The Department of Human Settlements Public Safety and Liaison has called on municipalities to strengthen and remain rigid on its by-laws, when addressing issues of continues mushrooming of informal settlements. The department made the appeal during the handing over of the informal settlements improvement plan report on Friday in Rustenburg.
Government has since 2004 prioritised the improvement of informal settlements countrywide. The Informal Settlement Upgrading Programme was adopted by government in 2004, as part of the Breaking New Ground Policy (BNG). Through BNG, government committed to “eradicate” all informal settlements by the year 2014, and, provinces and their municipalities were assigned the responsibility to plan and execute the required programmes and projects.
The North West Province was the first province to commission an investigation on the mushrooming and the existing informal settlements in the provinces. The investigations which lasted for the past five years was conducted by the South African National Space Agency. The investigations is said to be going to assist the department and the municipalities in planning and implementing improvement of the informal settlements within the province.
The improvement of informal settlement plan was also set as part of the Millenium Development goal, where the government had hoped to have improved almost all informal settlements in the country by 2014. However according to MEC Mohono, the target period can still be attained if business and other stakeholders join hand with government in ending the ever mushrooming informal settlements within the province.
“I would like to urge all local municipalities, to come up with rigid by-laws that would ensure that we do not see another informal settlement mushrooming in our land. We cannot win this battle if we continue to be held at ransom by our people, who continue to occupy land illegally and continue to add numbers to the ever emerging informal settlements” said MEC Mohono.
According to the investigation there are 140 informal settlements in the province, with Bojanala District accounting for 70% (54 392) households in the province. The total number of dwelling units / shacks / households in informal settlements in the province is estimated at over 77 600. Rustenburg Local Municipality boasts the lion’s share at 34 846 informal settlement households. This figure makes up 45% of all informal settlement households in the province, followed by Madibeng Local Municipality with 15 532 households.
It is estimated that informal settlement households make up a total population of over 310 500 in the province, covering a total geographic area of approximately 1 771 hectares. The report containing maps for all the 140 informal settlements identified, as well as one provincial overview map, four district overview maps and 17 municipal overview maps.
Enquiries:
Simon Lesolang Mmope
Tel: 018 391 0423
Cell: 082 574 7621/078 878 8897
Fax: 018 391 0328
E-mail: smmope@nwpg.gov.za
Plans to eradicate 140 informal settlements in the North West
Province
