In a statement the North West Department of Local Government and Human Settlements says MEC Matlalepula Rosho promised the residents to engage the municipality to start the relocation process expeditiously. Rosho says the JB Marks Municipality has already started with a process to do land surveying.

In 2017 at least 28 bodies were exhumed in Ventersdorp after the graves were flooded in 2016. The relocation process will also include demarcating the stands to allow the municipality to allocate the stands.

The department says a contractor has already been introduced and relocation has been given a priority. The relocation process began after families laid a complaint against the municipality with the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities. The commission ruled against the municipality. It was ordered to exhume and rebury the remains in a suitable area. The department’s Thabiso Rakgetsi told residents that the developments are as a result of departmental intervention to relocate residents of ward 18 and 27 who have been staying in the informal settlements over eight years. “This informal settlements is not habitable due to illegal dumping which has caused a strong stench as a result of filth. This has posed a serious health hazard particularly to the children and elderly around the area.” “More than six hundred households are affected,” Rakgetsi concluded.

OFM News