An urgent plea for the Harmony Gold mining company and the Matjhabeng Municipality to intervene in a land grab has seemingly fallen on deaf ears.
The plea was made on 29 January, and to date nothing has been done. The developing settlement is situated on Vlakvlei Farm 121 near the North West stadium, and it is burgeoning by the day.
Cllr Igor Scheurkogel has taken it upon himself to fight for the residents in the area who are concerned for their safety.
A desperate resident wrote in a WhatsApp message to Scheurkogel that the situation is getting out of hand.
“Can you a stop these people before it is too. Please get the MM (municipal mayor) to send law enforcement to deal with them.”
He reported that there were people building near a dumping area and that children were playing in medical waste. “So those people who are building shacks there, if they get sick or something who is to be blamed,” he wrote.
The property belongs to Harmony Gold, as does the property on which the settlement called Golf Course and the one in Alma Road called Speelmansville have been erected.
In Vlakvlei, there are already 11 new sites since it was first reported in January. At Golf Course there are 236, and at the stadium there are 26 sites housing long-time residence.
In a media enquiry Vista asked Harmony Gold to comment on the illegals living on Harmony ground in Matjhabeng, adversely affecting surrounding communities. Vista made specific reference to the three aforementioned settlements. They have not responded.
Scheurkogel is desperate to solve the situation. He says that since his term as ward councillor started in November 2021 and even before that, Harmony and Matjhabeng’s department of human settlements have not been taking responsibility for their entities to prevent continuous land invasions.
The residents of Golf Course have been waiting since 2008 for sites.
“The whole process of assisting residents to get sites so that they can then be registered on the National Housing Needs Register (NHNR) has been politicised. Senior members of council have told residents ‘because you voted for the opposition, you will not get sites’.”
Scheurkogel has confirmed with the residents of Golf Course who say that sites are being wrongly allocated to destabilise the community.
“With this new landgrab next to the stadium, people have built houses on a soccer field that is used by the community over the weekend. This is where the annual Youth Day soccer tournament, which attracts teams from all over Matjhabeng, is held. So the careless act of the individual who is guilty of wrongfully placing these people has now taken away something that is dear to the youth of this community.”
Sheurkogel says that within ward 35 the plight of the Golf Course residents and those living in the Reahola housing complex have been completely ignored by Harmony and the Matjhabeng Municipality’s human settlements department.
“Both Matjhabeng and Harmony are not coming to the table to present solutions to give these people dignity. They rather continue to use “red-tape” and political diversion tactics not to provide these communities with the services and stability they desperately seek from Matjhabeng.
