their mushrooming on DPWI land, when people go to court and say, ‘But we don’t have services’, the Human Rights Commission will say the municipality must provide services.”
- As is the case now, he said, in Knoflokskraal (in Grabouw), with the Theewaterskloof local municipality where 3 000 people had occupied land that had been earmarked by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the
Seithlolo claimed, when the DPWI were first alerted to the occupation in Grabouw, they did nothing.
“They allowed the situation to continue. And then the DFFE said, ‘Oh, well, there’s nothing we can do here. We’re going to move away.’
“So an opportunity has been lost, and people will be left without any services. Now that municipality has to take responsibility to provide those services. Where do they get the money? They don’t have the money. They don’t have the plans. What is the department then doing?”
He said what was needed was for the DPWI to take an active role in making sure that they were able to provide the relevant and necessary security to ensure their properties or land weren not occupied.
“So that it does not result in a situation where communities around those areas then cry about crime safety and so forth; so that people don’t then have a leg to stand on when they say, ‘We have been here for 48 hours or for 72 hours and, therefore, you need to find us property or land where we can go and settle’. That then becomes the case of the City.”
He said that another reality that needed to be kept in mind was that the City had spent over R130 million on evictions and that the Western Cape Department of Human Settlements had spent over R160 million on evictions.
“Those are costs that no city or provincial government should be incurring. We need proactive measures to either allow these DPWI properties or land to be leased out to private developers or just something that can get those properties and lands to be beneficial in one way or the other.”
Seithlolo said he intended to move a motion in Parliament that when there was a case where the DPWI had not secured their property and assets, they would be obligated to work in collaboration with the municipality in delivering services that were required in such areas.
“And that will then minimise the kind of impact that such things have on the city because municipalities and cities have to carry the burden of the irresponsible nature and extent of the department.”
