CoJ accused of delaying residential development in Protea South
“The budget has been approved and when we read the budget, we saw that there is nothing that speaks about Protea South nor the development."
Residents of Protea South informal settlement are accusing the City of Johannesburg of intentionally delaying the development of their area.
The group of residents who opened a civil case against the municipality in 2008 say they are yet to see some action.
According to one community leader, Maureen Mnisi, it is understood that the City of Johannesburg announced its decision that every resident of Protea South will be relocated from the area due to the presence of dolomite in the land.
During this time a number of people were relocated to Lufhereng Social Housing Project. However in 2014, a report by the South African National Standards (SANS) 1936 indicated that houses could be built where there is medium or low dolomite.
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The objective of SANS 1936 is to set requirements for the development of dolomite land in order to ensure that people live in an environment that is seen by society to be acceptably safe.
“In 2014, we as the people who were against the relocation won the case and we were promised that the processes of development will take place, but till this day we haven’t seen any action from the City of Johannesburg,” Explained Mnisi.
Local councillor, Nokuthula Nofemela said the City of Johannesburg has informed her that Protea South is congested wih residents from the 1996 and 1997 housing waiting list who are still expected to be relocated to Lufhereng and Fleurhof. This means that discussions about the development processes will follow after the relocation of those people.
“When I assumed office in 2021, the Department of Housing informed me that there was already a relocation process in place for some of the residents here in Protea,” said Nofemela.
In a document seen by Urban News addressed to the community, the City of Johannesburg states that there are issues and considerations relating to informal housing which causes delays with the development.
Some of these reasons are that some of residents are illegal immigrants who are happy to have built themselves a shelter where they do not have to worry about paying rental fees.
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These structures have been built using their own cash savings from limited resources and some have since been improved and extended.
Some have even built rental informal structures which have become a source of income that they have become accustomed to.
They are anxious about their houses being demolished to make way for an envisaged development.
Those who are immigrants are most likely to be worried about their security of tenure and might be a source of resistance for an envisaged development as they feel that they might be left out of a development township.
