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Mangaung human settlement under scrutiny

───   15:28 Thu, 23 Sep 2021

Mangaung human settlement under scrutiny | News Article
PHOTO: Kekeletso Mosebetsi

The state of human settlements in the troubled Bloemfontein-based Mangaung Metro Municipality in the Free State, has once again found itself in the spotlight a month before the municipal elections.

Irate residents of Khayelitsha are up in arms and are accusing officials of the metro of throwing them out in the cold with no alternatives. 

One of the disgruntled residents on the scene tells OFM News that they were issued with a three-day notice to either vacate the residential site they had called home for 8 years or face their shanties being demolished. She says the multitude of residents then this morning complied with the order and vacated the area with heavy hearts but only to be met with hostility by residents of a nearby settlement who wanted them to leave the area. 

The municipality is yet to comment. OFM News previously reported on Caleb Motshabi residents who were also irate over their relocation.


The resident says many of them have lost thousands of rand in transport costs as a result of the forced relocations. The municipality is yet to respond.

"We were once taken to phase 7 and promised sites to reside because we were told that we were residing on land which the municipality earmarked for a project. So we left and tried to relocate at phase 7 but immediately when we got there, some residents threatened to damaged vehicles we used as a mode of transport to relocate. They told us to go back where we came from. Then that's when we decided to come over this side after our calls to municipal officials fell on deaf ears," she adds.

She says she had paid R1500 for transport to relocate and R500 for people who helped to construct her shanty.

"I can't go back to where I had previously lived for 8 years because of the threats and this means I don't have anywhere else to go. The saddest thing is some of my children were born and raised in this area of Khayelitsha," she adds.


OFM News/Lucky Nkuyane and Kekeletso Mosebetsi

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