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Ekurhuleni mayor, Nkosindiphile Xhakaza speaks to members of the media.
The Ekurhuleni Mayor Nkosindiphile Xhakaza says if they abandon their operation to evict people who are illegally occupying some buildings in the city, they would have failed as government.
He was commenting following the eviction of Pharoe Park flats residents in Germiston East of Johannesburg yesterday.
Xhakaza says if the government fails private sector will lose its confidence in the city.
“We’ve been running different incentives to encourage the property owners here to stay in the city. If we actually incentivise you, you do not pay money into our corpus. You reinvest the money back into the upkeep and upgrade of your facilities, that’s how we then build partnerships.”
“So that we encourage the private owners of these buildings to come back and actually invest. But if we give up as a number one stakeholder, there’s no reason that the private sector will have confidence to come back and re-invest in these CBDs. Then it will mean we’ve actually given up on them,” adds Xhakaza.
Meanwhile, the Forum of South Africans (FOSA) has condemned the torching of Home Affairs offices and illegal occupations of buildings in Germiston but points the finger at the Ekurhuleni Municipality for allowing the crisis to escalate.
FOSA claims corrupt municipal officials enabled illegal occupants to reside in the flats for over a decade, only for them to now face eviction for non-payment or unlawful tenancy.
Forum for South Africa national leader, Tebogo Mashilompane says, “We are told by people who are staying in the flats that there’s corruption taking place with regards to unlawful occupation. It’s not even in Germiston, only. So, what is happening, they allow people to come in and then they pay rent to some officials – that is what was taking place.”
“So, now suddenly they say they are illegal, that’s our problem because you can’t allow people, and then after you say they are illegal, after you’ve left them for a long time – and the simple question is who gave them the keys,” adds Mashilompane.
