The problem of illegal land use and displaced people continues to frustrate residents in the north-eastern suburbs.
Waste collectors found a home on the piece of land in the park next to Cydna power station and across the river by the temple next to the M1 Highway. They have also occupied areas along the M1 Highway into the Abbotsford area along Scott Street and by Corlett Drive opposite Waverley Shul.
Displaced people who had been staying in the area for a little over a year have since erected shacks in an area without even an ablution facility and living in squalid conditions. North Eastern Tribune visited the area with Ward 74 councillor Dave Fisher. At the time, some of the recyclers who indicated that they generate their income through recycling were sorting their waste.
It clearly showed that the area had been occupied for a while. Some of the people were sleeping inside the erected shacks.
One of the recyclers who had been staying in the area since last year said he didn’t have anywhere to go and couldn’t afford to pay the rent anywhere in Gauteng.Tsatsi Norman Hlau from Lesotho said every weekend they try to clean up the open space. “I am looking after my siblings and I have to send money home every month. I cannot afford to rent and hence I am staying here,” he said.
Fisher indicated that displaced people were disrupting the suburbs.
He said he was concerned that the rule of law was disregarded and the displaced people were spoiling the environment and the surrounding areas.
Fisher said he didn’t support something that is lawless and uncontrolled. He said he understood both sides of the problem and was seeking an amicable solution.
He said entrepreneurship in the City has to be done following the rule of law. “Although the City tries to uplift the poorest of the poor, any business should be done legally and in a sustainable way.”
Nkuli Mbundu from Abbotsford complained that the recycling business conducted by displaced people is not intended to be in urban areas.
He said over the past few months, they have seen a rise in the rodent infestation in the area while the displaced don’t have any mechanism to control this problem.
“They don’t have ablution facilities and there is a hygiene problem.”
It was also established in the surrounding suburbs that when displaced people collect waste from the Pikitup bins outside residents’ homes, they select what they need and throw out what they don’t want on the residents’ pavements.
Mbundu said displaced people staying in the area couldn’t be identified by residents, were contaminating the river and dumping items inside the river.
According to him, this poses a serious security threat to neighbouring residents. “One day I walked around the area, starting at the piece of the park next to Cydna power station, then across the river by the temple. I left with an unsettling feeling, short of disturbing,” he said.
He said the main three problems experienced by residents were hygiene, security and property values.
He concluded, “I don’t know how we are going to live with this problem but we need to find creative solutions as residents.”
Johannesburg Metro Police Department spokesperson Chief Superintendent Wayne Minnaar said they have noted the complaint and will raid the park together with Pikitup. He warned the waste collectors who were using the open space to conduct their business that the law will catch up with them.
“We are taking steps to solve this problem,” he said.
Details: David Fisher 082 822 6070, JMPD Emergency number 011 375 5911/ 011 758 9620.
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