Desperate land shoppers march to Emfuleni over delayed rezoning approval

VANDERBIJLPARK – According to the landowner Sibusiso Ntsele who formed part of the march, Philippine was placed as an agricultural land when he purchased it and the processes to turn it into a residential settlement for the developments to begin have been stalling.

Ntsele further added that despite several independently done studies such as Geotechnical report, Environmental Impact Assessment among many others and the submission of the application to turn the land, the Human Settlement department at ELM fails to approve his land.

On Tuesday, gatvol stand owners together with Ntsele and his associates marched to the headquarters of the municipality to demand answers on the ‘time-wasting’ of the application and handed over a memorandum of grievances.

The furious demonstrators paraded with placards outside the premises following a march from traffic department where they handed their memorandum to Member of the Mayoral Committee in Human Settlement. Molepo Mapitso and her team.

Speaking to Sedibeng Ster, Ntsele said they demonstrated to make their voices heard and their demands to be provided.

“We are here to deliver a petition to the office of the mayor; however, the petition was received by the MMC of Human settlement at the institution. Our demands are simple, we demand the municipality to grant us access to our land so that we can start providing services and our people can start to develop their stands,” he said.

“The role of the municipality is simple, its to take our documents and rezone, finish and klaar. This is not the first time we visit these offices. The last time we were here, the manager of LED told us he was short-staffed hence our submission is still waiting. Who’s problem is it that his department is short of people to do the job they are paid for?,” asked Ntsele.

The visibly angry Ntsele said his people won’t be stalled by incompetent people who are not doing their job.

“When it comes to approving land applications, Emfuleni is incompetent. There are applications that have been submitted for more than five years and have not been approved till date. We are not going to wait any further,” he said.

After handing over the memorandum, the Khuluma Uthethe Land Reform delegation and its marchers, were given seven days to receive feedback from the municipality.

ELM spokesman Makhosonke Sangweni acknowledged the receiving of the memorandum and said the municipality will respond to the stakeholders.

“We received the memorandum through the MMC of Human Settlement and will write back to the stakeholders as a response on the matter [issue by issue] and clarify our position.

“We are going to investigate the matter and determine where the hold-up has been. Our relevant department together with the office of the mayor will meet and to find a solution and give concise response after that,” he said.