Tensions flare in Tshwane Council over controversial relocation plan
Pienaarspoort residents rebuild their shacks after they were vandalised by the Red Ants, in this file photo.
The Tshwane Metro Council is once again embroiled in political controversy, with the Freedom Front Plus (FF+) strongly opposing a decision by the Department of Human Settlements to relocate more than 5 000 people to Pienaarspoort — land originally earmarked for just 575 Mamelodi flood victims.
The latest move to resettle an additional 5 200 individuals from informal settlements comes after the City already relocated 811 residents from transitional camps to the same site, allegedly without proper authorisation.
The initial relocation of the 575 flood-affected families in 2020 cost the Metro an estimated R286 million. The FF+ is now warning that the expanded plan could put unsustainable pressure on already strained resources.
The Department has claimed that the upcoming phase of the relocation will not result in further financial burdens for the Metro.
However, FF+ councillors have rejected this assertion, arguing that it fails to account for necessary infrastructure costs such as roads, sanitation, and water supply. According to the party, no funding has been earmarked for this expanded project in the 2025/26 municipal budget.
"This plan is fiscally reckless and unfair to the original beneficiaries," said a senior FF+ representative in the council. "We demand an audit to ensure only verified flood victims benefit from the funding, not thousands more who were not part of the initial plan."
The FF+ has submitted formal recommendations, including a detailed audit of the intended beneficiaries, strict adherence to the original funding mandate, and a transparent financial plan presented to the council before any further relocations occur.
The matter has now escalated into a racial and political flashpoint. The FF+, EFF, and MK Party — already deeply divided along ideological and racial lines — are clashing on public platforms.
While the FF+ accuses the ANC-led administration of mismanagement and financial opacity, the EFF and MKP have countered that the FF+ is opposing land access for the poor under the guise of budgetary concerns.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The South African
an hour ago
- The South African
'Look at Cape Town!': Helen Zille grilled over Joburg mayor bid
South Africans have mixed views over former Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Helen Zille's potential bid to become Joburg's next mayor next year. While the outspoken political leader – dubbed 'Godzille,' – won the World Mayor of the Year in 2008 for governing the city of Cape Town, many believe the two cities are worlds apart in comparison. Dada Morero is the current mayor of Johannesburg, the latest in a long list of short-lived stints by various candidates. One of them is the DA's Mpho Phalatse. Last week, Helen Zille confirmed that she was contemplating the monumental task of running for mayor of Johannesburg. The 74-year-old told the media: 'I have been approached to put my hat in the ring for mayor. I am still considering it and consulting my family.' 'GodZille' – who has been critical of the state of Joburg and its local government – revealed that she would have to make the move alone, as her family is settled in Cape Town. Helen Zille will have until 15 June to make her formal application. On social media, South Africans have been on the fence about Helen Zille possibly being Joburg's next mayor. Some, like author Khaya Dlanga, have urged the country to give her a chance to 'turn things around'. He posted: 'Let me tell you now, if she does, she will win. And not by accident. Like it or not, she has a proven record of turning a city around. Just look at Cape Town. 'You can debate her politics all you want, but she gets things done. Joburg, as it stands, is crying out for that kind of leadership. They want working traffic lights, clean streets, functioning municipalities, not endless excuses. Right now, everyone is complaining about what the ANC has done to the city. Zille offers a real, visible alternative.' However, others argued with Khaya that the DA had failed to govern Johannesburg and even Tshwane, whose mayor, Cilliers Brink, was ousted last year. X user @KobeMalebo posted: 'The DA has actually run all the key metros in Gauteng before and botched it!'. @luphumlongcayis replied: 'The DA or Zille is not some governance miracle. Just look at the City of Tshwane. Under DA leadership, the city fell into chaos: coalition collapse, unpaid workers, budget paralysis, and service delivery failure, especially in black communities and black working-class areas'. Some even pointed to Cape Town's vast divide between the rich and poor, and how the DA under Helen Zille failed to adequately address it. @papizwane2 shared: 'It's so easy to service wealthy people/areas. The true judge of service delivery is what you do for POOR people. So with that being said, how are Khayelitsha, Gugulethu, and the Cape Flats doing? Have their living standards turned around and doing better?' Another, @NkoTengimfene replied: 'The Cape Town you speak of is not the Cape Metro of the poor and working class' And @NolwAzi_Tusini added: 'What metrics are you using to judge Zille's 'success' in Cape Town when that city is so blatantly anti-poor? While many are backing Helen Zille to'save' Mzansi's financial hub, it's clear many South Africans – who reside in both Joburg and Cape Town – believe that the latter is not the benchmark for success. The public complaints around the DA-governed city and tourist hotspot are centred around the following issues… The widening gap between the wealthy and the poor. Poor service delivery in disadvantaged communities. Influx of illegal immigrants. Prevalence of crime and gang violence in townships. Let us know by leaving a comment below, or send a WhatsApp to 060 011 021 1 . Subscribe to The South African website's newsletters and follow us on WhatsApp , Facebook , X, and Bluesky for the latest news.
