The Freedom Front Plus (FF+) intends opposing an African National Congress (ANC) plan for massive resettlement in Tshwane, it said on Monday.
FF+ Tshwane councillor Cornelius Jansen van Rensburg claimed the ANC wants to build 212 000 low-cost houses on every council-owned park and piece of open land in Pretoria and Centurion in the next five years.
”The ANC should take the economy to the poor rather than abandoning them for the sake of their impractical ideologically driven programmes,” he said.
The FF+ agrees with economists that it will be easier to create wealth in previously disadvantaged areas than in more expensive areas.
Jansen van Rensburg said that, according to a report to be made to the council on the plan, ”the eradication of the legacy of apartheid” is its primary driving force.
It indicates that there are 1 801ha of council-owned land within a 20km radius that could be allocated for high-density housing schemes.
Singled out for resettlement are mainly white neighbourhoods in Pretoria and Centurion.
The report proposed no new, large-scale infrastructure investment take place in areas such as Ga-Rankuwa, Mabopane, Soshanguve and Temba.
The influx of hundreds of thousands of people into established areas within a relatively short period will have a devastating effect, Jansen van Rensburg said.
The areas targeted include the Moot, Centurion and parts of eastern and northern Pretoria. — Sapa