Africa-Press – South-Africa. Pretoria – The pouring rain of the past few days brought back unpleasant memories for a group of displaced residents of Eerste Fabriek in Mamelodi, as they wait to be relocated more than a year after their homes were washed away in a flood.
Yesterday, the displaced families went back to the informal settlement after being removed by the City of Tshwane after a failed meeting on the move.
Most of them have been housed in churches around Mamelodi following the flash floods of December 2019. Some have been moved in the last year, but the last group had hoped for news on when and how they would be moved yesterday.
But the planned meeting did not happen and nobody came to speak to them.
A representative of the displaced residents, December Matlala, accused the City of Tshwane and Gauteng Province of dragging their feet.
“There have been a couple of relocation processes that have been fruitful since the floods. But this last and final process is taking far too long,” he said, claiming two relocation meetings with the City had been postponed for “no apparent reason”.
“Clearly something is up or the money allocated for the process was spent elsewhere. Officials keep cancelling meetings,” he said.
Matlala said the latest excuse officials used was “Covid-19”.
“They often say they don’t want to address lots of people because regulations do not allow for large gatherings. Why don’t they address us, the representatives, and we will relay the message to the residents?”
Some said yesterday they had been forced to return to Eerste Fabriek because they could not stay at the churches, especially during the pandemic.
The City was unavailable for comment on yesterday’s delay.
Pretoria News
