CoE comments on causes of overcrowding
“The amount of illegal activities and developments, as well as unauthorised illegal connection to CoE Infrastructure, poses as a challenge.”
As urbanisation continues and the City of Ekurhuleni continues to grow, overcrowding in the city remains a problem. Although urbanisation is expected as any city grows, the NEWS met with shadow MMC for town planning Heather Hart to learn more about the causes of illegal overcrowding.
Published on March 3 under the headline Hart highlights the causes of overcrowding in Ekurhuleni, the shadow MMC said overcrowding exists across the region and can often be found in areas like Klopperpark, Illiondale and Germiston.
In response to a request for comment sent to the CoE, divisional head of communications and media relations Nhlanhla Cebekhulu said the CoE believes, “Overcrowding in the urban areas is due to potential employment opportunities found within the industrial hubs in Ekurhuleni.
“A contributing factor is affordable rental accommodation closer to a place of work and business areas.” Cebekhulu said the CoE is a progressive metro that offers varied employment, economic and labour opportunities.
“The approval of mega development and growth of the City indicates that we are a preferred destination and so this encourages urbanisation and migration at the current rate.” One of the causes of overcrowding identified by Hart was opportunists contravening the city by-laws. The City could not confirm this as a cause of overcrowding.
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“The CoE cannot agree that it is the opportunists taking advantage of the by-laws,” said Cebekhulu.
“The City believes residents are merely trying to have financial security or simply have a stable income, therefore, the demand for accommodation in certain areas cannot be ignored, resulting in owners building more than what can be accommodated by property and municipal engineering services.”
When asked if the City had a shortage of city planning by-law inspectors, Cebekhulu said the City does have inspectors but, “The amount of illegal activities and developments, as well as unauthorised illegal connection to CoE infrastructure, poses as a challenge.
“Inspectors and inspections are critical in maintaining an orderly built environment and sustaining credibility in land-use control and administration.”
Cebekhulu highlighted property owners can build and rent rooms but they need to do so legally. “The owner of the property needs to visit the City Planning Department for consultation before submission of the land development application. “They will be informed of exactly what is required to construct rooms for renting purposes. “Owners will be advised to either rezone the property or apply for consent use.”
He said the City discourages overcrowding as it impacts infrastructure and social development. Speaking on the strain put on municipal infrastructure, Cebekhulu said overcrowding can cause power failures, blocked sewer lines, blocked stormwater channels and increased traffic.
“By following the correct procedures, the municipality will be able to expand its services to accommodate the development in the area.”
As your trusted community newspaper, the NEWS receives several enquiries regarding overcrowding in its distribution area. Although the local media is a platform to inform the community and keep them updated it does not have the power to physically remove illegally constructed rooms, those staying there and to prosecute those responsibly.
However, it does have the power to hold the municipality and those in power accountable. At the NEWS, we want to ensure consistent and quality feedback from the City in response to our media queries. To monitor this the NEWS recently introduced a five-star rating system.
Once we relay our readers’ questions to the CoE, we will rate their response according to a five-star scoring system allocated as follows. Two stars will equate to all questions answered (either direct or indirect); two stars will equate to the relevancy of answers to questions posed, and the remaining star will be attributed to adherence to the deadline for comment.
As the City of Ekurhuleni served in this discord, the NEWS rated this reply with 3 stars = 2 stars for questions answered, 1 star for answer relevancy; 0 stars for deadline met.
Contact the newsroom by emailing: Marietta Lombard (Editor) germistoncitynews@caxton.co.za, or (Journalists) Busi Vilakazi busiv@caxton.co.za , and Lebogang Sekgwama lebogangs@caxton.co.za.
