Cape Town - The dust appears to have settled on whether illegal occupants living on the Central train line will still be relocated to Macassar.
Earlier this year, it was suspected that the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) intended to relocate the unlawful occupants to the Helderberg region.
The Central Line Relocation and Recovery Project Management Committee quickly put the rumours to bed, saying no land had been acquired in Macassar.
Several entities play a role in the committee, including the City of Cape Town, Prasa, and the Housing Development Agency (HDA), which serves as the primary implementing agency.
The committee said it was still looking for suitable land for the second phase of the relocations through the HDA, and was taking into consideration land parcels, including stateowned land.
Phase 1 has already resulted in the relocation of hundreds of households to a plot of land behind the Philippi Stock Road transportation hub.
Phase 2 includes around 3 950 structures in Khayelitsha, Philippi and Nyanga.
Several months have since passed, and it is still unknown whether any land has been purchased to relocate the individuals.
Prasa's acting regional manager, Raymond Maseko, referred queries to Prasa's head office, which he said handles Central line issues.
No response has been received from Prasa.
Residents of Macassar's Ward 109 had previously objected to the idea of land being bought for any relocations in their community. According to Waseemah Flaendorp, a community activist, they remained opposed.
“Macassar is already overpopulated, and we still experience power outages due to this.
“And with the new housing development, we cannot afford to have more residents, especially shacks with illegal connections,” she said.
The area of Macassar has already fallen victim to illegal land invaders who attempted to put up shacks in the area.
The Sandvlei Neighbourhood Watch recently acted quickly to stop yet another illegal land invasion on Sunday.
byron.lukas@inl.co.za
Cape Argus