25-year-old informal settlement still lacks basic services

GPO informal settlement in Dutywa, Eastern Cape has been around for 25 years yet lacks basic services. Photos: Manqulo Nyakombi

“This is one of the most forgotten places,” says resident Thozama Nyathela of GPO informal settlement in Dutywa, rural Eastern Cape.

GPO has been around for 25 years, yet lacks basic services. Home to about 300 households, up to 20 families share one self-dug pit toilet, while many people relieve themselves in the bush. Residents use illegal connections for electricity. There is one water tank. When it runs out, people have to ask for water from the nearest houses.

The only advantage to staying in GPO is its proximity to the town’s business centre and a school.

Mbashe Local Municipality spokesperson Nomakhulu Dingane said the municipality is planning to relocate the GPO residents to an area called Zone 14, two kilometres away. She said a contractor was on the site and had drawn up a layout plan, but Dingane could give no timelines.

According to Dingane residents have to date for various reasons refused offers to relocate.

Community leaders did not want to speak to us, saying they fear the municipality will then deliberately ignore the settlement. But residents we spoke to say it is not the case that they refused relocation, and they have been begging the municipality to relocate them for over a decade.

Nyathela, for one, said, “At first the municipality said there’s no land to relocate us, and that they can’t develop our area [GPO] because we built our shacks in a wetland.”

Then around the time of the 2014 general election “they came back to tell us that they had found land, but nothing happened”, she said.

Nyathela said they voted ANC “because our fear was that if we choose a different political party the relocation will delay; not knowing that we were only being fed empty promises.”

Resident Bhekumuzi Fikani said numerous meetings were called with the municipality, and promises were made, but nothing was implemented.

“This thing about relocation is not new. There was a time when we were told that we will be moved in three years. That three years passed. Another ward councillor was elected and continued with the same empty promises.

“Two years ago, we were begging the municipality to open the streets inside the informal settlement. We were told that a bulldozer will be sent. We are still waiting,” said Fikani.

More than 20 households in GPO informal settlement share this one pit toilet.

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