Residents vow to stop relocation

RESIDENTS of Alexandra have vowed to stop the City of Joburg from relocating families from Stjwetla informal settlement.

This week, the City of Joburg MMC for housing Mlungisi Mabaso visited the area in an effort to identify sites to which about 1 600 families would be relocated.

The families are set to be moved to sites in Marlboro, in response to the government’s call that people in densely populated areas be assisted to curb the spread of Covid-19.

Stjwetla informal settlement is on the banks of the Jukskei River. It is expected to take about four months to complete the scheduled relocation process, which would include moving residents from Diepsloot, Zandspruit and Ivory Park.

But Mabaso’s visit raised the ire of some Alexandra residents, who believe they have repeatedly been overlooked by the government.

Members of the #TotalShutdownAlex movement said they wouldn’t allow Mabaso to relocate families.

“The City of Johannesburg didn’t engage with us. They just came and identified areas they wanted to move (people to). The decision was done and dusted before consulting the people of Alexandra,” said community leader Sandile Mavundla.

In April last year the group shut down the township to highlight the erection of illegal structures and the lack of service delivery from the municipality.

Mavundla said: “The moving of people will not happen in front of the community of Alexandra, that I can bet on. We can bet with our lives; we will not allow that to happen. Alexandra people have to be moved first.”

He accused people who had moved to Stjwetla of doing so because they knew it was a way of being placed ahead of others on the long waiting list for housing.

“The majority of people are not South Africans; we are not being xenophobic,” Mavundla said.

“There are people who have lived in Alex all their lives, and have been on the housing waiting list. They are families in the old Alex that live in overcrowded houses. If you see that, you will feel that our government is neglecting the general South African public. You have families with 20 people sharing a one-roomed house. They also deserve social distancing. Why do they not start with them?”

The City of Joburg’s Sipho Madi said decongesting Stjwetla was part of the national government’s fight against the coronavirus. He said this didn’t mean Alexandra residents were being overlooked.

Madi said the city had long-term plans to move residents of the “old Alexandra”, and give out title deeds.

He said before any move, community leaders would be consulted. “It doesn’t mean that people won’t be consulted. We are still going to engage leaders,” he said.