Inside Report with Michael Basch: Finally some good news
This year certainly has started off with its fair share of challenges, Eskom's woes are getting us all down and the potholes are no joke at all.
But now for some good news: a 14-year-long battle is nearing its end.
Randhart Residents from Jasper, Carnelian, Eepidote, Amfibool and surrounding streets have been fighting off an eviction for the last 14 years. This all started with the expropriation of the houses for the establishment of the PW 16 road, which subsequently has never been built. This is a tale of to and fro, back and forth, up and down, seeing the residents hanging on for months at a time with no sense of security.
Well, the end is in sight. Yesterday, after much petitioning, requesting and many cancellations, I managed with the assistance of the DA Spokesperson for Infrastructure Development Alan Fuchs to have the provincial oversight committee and the MEC Mayathula-Khoza come through to Randhart to meet with residents and to discuss the way forward.
After a tour of the area all the officials, Members of the Oversight, the MEC, the Randhart Residents Committee Chair and Vice-Chair and myself sat down to bash out the details of the new deal.
So as it stands the department agrees that the interaction up until now has been combatant on both sides and that it wasn’t bearing any fruit to continue on the current path. The MEC through the chair have pledged to have new lease agreements before the month is done, and part of that agreement is that the market-related valuations would be the valuations undertaken by Rawson Properties at the behest of the Ward 94 ward committee. Along with this is the department undertaking to do maintenance on the properties.
A public meeting is now being arranged to assist the residents with the applications and to give them legal advice on the new lease. This is good news because this means that 86 households can now breathe a sigh of relief and know that tomorrow they will still have a roof over their heads.
This is in my opinion an excellent example of cooperative governance between the spheres of government and community, which promises and excellent outcome.
