GALLERY: There’s a squatter on my stoep
RUIMSIG – Concerned residents of townhouse and cluster complexes on Hole-in-One Avenue grow increasingly frustrated by the sprawling shackland on their doorstep.
Johann Wassermann, founding member of the Ruimsig North Home Owner’s Association (RNHOA), wants to know when are the residents of the Ruimsig Informal Settlement (RIS) across the road from his complex on Hole-in-One Avenue, going to be relocated.
“In 2010, a Mayoral Oversight Committee did an extensive study on all formal and informal settlements, and it was determined that the Ruimsig settlement could not be formalised where it is, because the land on which it is located has been identified as unfit for human habitation,” said Wassermann.
“It falls within the blasting zone of a sand quarry on one side, and encroaches on a wetland on another. We were told that the residents would be relocated to a new formal settlement under development, called ‘Cradle’.”
“They started implementing infrastructure at ‘Cradle’,” continued Wassermann. “But now Mogale City Municipality is claiming lack of capital to complete the process. And so we continue to sit with this problem, which has now become intolerable.”
Ward 97 councillor Jaco Engelbrecht is all too aware of the challenges posed by the RIS.
“In 2014, an eviction order was granted to the owner of a Taylor Road property in Honeydew Manor, ordering the City to find alternative accommodation for the residents who had illegally occupied the land,” explained Engelbrecht.
“The City’s response was simply to demolish the Taylor Road shacks and erect new shacks for the residents in the already overcrowded Ruimsig settlement.”
“The labyrinth of shacks, which are so tightly packed, is now completely inaccessible to emergency vehicles,” continued Engelbrecht.
“There is no way to prevent a fire spreading from one shack to the next, no way for fire trucks to get close to a burning shack, and no way to make an easy escape on foot for somebody having to get out of an inferno.”
Engelbrecht has confirmation from Dan Bovu, Member of the Mayoral Committee for Housing in the City of Johannesburg, that the RIS is included in the City’s ‘Formalisation of Informal Settlements Programme’, although Bovu said it is not linked to any current housing development. It is presently just being managed and catered for by supplying it with rudimentary services.
“Besides the fact that the City should be moving people into safe, dignified housing developments, not shunting them from shack to shack, it is shocking that residents of the Taylor Road settlement were moved onto an already overcrowded piece of land which has been declared unfit for human habitation,” concluded Engelbrecht. “The Ruimsig settlement is a death trap and relocation of its residents needs to be prioritised by the City as a matter of urgency.”
Related articles:
Ruimsig squatters – home owners raise their concerns (25 February 2015)
Residents stuck without sanitation and water (19 February 2015)
First group of squatters to be relocated (29 January 2015)
Taylor Road squatters face eviction (23 January 2015)
Taylor Road residents to be moved (10 April 2014)
