There are almost 1,000 informal settlements in three Gauteng metros and officials are battling to curb the scourge of mushrooming shacks.
Tshwane has recorded the highest number, with 502 informal settlements, followed by Johannesburg with 352 and Ekurhuleni with 125.
Joburg’s MMC for human settlements, Mlungisi Mabaso, said informal settlements were growing at a high rate. The city had 181 informal settlements in 2016, which grew to 312 in 2019 and now stand at 352.
He said the city was in the process of recognising eight more informal settlements. These settlements are often overcrowded, located on unsafe land and lack basic services.
According to Mabaso, land invasions are being fuelled by a syndicate operating in the city.
“There is a syndicate that is moving around illegally selling land to people. These people occupy land that we want to develop and then run to court, fighting us. This is a well-orchestrated syndicate of people who are selling land. On social media there are so many fake accounts advertising stands but the property actually belongs to the government.”
There is a syndicate that is moving around illegally selling land to people. These people occupy land that we want to develop and then run to court, fighting us
— Mlungisi Mabaso, Joburg’s MMC for human settlements
He admitted the city has struggled to respond effectively, citing weak bylaw enforcement and a lack of resources.
“I don’t think the city was ready for the rapid increase in informal settlements. It came as a shock to law enforcement and they had not prepared or budgeted for resources to respond. As and when JMPD [Joburg metro police department] moves in to demolish one invasion, another springs up elsewhere,“ he said.
Mabaso added that the metro police were overstretched and could not effectively deal with continuous invasions.
“There are a number of resources we need but don’t have, including space to store confiscated building materials. What is also concerning is that in some informal settlements you find people with financial means who still choose to live there,” he said.
In Tshwane, spokesperson Lindela Mashigo said in 2021 the capital city had 210 approved informal settlements. which had increased to 502 this year due to “uncontrolled and uncurbed land invasions”.
“Most of these rampant invasions took place during the period when the city did not have a service provider for the prevention of land invasion and also during the 2019/20 and 2020/21 financial years, when the country was operating under lockdown restrictions [ when evacuations of persons were not permitted].
“It must be noted that with the current legal framework it is difficult to evict people after an invasion, hence there are so many informal settlements.
“Unfortunately, land invasion translates itself into many other urban management and developmental challenges. After invading land the illegal occupiers require services, which, in most cases, they acquire illegally at the city’s expense and law-abiding citizens’. The invasion further makes the city’s planning and development mandate extremely difficult and impacts negatively on environmentally sensitive areas.”
Earlier this month, the City of Tshwane, in partnership with the South African Red Cross Society, installed 600 smoke detectors at Kameeldrift informal settlement, along Moloto Road east of Pretoria. The initiative followed a devastating fire in 2023 that destroyed 104 shacks.
When Sowetan visited the area residents said that while they appreciated the fire detectors, what they really needed were fire extinguishers.
The settlement stretches across a patch of land where shacks stand shoulder to shoulder, leaving only narrow passages to move between them.
Community leader Adam Mojela said: “We have had fire disasters here and people lost their valuables. The fire detectors would be able to warn us in time that there is a fire and we will be able to save our lives but it is not enough.”
Mojelahas lived in the settlement for 21 years and said residents wanted the city to formalise their settlement so they could finally access basic services.
Another resident, 44-year-old Vongani Maluleke, said she has lived in the area since 2013, renting a shack for R400 a month. “I left home looking for a job and ended up here,” said the mother of two.
Similarly, Samuel Masilela from Mpumalanga, who has been living in Jazz View settlement in Tshwane for more than two decades, said he arrived in the city in 1999 to look for work and has never left.
“Now I am living with my four kids and wife in our own shack in the same yard with my mother, who also owns a shack. This is the reason you find many shacks in one yard.”
Sowetan also visited an informal settlement in Sunninghill, near a suburban area.
A resident, who declined to be named because he was in the country illegally, said he had come to SA in search of work and ended up living at the settlement.
“I didn’t have to pay anyone for the stand or rent. All I had to do was clean the area, then put material there and I have been staying here for more than five years now. I found other people living here. It is our land now,” he said.
Another resident who recently started living with her husband after moving from Lesotho to SA said: “While we do not have electricity, the [city] has made sure that we have water and also toilets.”
In Ekurhuleni, spokesperson Zweli Dlamini said a land invasion unit has been established to address the growth of informal settlements. “The metro police moves with speed to demolish if there is land invasion,” he said.
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