Democratic Alliance Gauteng premier candidate Solly Msimanga would like to meet with the former Alex landowners as part of engagements towards finding solutions to the land impasse which has dogged the township for many decades.
“We had a similar situation in the Garankuwa and Soshanguve areas where plot owners had their properties invaded by land-thirsty people. As the City of Tshwane, we intervened and made certain proposals after a thorough consultative process and engagement with all parties and the whole debacle was resolved,” he said.
Msimanga said he would like to take a leaf from that success story and see if they cannot intervene in Alex and find a working solution for all. “The solution may not necessarily lie in what the landowners may be agitating for but in what makes business sense in the long term.
“One of the suggestions was the fact that Alex is overcrowded and the demand for accommodation is very high as more and more people come to Gauteng in search of greener pastures, not just from within but also from beyond our borders,” Msimanga told the media who joined him on the tour.
He mentioned an example where people could come together and form co-operatives in which the private sector could also invest and then build high rise residential buildings which can be rented out. Co-operatives and private sector companies can then earn a living from rental payments.
“I am prepared to listen to the landowners and hear their suggestions for the renewal of Alex and also exchange views and ideas and see what might come out of it,” Msimanga said.
Read:
Trashed streets and illegal shacks still an issue in Alex
‘I have no powers to distribute land’
