THE Buffalo City Metro council has endorsed a decision to secure and fence off illegally invaded land at the entrance to Mdantsane.
It is hoped the fence, which will cost around R1-million, will prevent more land grabbers from illegally building shacks in the area.
This was revealed at a November 22 council meeting where a report was tabled on the progress made by the metro with regards to fencing the area. The report stated that sufficient funds were available from the planning and economic development directorate.
The informal settlement near Mdantsane’s Mtsotso cemetery made headlines in July when the Dispatch exposed a scam whereby plots were being sold for R300. As a result the area saw an explosion in the number of illegal shacks being built on the land.
The report states: “Palisade fencing of the area is estimated at plus-minus R1-million and sufficient funds are available within the planning and economic development directorate in 2013-14 financial year.”
Although BCM’s law enforcement was tasked to monitor the area, challenges due to “limited” staff resulted in it only being monitored twice a week.
Ward councillor Sakhumzi Caga said: “Those people are illegal invaders, but we can’t forcefully remove them and put them in another place.
“There are plans of relocating and so we are busy conducting a survey so that we can see who actually qualifies to get an RDP house from the government and those who don’t qualify or have benefited previously will not be part of the relocation,” Caga said.
The report states the estimated construction period for the fence would be about two months and it was hoped the project would be completed before February 2014.
BCM to spend R1m fencing invaded land
It is hoped the fence, which will cost around R1-million, will prevent more land grabbers from illegally building shacks in the area.
This was revealed at a November 22 council meeting where a report was tabled on the progress made by the metro with regards to fencing the area. The report stated that sufficient funds were available from the planning and economic development directorate.
The informal settlement near Mdantsane’s Mtsotso cemetery made headlines in July when the Dispatch exposed a scam whereby plots were being sold for R300. As a result the area saw an explosion in the number of illegal shacks being built on the land.
The report states: “Palisade fencing of the area is estimated at plus-minus R1-million and sufficient funds are available within the planning and economic development directorate in 2013-14 financial year.”
Although BCM’s law enforcement was tasked to monitor the area, challenges due to “limited” staff resulted in it only being monitored twice a week.
Ward councillor Sakhumzi Caga said: “Those people are illegal invaders, but we can’t forcefully remove them and put them in another place.
“There are plans of relocating and so we are busy conducting a survey so that we can see who actually qualifies to get an RDP house from the government and those who don’t qualify or have benefited previously will not be part of the relocation,” Caga said.
The report states the estimated construction period for the fence would be about two months and it was hoped the project would be completed before February 2014.
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