Pretoria - The Gauteng provincial government has spent more than R60 million over the past three years guarding vacant properties across the province, some of which have been invaded by illegal immigrants and businesses.
This was revealed by the former MEC for infrastructure development, Tasneem Motara, in two separate written replies to questions from the DA spokesperson on finance, Andriana Randall, in the provincial legislature.
In her latest reply last month, Motara, now MEC for Economic Development, said the Gauteng Provincial Government was spending millions of rand to secure and safeguard 1 836 vested properties and 482 deemed properties.
The Gauteng Department of Infrastructure Development has indicated that for the past three years, the following has been spent on securing and safeguarding properties.
According to Motara, most of the vacant land is in the Joburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni municipalities.
The City of Tshwane has 287 vested land and 57 deemed land units, while the City of Joburg has 591 vested land and 168 deemed land units.
The City of Ekurhuleni has 520 vested land and 110 deemed land units. Midvaal Local Municipality has 96 vested and 35 deemed land units, while Emfuleni Local Municipality has 159 vested and 40 deemed land units.
Lesedi Local Municipality has 72 vested and 13 deemed land units, while Mogale Local Municipality has 52 vested and 30 deemed land units.
Merafong City Local Municipality and Randfontein Local Municipality each have 34 combined vested and deemed land units.
According to Randall, a typical example was the dilapidated buildings in Amandasig in Pretoria North, that have been taken over by illegal invaders, which happened despite having security hired to safeguard the premises.
“This has led to an unsafe environment for our residents and a spike in crime due to alleged drug dealing taking place on these premises.
In November 2021, the department indicated that the property in Amandasig was occupied by 17 Lesotho nationals, however, the DA has learnt that there were at least 300 Lesotho nationals living with South Africans in this building.
“Given the huge amounts of money spent on securing these buildings from being vandalised and illegally occupied, it would be expected that none of the vacant buildings is illegally invaded.
“Furthermore, the department indicated that a process was under way to vest this property, which has been earmarked for nature conservation, to the department. However, there has been no movement, and the building is still illegally occupied,” she said.
Randall said for the longest time, the DA had been warning the current government that the longer these buildings remain vacant, the more they become vulnerable to illegal occupation and vandalism.
She said the DA demanded the department should act swiftly and start the process of evicting the illegal invaders. The party also wants to ensure that those who were paid to safeguard these properties do their work, saying “we cannot allow the department to spend millions on service providers who are unable to do their job properly”.
Randall said new MEC for Infrastructure Development, Lebogang Maile, must urgently do a forensic audit of all government-owned buildings that are vacant and the current state they are in.
Furthermore, the department must put a plan in place to ensure that these properties were used for the benefit of the communities, instead of taxpayers having to fork out more money on vacant buildings.
“We also propose that where the vacant buildings are allocated to specific departments, they must look at ways of using these buildings for the benefit of our residents. In addition, these departments should also consider utilising these buildings, instead of paying an exorbitant amount of money on rental fees,” Randall said.
Pretoria News