Land found for rail occupiers
A PIECE of land to relocate people in Langa who had settled on the railway tracks has been identified, Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula said yesterday.
Answering during a questionand-answer session in the National Assembly, the minister said his department was working with the Western Cape government, the Housing Development Agency, the City of Cape Town and the Public Works and Infrastructure Department to resettle the people.
These efforts were aimed at clearing the once-busy Cape Central Line that runs through Langa and Khayelitsha, among other areas.
He said the Department of Human Settlements had secured a piece of land where they would be moving people in order to comply with the court order.
“If you go to Langa you will see the work that we are doing to secure the rail network, while people are waiting to be resettled. We believe that we should continue with our work to secure the network,” Mbalula said.
“I can assure you that you are to see the line reopened very soon for trains, once people are resettled in the new piece of land in the Western Cape,” he said.
He told the MPs he would finalise the preparation of the new piece of land secured by the government on Thursday.
“We are working tirelessly to move the people from the rail tracks in the Western Cape. The main issue, which as you know is the obstacle, is securing land parcels, which has been a bigger challenge.”
He noted that the resettlement of the people on the land previously identified was scuppered by an interdict from the land owner.
“We do have a piece, we are to move the people even before the work of getting the trains running on the Central Line has started. You are going to see the trains, the Blue Train. I am very excited,” Mbalula said.
Last month, he told the Standing Committee on Public Accounts that there was a collaborative effort with the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure together with the Human Settlements Department to get land for resettlement of the people who occupied land on the railway reserves in Langa and Phillipi.
Many of them were backyard dwellers who lost their jobs during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic and could not keep up with the rent.
“If they are not moving, we are going to undertake the mission of walling or fencing the railway lines to allow trains to operate,” Mbalula said.
Meanwhile, the minister said his department was working with all stakeholders in the interests of developing an efficient and competitive rail system in the country.
He was asked about moving freight from road to rail as the most efficient mode of transportation, and whether there was a single, integrated rail network for goods and passenger transport operated by both the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa and Transnet Freight Rail.
Mbalula said there had been significant under-investment in rail infrastructure, negatively affecting the effectiveness of the rail. He stated that the white paper on rail policy approved by the Cabinet acknowledged the need for investment in rail infrastructure, building on existing programmes for freight and passenger rail.
“The large scale of vandalism and theft of rail infrastructure has undermined efforts to develop rail infrastructure, but efforts are under way to replace and rehabilitate damaged infrastructure,” he said.