The piece of land where some of the relocated Plot 77 residents have been sent doesn't have running water, sanitation and electricity.
About 50 shacks have been built to accommodate those who had relocated to Video, the area about 3km from Plot 77. Their water is trucked in and they rely on mobile toilets.
According to Christina Kwapeng, a community development worker for ward 33, the land in question was initially allocated to move people who lived behind Cradlestone Mall to make way for a new development project there.
“The developers that are working on the land behind Cradlestone have an eviction order that was finalised and were moving people here,” she said.
Kwapeng said when MaxxLiving took over the land in 2020, they had nowhere to relocate the people. “That is when they [the developer] piggybacked on this land. This information was discovered by our lawyer upon investigation. People were promised proper stands, water and electricity but when you look at this place, none of those promises were met. This is a squatter camp,” she said.
“What pains me is that this is a temporary place. When I asked for a feasibility study certificate from MaxxLiving which would assure us that proper homes will be built for the people, there was none.”
The allocated shacks that Sowetan visited had no concrete flooring and are so small that some residents' belongings were kept outside.
Auriel Moagi, who lived on Plot 77 for 27 years, said he felt forced to move even though he does not know how long the temporary arrangement would last.
“There is no agreement on paper that assures us of a future. My two-room brick house was demolished and I was not even compensated for it. I left a comfortable home with electricity to come and live here because I felt I had no choice,” said Moagi.
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