Setswetla informal settlement in Alexandra in Johannesburg, 31 March 2020, were five people were put under quarantine after being in close contact with a confirmed case in the township. Picture: Nigel Sibanda
The City of Johannesburg is planning to relocate approximately 1,600 South African citizens from the densely populated Setswetla informal settlement in Alexandra.
“The Department of Housing decided to come here today to present and engage on the plans that we have for this informal settlement. We are going to be playing our role and we are going to try to deal with over-populated settlements, and Setswetla is one of the informal settlements that we identified,” Housing MMC Mlungisi Mabaso told the media in Setswetla on Tuesday.
This comes after daily stats to date have revealed that the densely populated Gauteng is one of the three provinces with the highest number of Covid-19 positive cases.
In addition, it comes amid the need to ensure that families living in densely inhabited informal settlements are given shelter while being able to practice physical distancing.
As a result, the City has identified two sites in Alexandra to relocate 1,600 citizens to temporary structures in the form of containers.
Residents of those areas will be moved to Marlboro, which falls under Region E, where these containers will be placed.
“The plan is to move 1,600 households out of the 5,100 residents of this settlement to the identified sites.
Prioritised
“We are only going to deal with South African citizens, only those citizens will be prioritised and allocated, but Home Affairs must assist us in dealing with illegal foreign nations [sic] that are here, then we will be able to develop this area,” Mabaso said.
They believed the process of relocation would take about three to four months to be completed.
This was subject to the allocation officer completing a verification process of households in the settlement.
“They have asked us to give them a few weeks, the contractor is ready to start erecting those sites that people will be moving into, so we are looking at a maximum of three to four months,” Mabaso said.
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