Councillor Mark Van der Merwe reveals the state of Bloubosrand/Kya Sands Informal Settlement
This is after illegal structures were removed by the JMPD as part of Operation Buya Mthetho led by the City of Johannesburg.
Ward 115 Councillor Mark Van der Merwe provided the Randburg Sun with the City of Johannesburg GeoLIS system illustrating the development of the illegal land invasion situation from 1999 to February 2022.
As per the first aerial photograph from circa 1999, there were no invasions and no shacks in the demarcated area which has been highlighted in blue.
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According to Van der Merwe, the boundaries of the property are known as 51/193-IQ and the owner of that land was specified as the Provincial Government of The Province of Gauteng.
Highlighted in green illustrates a small portion on the bottom left that has been invaded from circa 2002 but used as the 2003 City of Johannesburg GeoLIS system.
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The third aerial photograph depicts the growth of the invasion with approximately 30 shacks in two years from circa 2005 but used as the 2006 City of Johannesburg GeoLIS system.
According to the aerial photograph probably taken circa 2007 but used as the 2008 City of Johannesburg GeoLIS system, Van der Merwe conveys how the illegal occupation was starting to increase.
“The camp has grown but still not massive. We start seeing the development on the right side of the area that is an NGO that gained permission from the province to utilise the land.”
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Van der Merwe disclaimed he had never seen the said permission letter even though he had requested it several times.
Following the aerial photograph taken circa 2011 but used as the 2012 City of Johannesburg GeoLIS system, Van der Merwe made note of an almost distant line that people were not crossing.
“From this, we can see there are is zero extra land invasion and essential no shacks over the previous two years.”
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The next aerial photograph was taken circa 2014 but used as the 2015 City of Johannesburg GeoLIS system, we see the settlement had moved up to Agnes Road and had filled up on the left to what is now known as the decommissioned landfill.
BUT THINGS WERE ABOUT TO CHANGE
“Firstly, there were riots over housing during Mid October 2015.”
Residents of Kya Sands and Msawawa informal settlement of Ward 96 had taken to the streets after summoning Jacob Mamabolo who was the Gauteng MEC for Human Settlements, demanding that he heed their requests and implement housing developments in the area.
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“Soon after this Cameron MacKenzie who was the DA Member of Parliament asked an official question to the Minister of Human Settlements regarding the future of Kya Sands and when they would formalise this. That was asked in Parliament on the 7th June 2016.”
Following the Minister of Human Settlements online response on Parliamentary Monitoring Group, where he agreed that the plans had been put into place to formally house the residents of Kya Sands Informal Settlement but due to the dense nature of the informal settlement, there was not enough land surrounding the area to formalise the project.
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The Minister added that a total of 13 000 beneficiaries had been identified at the time and the scope of the project had increased to include all informal settlements on Malibongwe Drive, between Kya Sands and Lanseria. Responding to the period in which the plans would take place, the Minister responded and said the planning process was currently underway and indications were that the development would commence during the 2019/2020 financial year.
According to the aerial photograph taken circa 2018 but used as the 2019 City of Johannesburg GeoLIS system, Van der Merwe made note of the distant line that people weren’t crossing had now been crossed and a new distant line was in place.
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“This happened very soon after MP Cameron Mackenzie’s questions as there was a sudden rush of illegal occupations whereby people thought they would get a house in the new area of Lion Park. It was at this stage that the province requested the assistance of the JMPD to curtail the illegal occupation of the remaining area. As this is provincial land, the JMPD may not operate alone and curtain illegal invasions they need to be requested every time by the property owner who is the province.”
Van der Merwe has superimposed the Google Maps outline of the provincial land in question for February 2022.
The area highlighted in red was where there were continuous land invasions and continued raids by JMPD and the Red Ants.
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“This is not at the request of the Bloubosrand residents as much as they believe that they had that power, it would only be at the request of the official land owner and that would be the province. I agree that JMPD could prompt the provincial entities to say there was a problem and that the province could then raise a case of trespassing and have an urgent judge hearing to authorise the raid.
That could be done in a day or two. The big issue here today in Kya Sands is that there are in this area approximately 15 000 illegal immigrants living on provincial land with the Gauteng province having no appetite to have them removed.”
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