Lack of security to protect the hundreds of prefabricated homes constructed to temporarily accommodate the community of Angelo have reportedly already been stripped.
This has reduced the property to merely steel frames.
Thieves have stolen almost everything they could lay their hands on. These include the steel wall, roofing sheets, doors and window frames.
The Ekurhuleni metro’s decision to spend taxpayers’ money on this temporal housing project to relocate residents of Angelo informal settlement has seen more than R34-million of taxpayers’ money being spent, a ward councillor has claimed.
According to Ward 33 Clr Ashley Hoods, the metro recently spent R12.1-m to buy the piece of land deemed unsafe and dangerous for the establishment of a township in Marlands Extension Five in Germiston, to accommodate the residents of Angelo.
At the time, Angelo residents were faced with an eviction order.
As a result of the metro’s apparent failure to follow the right procedure and the fact that the land they bought is dangerous and unsuitable for human habitation, residents and opposition parties objected to the project and the beneficiaries also refused to move in – resulting in the whole project being stalled.
It’s now being reported that vandals took advantage of the situation and started to help themselves to the structures, vandalising and stealing everything.
The Advertiser previously reported that, despite the considerable opposition to the plan, the metro press on with the project, prompting the objectors to take the matter to court – resulting in the project being halted indefinitely.
Prior to this, the human settlements MMC Lesiba Mpya told residents of Angelo that relocations were expected to start on October 5, last year.
The beneficiaries, however, categorically refused to be moved into an area deemed unsafe and located far from their original homes.
At that time, 501 of the total 538 structures were ready for occupancy, while the rest were being finalised.
Hoods said the metro should have directed the money expended in this project into something that could help to ease the housing crisis faced by the region.
“It’s sad that housing department money is going to waste while thousands of our people are, 23 years into democracy, still living in congested squatter camps without proper services and commodities,” said Hoods.
It remains unclear as to why the municipality left the property unsecured.
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