Angelo residents forced to live in squalor while ANC-led Ekurhuleni returns R250 million housing grant back to National Treasury

12 October 2021

Residents of Angelo Informal Settlement, Ward 33 Boksburg, Ekurhuleni have been left to live in squalor and decay by the ANC and its coalition partners in the municipality.

Today, DA Federal Leader, John Steenhuisen, Ward 33 Councillor Candidate, Ashley Hoods, and I visited Angelo to engage with residents and offer them the solutions that a DA-run Ekurhuleni will usher in to improve their living conditions and change their lives.

40 000 people live in Angelo which is built on top of an old mine. The land, which is dolomitic, is unsafe for human habitation.

Residents of Angelo have no access to water, sanitation or sewage. The densely populated settlement has no regular refuse removal, with waste littering the landscape of the settlement.

Instead of providing dignified housing and services to residents of Angelo, the ANC-led municipality spent R23 million to move these residents to a site comprising of 500 new shacks less than a kilometre away from where they currently reside.

Angelo residents were not prepared to move to this new site as they refused to exchange living in one shack for another.

Rightfully so, these residents demanded brick and mortar structures with piped water and access to electricity, sewage and waste removal.

A further R5.5 million was wasted when the municipality rendered the services of the Red Ants to guard these shacks.

After 62 days, the municipality’s contract with the Red Ants lapsed, and within 48 hours, the temporary structures were dismantled, and the materials used to construct them were stolen.

The municipality wasted R28.5 million of public money on a project that should never have been undertaken.

In the previous financial year, the municipality returned R250 million back to National Treasury, money which was earmarked for building dignified housing.

Instead of providing dignified housing to residents of informal settlements, the ANC in Ekurhuleni are happy to keep people living in squalor.

This problem is not unique to Angelo.

The demand for housing in Ekurhuleni far outstrips supply. With every passing year, the demand for housing in the municipality grows while housing developments roll out a snail pace.

Ekurhuleni has the highest number of informal settlements in Gauteng, and with each passing year, this number grows exponentially.

The ANC’s track record of non-delivery over the past 27 years shows that it has no will to improve the living conditions of our people.

Residents of Ekurhuleni cannot endure another 5 years of ANC incompetence.

In the municipalities which the DA governs, the roll out of dignified housing is prioritised. Houses are not built by sub-standard contractors; houses do not fall apart before beneficiaries take occupancy. We do not keep people trapped in a cycle of indignity.

Where the DA governs, housing projects are rolled out on time and the correct beneficiaries of these projects are identified and allocated houses.

Residents of Ekurhuleni deserve the DA-difference.

Come 1 November, residents of Ekurhuleni will have the opportunity to vote in a government that puts them first, a government that gets things done.

Issued by Refiloe Nt’sekhe, DA Ekurhuleni Mayoral Candidate, 12 October 2021