The relocation of the Thembelihle community to Vlakfontein is set to continue depsite the protests of a ”small group” who were exploiting the situation for their own political agenda, Johannesburg’s mayor said on Friday.
”It is regrettable that certain elements within the community seek to politicise and ride on the tide of a potentially volatile situation. Some people are creating the impression that people don?t want to move,” Mayor Amos Masondo said.
Earlier this week a school in the area was bombed by protestors who have also staged numerous road blockages over the past few weeks in an effort to sabotage the relocation.
The Pan African Congress on Thursday called for the council to stop relocating people from Thembelihle, which is being done because the area is the site of large dolomite deposit and is therefore unsuitable for development as a residential area.
Masondo said that to date 1 300 families had moved voluntarily from the area and that efforts were being made to facilitate their needs after transfer. For example, the council had hired buses to take relocated children to their schools which were now further away, he said.
A further 700 families had approached the council to request their own relocation to Vlakfontein and this was in the process of being organised. – Sapa