Has the government delivered on its promises to the Kya Sands community?
Conductors of the Buya Mthetho Operation, the JMPD advise residents to report illegal activity.
Cllr Mark Van der Merwe says that the national government has provided funding to the provincial government so that the municipal government could uplift the Kya Sands Informal Settlement.
“I do believe the count is around 16 in and around the City of Johannesburg. Soon after my swearing-in on November 22, I was called to a meeting with JOSHCO (Johannesburg Social Housing Company) and introduced to a plan that they wanted me to launch ASAP. That was around mid-January 2022.”
Van der Merwe said he attended the meeting with enthusiasm but was eventually left in total shock at the utter incompetence of JOSHCO and how they ran the previous phase 2 part of the project with absolutely no oversight of contractors. He added that some of the top issues remained unresolved.
Earlier in the year, the lack of electricity seemed to be major a problem for the residents of the Kya Sands informal settlement and seeming laced a domino effect on the residents of North Riding and its surrounds.
Residents had gathered at the Houtkoppen Substation in May 2022 after being tormented by power outages which exposed a disproportionate number of faults from the substation.
“They ran the capacity studies for electricity on Witkoppen Sub Station and not Houtkoppen Sub Station that supplies this area and that is already at full capacity, so where is the electricity coming from?
They ran the capacity studies for water on the Bryanston Reservoir but this area is supplied by the Olivedale Reservoir. They ran the capacity studies to extract sewer to the Lanseria Waste Water Works which has not even been built as yet instead of the Northern Waste Water Works that currently handles the sewer from this area.”
Van der Merwe said currently he could not go into full detail as he is busy working with the MMC of the Department of Housing and the S79 Housing Oversight Committee to get answers to the questions that he had been raising sing January 2022 after his first meeting with JOSHCO.
Highlighted in red are the JOSHCO development.
Van der Merwe added that he was aware of a private housing submission for 411 units currently before the City of Johannesburg Development Planning that had infuriated local residents. He highlighted that development in green.
JMPD spokesperson Xholani Fihla said that unfortunately, JMPD isn’t privy to any information to do with what the city wants to do with the land and referred the Randburg Sun to the Department of Human Settlements. At the time of going to press no response has been received from the DHS.
Fihla added that to combat the illegal land invasions the JMPD together with various stakeholders, conducts illegal land invasion operations daily in the city.
“We encourage members of the public who witness or have any information regarding illegal land invasions to call the Anti-Land Invasion Hotline 080 012 0555 where officers and officials may swiftly respond and act upon this illegal activity,” said Fihla.
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