The Mitchells Plain community says it won’t allow the Langa railway shack dwellers into the area.

The Housing Development Agency and Prasa are planning to relocate the illegal dwellers to the Weltevreden Wedge at the Philippi Horticultural Area.

But the area’s ward councillor says that can’t happen, because due process has not been followed and the community has not been allowed to give input.

Metrorail’s Central line is being resuscitated, but a big hindrance to that, is the more than one thousand people who’ve set up shacks on the railway tracks during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In July, Prasa and the shack dwellers were shown the piece of land they would be resettled on by Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula.

But ward councillor, Elton Jansen, says it won’t be allowed to happen.

“I was reliably informed that PRASA still has not bought any land on the Wedge. As result, no land user application or planning application has been submitted to the City council. Public participation is legally required when the planning application is submitted. It must be noted that PRASA cannot relocate people without these approvals”.

Jansen says the community fears that crime will spiral further out of control if the shack dwellers are allowed to relocate there.

“I don’t support any relocation to the Wedge because further down there’re several informal settlements in the area, including Siqalo, and this is a recipe for disaster. Having said that we all want to see the Central Line being reopened, but the  Weltevreden Wedge is not a suitable site for this relocation”.