POLOKWANE – The municipality’s plans to relocate residents living in the Disteneng informal settlement were interrupted.
Municipali spokesperson, Tidimale Chuene, said when municipal officials left Disteneng in December last year, only 42 households were relocated to extensions 78 and 106 within the agreed terms of reference between the municipality and residents. She said the municipality anticipated that 1 700 households would be relocated to demarcated sites when the planned relocation was complete.
“The processes to remove all the people living in Disteneng were halted to allow for further engagement amongst most of the affected stakeholders. The municipality is awaiting direction, which will be given once this is complete.
“The township lay out covers both sides of Nelson Mandela Road. Some of the shacks seen on the left side of the road when coming from the CBD, belong to residents who were already resettled through proper municipal processes. “The area that we relocated them to, has an allocation for infrastructure for the provision of water, electricity and proper roads.
“The residents will also be less prone to tragic incidents resulting from shack fires, which have become a common occurrence in settlements,” she said.
“The municipality takes all allegations of fraud and corruption in the identification of beneficiaries and allocation of sites seriously and urges individuals or groups who allege the existence of such acts to come forward with information and evidence.
“The municipality will not hesitate to engage law enforcement agencies to deal with those who might be found to have tainted this process,” Chuene concluded.
