Following oversights visits at informal settlements such as Wolwespruit, the City of Tshwane has appointed 70 town planners to start implementing a plan of removing informal settlements across the city.
Human Settlements MMC Mpho Mehlape-Zimu said the city has begun addressing challenges faced by people living in informal settlements.
“There are 240 informal settlements locations in Pretoria. We assessed environmental and humanitarian challenges which exist there. Needs of informal settlement around Pretoria and Centurion are challenging. They were dependent on other spheres of government and there is presence of illegal immigrants. 800 South Africans will be relocated from Plastic View informal settlement. The department has already earmarked a land for that. However, it is still a challenge because close to 9 000 illegal immigrants stay at Plastic View”, she added.
Mehlape-Zimu said when it comes to an issue of illegal immigrants, department of Home Affairs and police need to intervene.
“When removing informal settlements, we want to ensure that people are relocated to their permanent stands. It will be easy for us to deliver services such as electricity, roads, water and sewerage. We will form a joint operation involving department of Public Works, Housing, Social Development as well as police in order to deliver services to people”, said Mehlape-Zimu.
