Question NW286 to the Minister of Transport

Reply:

a) The Department has mobilized all relevant stakeholders within the state, and across all three spheres of government, based on their respective mandates to develop and implement a plan to remove the shacks built along the railway line.

The relevant stakeholders are:

• Department of Transport, Department of Human Settlements, Department of Public Works and Infrastructure;
• Western Cape Provincial Government represented by the Departments of Transport and Public Works as well as Human Settlements;
• The City of Cape Town;
• The Housing Development Agency (HDA); and
• PRASA

Collectively, the stakeholders have identified parcels of land to which the illegal occupants in the railway reserves could be relocated to. The relocation was opposed by communities adjacent to the parcels of land identified for the resettlement of the illegal occupants. Alternative parcels of land are being further identified for acquisition to be used for the resettlement.

b) The provision of housing settlements is not within the mandate of the Department of Transport. Hence the Department has partnered with the Department of Human Settlements through the Housing Development Agency (HDA) for the provision of housing structures to those families that would be relocated from the railway reserves. To this extent an Implementation Protocol has been initiated to be signed by all stakeholders involved in the removal of families that have settled within the PRASA reserves. The objective is to identify suitable land for human settlements on which basic services like water and sanitation, roads and other amenities can be installed.