Although residents of L&J informal settlement in Olifantsfontein, outside Tembisa in Ekurhuleni, are not opposed to relocation, they are however pleading with authorities to move them to permanent housing instead of moving them to another informal settlement.
This comes after Sowetan reported last week that businesses in nearby Clayville obtained an urgent interim interdict preventing the relocation of families from L&J to land near their properties.
The court ruled that the proposed move had not complied with key planning, environmental and land-use laws.
If they want to remove us because they want to run their power lines, they must take us somewhere permanent, not to another informal settlement where we will still struggle with water and sanitation.
— Nkgetheng Phasha, resident
The dispute centres on the relocation of 68 families living near electricity infrastructure belonging to Eskom, which the power utility wants to upgrade.
Following the earlier report, Sowetan visited the area to speak to the affected families, many of whom say they have lived there for decades and want clarity about their future.
Nkgetheng Phasha, 51, who has lived in the settlement for more than 30 years, said in 2021 Eskom arrived in the area and started compiling a list of families who would be affected by the project.
“Before we knew it, they had already started building without sitting down with us to explain what was happening,” he said.
Phasha said Eskom initially promised that engagement with the affected families would take place during the second phase of the project, but construction continued without those discussions.
According to residents, negotiations around relocation compensation also changed several times. “They first said each household would get about R500,000 but later we were told it would be R100,000 per household,” he said.
Phasha said he lives in a household of 15 people, including his children and his sister’s children, and none of them are formally employed.
“If they want to remove us because they want to run their power lines, they must take us somewhere permanent, not to another informal settlement where we will still struggle with water and sanitation,” he said.
Another resident, Mirriam Billa, 47, who has lived in the settlement for 26 years, said families were worried about the long-term future of their children.
Billa said she lives with her husband and their four children, one of whom is still at school.
“We are not refusing to move. We just want to be relocated to a permanent place so that when we die our children will have a stable home,” she said.
She added that relocation would disrupt children’s schooling as the school is 4km away from their current place.
“The school our children attend is about 5km away and they are transported by bus. If we move, we hope it will be somewhere close to schools so that they do not struggle to continue with their education,” Billa said.
Residents also raised safety concerns about power line structures that have already been erected near their homes.
During our visit to the area, we could see that one of the pylons is erected near several shacks, raising fears among residents of the potential danger once the infrastructure becomes operational.
While residents said the power lines have not yet been energised, they worry that once switched on they could pose a risk to children playing nearby and to homes during storms.
Long-time resident Silver Khoza, 65, has lived in the area since around 1990 when he worked for a sand manufacturing company nearby.
“At that time we were working here and living peacefully with our families. When the company closed down, the owner left and we remained here,” Khoza said.
Khoza now lives with his wife and their six children.
“All of a sudden Eskom came and started building power lines over our homes. They promised they would talk to us and move us before continuing with the work, but that did not happen,” he said.
Khoza said tensions escalated when residents tried to question the construction process.
“One day Eskom employees came escorted by police vans, saying we were stopping them from doing their work even though they had not consulted us,” he said.
Deputy chairperson of a task team formed to deal with the matter, Freedom Moripa, said the community organised themselves after Eskom began construction without engaging them.
“We only saw Eskom assessing the area and building the power lines. That is when the community decided to establish a task team to find out what was happening,” Moripa said.
Despite their concerns, residents insist they are not opposing the project itself. “We are only asking that the government relocate people to a permanent place and not from one informal settlement to another.”
A court order has prohibited the municipality from facilitating or permitting the relocation of residents to the new site.
Sowetan
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