Govt, Cape Town standoff over removal of train tracks shacks

Little has been done to relocate communities that erected shacks along railway lines in the City of Cape Town despite a signed agreement and budget allocated to find suitable land for the shack dwellers.

Politics seems to have come into the fray as national government and the city still fail to agree on where the informal settlement residents should be moved to.

Train services between the city and areas such as Nyanga and Khayelitsha have not been operating since 2019 when Siyahlala informal settlement spread onto Prasa’s Central Line.

Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) chairperson and IFP MP Mkhuleko Hlengwa was on Wednesday not pleased with the lack of progress, describing those involved as the “worst work relationships” he has ever encountered in government.

The MP conducted a visit to Siyahlala and surrounding train stations on Wednesday to see the extent of the problems along the Prasa lines.

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The national departments of transport, human settlements, public works, Prasa and the city signed an implementation agreement to relocate Siyahlala residents and get the much-needed train services running again.

Tensions rose two months ago when Human Settlements Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi and Cape Town mayor Geordion Hill-Lewis disagreed over who was responsible for the provision of services to Cape Town’s 16 informal settlements.

The shacks are located on the railway reserve between Philippi and Langa.

‘No cooperation from city’

Transport Deputy Minister Lisa Mangcu told MPs that the relocation project was held back by the city.

“What seems to be the issue is finding suitable land for people to be relocated to. This is in my view at the centre of this issue.

“The city is critical because this is not just about getting land − the city has to roll out infrastructure, services and so on.

“We will fail without the support from the city.”

Mangcu said people were ready to be moved.

“The people are ready to move, and as you heard yesterday, they needed to know where they will be moved to.

“The departments together with Prasa are ready to move them, money is available. The issue is the identification of the right land so that we don’t keep moving people from one place to another,” he said.

Cape Town deputy mayor Eddie Andrews said everything was being done to finish the project.

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“The teams have been engaging with everyone and those engagements are ongoing, we are also reporting back to the city’s internal task team on what is going on.

“We are committed to ensuring the relocation because at least 40% of Prasa rail users need that line,” he said.

Prasa’s temporary solution

According to Prasa CEO Hishaam Emeran, a temporary relocation plan has been put in place by the entity.

He said an audit shows the area has at least 2 500 shacks.

“There’s land identified by Prasa in Stock Road, and there’s a willingness in the community to be moved to the area, but they need confirmation on the long-term plans.

“They do not want to move without a plan going forward. The land we are relocating them to is still in rail reserve, it’s a temporary solution because you can’t permanently move people within a rail network.

“The city has indicated that they will provide water and ablution services at the site.”

But his solution was shot down by Hlengwa who described it as “an irregularity on top of an irregularity”.

“You all signed an implementation plan. It is as if you are negotiating a protocol trying to achieve other goals we don’t know about. We are expecting you all to say, ‘We are together doing a re-zoning application because of the gravity of the situation. Let us get on with it and bring the trains back. Cape Town has a traffic headache because the trains are not moving’.”

Hlengwa added that he will seek permission to reconvene the meeting on 27 July while parliament is in recess, adding that the meetings might take place every month “until everyone is relocated and trains start to operate”.

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