Cape Town - Macassar residents are opposing a possible relocation to their area of shack dwellers from Khayelitsha who had occupied Prasa land, citing crime.
No site has currently been purchased in Macassar to relocate these illegal occupants, but the residents have started a petition to Prasa, and the Housing Development Agency (HDA), to immediately cease efforts to secure private land to relocate the illegal occupants now living on their railway reserve.
Human Settlements mayoral committee member Malusi Booi said several land parcels were being investigated and no site had been acquired in Macassar. Booi said the land parcels were zoned “agricultural”.
Community leader and author of the petition, Waseemah Flaendorp, said crime was a major issue in the area and the community was already under strain with an under-resourced police station.
Flaendorp said unemployment in the area had also reached a new high with municipal infrastructure, in many cases, under pressure.
“There are not enough houses for Macassar residents and not enough land to even build such houses. The possibility of shacks moving to the area will create a lot of shebeens which would cause an increase in crime, with police not being able to control it, as is the case now,” she said.
Flaendorp said Eskom infrastructure also cannot handle the added pressure, as the area continuously faced power outages.
“These shacks come with the risk of increased illegal electricity connectivity.
“As it is, Macassar experiences prolonged power outages and with the possibility of hundreds of shacks this means the area will be regularly plunged into darkness.”
Ward councillor Peter Helfrich said that at a public meeting the HDA assured residents that while it was in the process of acquiring land to relocate the illegal occupants, no land has been acquired in Macassar.
Residents were also assured that should land be acquired in Macassar for human settlement purposes, they would be consulted through a formal public participation process, he said.
Booi said the relocations were subject to housing legislation and state-housing requirements and that accommodation for relocates would be informed by their housing status as per the Housing Needs Registrar.
“The City does not support queue-jumping and is careful to objectively apply housing laws, which outline emergency accommodation alternatives where there is a health and safety risk to people who have settled on land that is not appropriate for housing, such as under power lines, on railway lines, in wetlands, and on flood plains,” he said.