Thembelihle after protests on Wednesday. Photo: Zoë Postman
12 April 2018
On Wednesday, about 100 residents from Thembelihle protested over the delay in the release of the full dolomite report conducted by the Department of Human Settlements in 2015. Violence erupted when the protesters threw stones at the police and the police fired rubber bullets and tear gas. GroundUp saw at least six people being arrested on the scene.
The report in question is to determine the extent of dolomite deposits in and around Thembelihle informal settlement, located south of Johannesburg. Dolomite is a type of rock susceptible to the formation of sinkholes.
A member of the Thembelihle Crisis Committee Mondli Mabuza said the report was crucial to determine the future of Thembelihle. “If the report comes back negative, it means the City will be forced to develop our area and build houses for the community. If it comes back positive, we want to be relocated to a place that is close to Thembelihle because most people work here in Lenasia [nearby], so we can’t be moved to a far place,” said Mabuza.
“We want to know what the delay has been since 2015. I suspect that they [Human Settlements] are withholding the report because they don’t want to develop our area because they want to relocate us,” said Mabuza.
Victor Dintoe has been a resident in Thembelihle for ten years. He said nothing much has changed besides the area was electrified and only after the community protested. He said it took seven years for the City to install electricity.
Dintoe said he believed the only way to get service delivery was through protest action.
“The formal way always takes too long. The [ward] councillor made many promises like building a police station, a free crèche and to develop the land in general, but nothing has happened besides painting a community centre,” said Dintoe.
According to the spokesperson of the crisis committee, Nhlakanipho Lukhele, after a protest turned violent in January a meeting was held with the City in February, where it released the report. But when an independent geologist reviewed the report, Lukhele said there was information missing. The City was asked to supply the missing information but it has not responded.
“This incomplete report is just dragging out service delivery, particularly housing,” Lukhele said.
Ward Councillor Mosotho Tsotsetsi said he had a version of the report but it was not complete. He said the crisis committee had been invited in November 2017 to a meeting with the City and the geotech company from Pretoria, but the crisis committee had not attended “because they wanted to be invited by the Mayor himself and not his office”.
He said there would be a meeting with Human Settlements at 2pm on Thursday to resolve the issue.
Human Settlements did not respond to GroundUp by the time of publication.