“If you don’t want to move we will just bring the digger loader.”
This is allegedly what residents of the Langrug informal settlement in Groendal, Franschhoek were told would happen if they did not leave their homes next month. They claim their homes would quite simply be destroyed around them.
According to Pastor Putuma Xhayi his 15-year-old church, St John’s Light of the World, cannot simply be picked up and moved to another location, because it has five additional shacks in Langrug where sick people and drug addicts are helped by the parishoners.
“I was told I must write a letter to Stellenbosch Municipality to ask for land, but the people who came here said they don’t have anything to do with the church. All they’re concerned about are shacks.”
Municipal officials informed Xhayi and the rest of Langrug A’s residents that they needed to move because their homes are built below the flood-line. The municipality is set to construct a dam in the location, with the work set to commence in April.
But residents claim flooding only occurs in the shacks – fewer than 50 homes – adjacent to the proposed dam. They see no need to move from their four-room homes to the “hokkies” the municipality built down the hill.
Municipal spokesperson Stuart Grobbelaar says the move is a necessary to protect those currently living directly below the dam. “Approximately 220 families will be temporarily relocated to the Temporary Relocation Area (TRA) in new structures to ensure their safety while rehabilitation work and construction take place in the Langrug Dam area,” he explains.
The relocation is expected to start mid-April and the rehabilitation project is anticipated to take between three to five years.
Costs of shacks
Resident Ntombifikile Mvango said she and her four children cannot move down the road.
“I built my house after I made a loan of R80 000. Every month I pay R3 200 on this loan, and now I must move? I have a dining room, lounge, kitchen and two bedrooms. There will be no space for me to put all my furniture. What does the municipality expect me to do?”
– Mvango
Along with the space constraints of the “hokkies” residents are weary of the municipality’s temporary housing.
“We have seen what they do to residents here in Groendal and in Khayamandi,” explains Kholeka Xuza, a resident of Langrug since 2006.
“They say it is temporary, but then it is 17 years later and the people still live there. We are comfortable in the homes we made here and don’t believe that we need to move because of this dam project.
“We found out we had to move only this month, because we only heard of two previous meetings after the fact. We didn’t know the meetings were about us.”
She says residents had installed a tap from the nearby reservoir, laying pipes for drainage and, in some cases, their own toilets because the municipality failed to provide basic services to the whole settlement.
Langrug is the second-biggest informal settlement in the municipal area, after Khayamandi and, according to the Informal Settlement Support Programme 2023 Database, had 1 807 structures.
From one shack to another
According to Xuza some residents are willing to move, because they have smaller homes and no electricity, which means the move will be an upgrade for them. However, for most it will be “like putting an animal in a cage”.
The wendy houses the municipality has been erecting in anticipation of the move is equipped with portable toilets and paved walkways between the homes. Langrug residents are concerned the structures are too close together and fear the fire risk it poses.
Isaac Davids, community activist of Concerned Residents Franschhoek, says the relocation needed to come with some assurance for Langrug residents.
“We need a guarantee that this temporary move will ultimately lead to permanent homes as approved in the Municipal Integrated Development Plan and not hokkies. The municipality can avail land for developments, but our people are moved like dogs from one hok to another. This is a violation of human rights,” Davids says.
According to Grobbelaar the municipality has an approved Housing Pipeline and had submitted applications to the national Department of Public Works and Infrastructure to secure access to suitable housing developments in Franschhoek.
However, it is not clear what the timeline for this application is.
Meanwhile, the municipality says it remains in continuous communication with the families and is committed to finding amicable solutions to ensure the project’s smooth progress.
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