UPDATE: L&J land protest in Olifantsfontein

Residents of the L&J informal settlement in Olifantsfontein barricaded the M57 during the night of 3 May and demanded solutions to an ongoing land issue.

The residents said Ekurhuleni Municipality should provide land for them where they can build houses and have access to basic services. According to the residents, the informal settlement has existed since 1982. Factory workers who worked for the manufacturing plant on plot 19 where the informal settlement is located, used to live here.

When police arrived on the morning of 4 May, the M57 had been barricaded with burning tyres, stones and trees. Captain Bernard Matimulane, speaking on behalf of the Ekurhuleni North Police Cluster, said that the police together with Ekurhuleni and Tshwane Metro officers cleared the road after pleading for calm with community members.

“When we arrived a Mercedes-Benz belonging to someone from Piet Retief was set alight but the owner was nowhere to be found. We are still trying to establish the cause of the incident. The road has been cleared and a municipal official will address the crowd,” he said.

Resident Solomon Nkwana said they have exhausted all avenues to get assistance from the municipality. He said on 10 March they marched to the municipal offices and delivered a memorandum of understanding at the mayor’s office.

READ Informal settlement residents barricaded the M57 road in Olifantsfontein due to land issues

“This was after we marched to the Union Buildings in 2012. On all occasions, we were promised that our grievances would be addressed but that never happened. In April, a child died after a shack caught fire because there’s no electricity. Our children can’t go to school because the owner of the land blocks the road. We are tired and we think this is the only way we would be heard,” said Nkwana.

The residents are demanding that Ekurhuleni Municipality provides them with land where they can build houses and have access to basic services.

Sunnyboy Masinge, service delivery manager for Ekurhuleni Municipality said the community’s concerns have been known for a long time and the municipality was working on them. “The problem is that we are working with an issue of private land and we must first buy land for them,” he said.

“We understand their impatience because the process of buying land is long and there are many other issues to deal with including infrastructure and housing.”

Should the government spend millions to buy private land for settlers or should the government allocate land somewhere else and build houses for them? Tweet @MidrandReporter