The Leandra community fears that RDP houses in Ext 8 might not be completed.
This is after the Department of Minerals and Energy and the police arrested a suspect and confiscated some tipper trucks used for the illegal mining of gravel soil in one of the quarries on February 6.
The suspect allegedly does not have mining rights. This is what led to the arrest, according to resident Mafika Shabalala.
He spoke up at a community meeting held at the local taxi rank on February 8.
“The community needs the Govan Mbeki Municipality to intervene because it is aware of the problem. The site is at a standstill until the matter is resolved,” said Shabalala.
Shabalala also accused councillors of demanding money from the contractors. He said the contractors are complaining about councillors who always call them to demand money. He claimed contractors refer to this money as a protection fee.
“We are faced with a huge problem that will lead to the incompletion of the RDP houses,” said Shabalala.
He said previous projects in the area failed because of councillors’ behaviour.
“Contractors fail to deliver projects on time because councillors take the money needed to complete the projects.
“These contractors end up being penalised by departments or the municipality for failure to honour their contractual obligation,” said Shabalala.
The Ext 8 Goedehoop land portion two that belongs to the municipality is among the land bought by the Human Settlements Department two years ago. The department paid R64m for the 790ha.
Mpumalanga’s MEC for Human Settlements, Speedy Mashilo, told the community during his visit that his department would begin developing all those portions of land for human settlement.
Mashilo said the land portion will give them 3 365 stands. He told the municipality to give 1 500 thereof to government officials like the police, teachers and others who can afford to build their houses, and the remainder must be given to his department to build low-cost housing for the aged, child-headed families, the disabled and the unemployed.
Mashilo also said all those residents who will get a piece of land in Ext 8 on which to build their houses should know that the new RDP houses are well-built and will not degrade.
The only difference will be the size. Leandra SAPS spokesperson Constable Nontobeko Ngubeni confirmed the arrest of a man charged with illegal mining.
Ngubeni said the investigation is still underway, and the suspect will soon appear in court.
Mayor Nhlakanipho Zuma said the illegal mining or quarry activity was not done on municipality land and that the land is privately owned.
“The Leandra Ext 8 project is for the Department of Human Settlement, which has appointed its service providers.
“It is the responsibility of the appointed contractors to source the gravel soil for the project. If they got it illegally, it is their problem. We only want them to complete the project,” said Zuma.
Zuma said all those with information regarding councillors demanding a protection fee from the contractors must open corruption cases with the police.
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