Hekpoort residents are in an epic battle to get the Mogale City Council to stop an influx of tens of thousands of apparently unemployed vagrants in the area.
In an interview with BizNews, attorney Christopher Bean described the drama surrounding the council’s building of 208 low-cost houses in an area where there was an invasion in 2019, and around which between 150 000 and 200,000 people are living in squatter camps without facilities.
According to Bean, a sewage pipe runs from a housing development scheme for low-cost housing in Hekspoort straight into the Magalies River. The Magalies River flows into the Hartbeesport Dam.
“To add to the crisis, local residents have said that if outsiders get those houses, they’re going to burn them down. “…it is no longer a question of providing housing for local people. It is now using this whole area to relocate thousands of people from the Krugersdorp area to another place where there are no jobs and no accommodation. There is no water, no sewerage, no schools, there is no nothing!”
“The community brought an application in the High Court because when we went to see Mogale City, we were told that we didn’t know what we were talking about and they didn’t give us any information. As a result, we were forced to bring an application to compel them to disclose what their intentions really were,” he said.