Change coming to Rustenburg

THE government has initiated a plan to grade roads, install high-mast lighting and provide refuse removal, water tankers and temporary toilets to Rustenburg’s mining communities.

THE Presidency and North West provincial government have at last swung into action to provide relief in a mining town’s informal settlements, initiating a plan to grade roads, instal high-mast lighting and provide refuse removal, water tankers and temporary toilets.

The “crack team” is to be part of the initiatives under Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe to address conditions in distressed mining communities. The immediate measures, if executed soon, will be an important demonstration of the government’s commitment to improve living conditions of mine workers, made during talks to end the platinum strike.

Commitments by the government 18 months ago to send a crack team into Rustenburg’s mining communities came to nothing as the government took the circuitous route of conducting base-line research but failed to intervene immediately.

Performance monitoring and evaluation director-general Shaun Phillips said in response to questions last week that as well as immediate interventions to upgrade informal settlements, the team would also look at co-ordinating housing initiatives, the provision of bulk services and other issues related to the development of sustainable settlements in mining and labour-sending areas.

A joint team comprising the government, business and labour will also be established to conduct a study on the reform of the migrant labour system with a view to “reducing its negative consequences”.

Seth Ramagaga, chief director of local government and human settlements in the North West said eight informal settlements in Rustenburg were among those prioritised. These included Nkaneng, near Lonmin’s Marikana mine, and Freedom Park, close to Impala Platinum’s Rustenburg mine.

“We are focusing on humanitarian relief and ... have distributed food parcels and vouchers. Then, the key areas of focus will be refuse removal, road improvement, public lighting at night, and water and sanitation,” said Mr Ramagaga.

The informal settlements on the platinum belt, which sprang up in an unplanned fashion to accommodate miners, are among the bleakest in the country. Many have no sanitation facilities, intermittent water, no lighting and self-made roads.

The intervention in informal settlements would cost an estimated R450m, said Mr Ramagaga. Some of the work which was budgeted for by local municipalities, would begin at the start of the new financial year, next month. Funding for the rest of the work was still being discussed between the three spheres of government, he said.

While the swift action by the “crack team” now being taken looks impressive — Mr Radebe’s committee was announced in the state of the nation address two weeks ago — much of this work has been on the Presidency’s to-do list for more than 18 months. In October 2012, at a much-publicised high-level meeting between the government, business and labour, a “special presidential package” to address distressed living conditions was promised. The pact included a commitment to both longterm and immediate interventions, the latter to be carried out by a “crack team”.

Mr Phillips said the perception that nothing had been done over the past 18 months was incorrect. “The special presidential package had focused on the co-ordination of different government departments which had resulted in improved coordination of services in these areas, such as the provision of bulk water, resolution of land claims, upgrading of informal settlements and the provision of new low-cost housing.”

There was also continuing work between the government and mining firms in housing development, with 11 low-cost projects planned or under way in the Bojanala platinum complex. These would provide more than 10,000 units in the Rustenburg, Madibeng and Moses Kotane local municipalities, he said.