R140m Rea Vaya depot stalls as informal settlement blocks progress

An informal settlement means a multi-million-rand Rea Vaya project is not being used in Alexandra, Johannesburg.

The Rea Vaya Rapid Bus Transit depot off London Road is an empty parking lot after departments failed to account for an informal settlement on the adjacent property.

The makeshift homes sit on land earmarked for transport development, with the Rea Vaya project being erected across the street as the camp expanded.

The Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA), the entity responsible for the project, announced the completion of the site in June, which was meant to bolster the Rea Vaya Phase 1C route from Parktown to Alexandra.

Safety risks too great

City of Johannesburg (CoJ) Section 79 Transport Committee member Michael Crichton held an oversight visit earlier in September to check on the site’s operability.  

Located at the corner of Grenville and Brighton Roads, the depot was meant to house 30 buses and a refuelling station, while being billed as a “transportation hub for the community”.

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The R140 million project, however, is not fully functional as the informal settlement has boxed in the routes used by the buses and trucks that require access and refuelling.

Limited access has relegated the site to a simple layover fuel station, significantly falling short of the intended purpose.   

Crichton said it would be a safety risk to house and operate heavy machinery in close proximity to the informal dwellings, not to mention the dangers of storing large volumes of flammable fuels near the camp.

Talks with community fail

He also said that CoJ representatives had attempted to negotiate with the illegal occupiers.

“The officials said that they have had engagements with the new occupants but they were unsuccessful in getting them to relocate,” Crichton told The Citizen.

“They couldn’t answer why the people chose to settle there. There was clearly a lack of security measures in place to keep the land secured.”

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JDA spokesperson Elias Nkabinde responded to The Citizen’s query on the state of the operations at the transport node and said it still needs to compile comprehensive feedback.

“Please be advised that your queries require inputs from other departments. We will respond once all inputs have been received,” Nkabinde said.

Crichton suspects that the presence of the informal settlement may force the city to incur further costs or risk restricting commuters’ routes.

“The only way the city can get them off the land now would be to find them alternative accommodation,” Crichton explained.

Gauteng housing shortage

Meanwhile, the Democratic Alliance’s Gauteng spokesperson for Human Settlements Evert du Plessis elaborated on the massive housing backlog that contributes to the prevalence of informal housing.

Du Plessis stated that the Gauteng Department of Human Settlements (GDHS) had created roughly 90 000 housing opportunities in the last five years.

“While these numbers might seem impressive, they pale in comparison to the housing backlog of 1.2 million units,” he said.

GDHS is geared toward large-scale developments that cater for up to 10 000 units at a time, with Du Plessis bemoaning the failure to adequately link developments to economic opportunity.

“Without a comprehensive, realistic strategy, the housing crisis will only worsen, leaving millions without adequate shelter for decades to come,” he said.