TimesLIVE
3 hours ago
- TimesLIVE
15 states sue over Trump move to return seized rapid-fire devices for guns
Fifteen Democratic-led US states filed a lawsuit on Monday seeking to block Republican President Donald Trump's administration from returning thousands of previously seized devices that can be used to convert semi-automatic rifles into weapons that can shoot as quickly as machine guns. The states filed the lawsuit in federal court in Baltimore in the wake of the administration's May 16 settlement that resolved litigation involving a ban on certain 'forced-reset triggers' imposed by the government under Trump's Democratic predecessor Joe Biden. The states in the lawsuit said such devices remain illegal to possess under federal law. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives under Biden issued the ban after it determined that some of these devices should be classified as illegal machine guns under a federal law called the National Firearms Act. 'We will not stand by as the Trump administration attempts to secretly legalise machine guns in an effort to once again put firearms industry profits over the safety of our residents,' New Jersey attorney-general Matthew Platkin said. The lawsuit was led by New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland, and also included the states of Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington as well as the District of Columbia. The Trump administration's settlement reversed course on the Biden administration's policies. The settlement resolved lawsuits brought by a gun rights group challenging the ban and cases brought by Biden's justice department against a manufacturer of the devices. Those cases had resulted in conflicting court rulings over the legality of classifying these devices as illegal machine guns. As part of the settlement, the Trump administration agreed to not apply the machine gun ban to such devices as long as they are not designed for use with handguns and agreed to return nearly 12,000 forced-reset triggers that had been seized by the government to their owners. The new lawsuit seeks to block the return of these devices to their owners. The states said conversion devices like forced reset triggers have been frequently used in recent years in violent crimes and mass shootings, and that at least 100,000 such devices that were distributed nationally in recent years should be considered illegal machine guns. The justice department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Daily Maverick
3 hours ago
- Daily Maverick
Mathews Phosa's memoir is a bold narrative of political influence and resilience
This book is an elegy to a beloved political party and a failing, if not failed state. Mathews Phosa is devastating in his truthfulness, and stunning in his attempt to be generous to friend and foe alike. To bring her children up and to provide them with as much supplementary home-schooling support as she could, Reshoketjoe Phosa, Mathews Phosa's mother, indefinitely postponed the start of her own career as a professional nurse. She was a natural-born entrepreneur, a biscuit vendor and a maker and seller of ladies' hats as well as a prize-winning retailer of a popular brand of pyjamas. His father, Paul Phosa, was a teacher, principal and a serial builder of schools in many villages scattered around Nelspruit. This thanks to his artisan training in carpentry, building and plumbing, as well as his training as a teacher. When Mathews Phosa was of school-going age, his parents sent him back to their own roots — a farm called Polen near Mokopane — where he was raised by his grandfather Mathews Phosa Senior, after whom he was named. Grandpa Phosa was a devout Christian and a strict disciplinarian who was determined to shelter, cushion and shield his grandson from the 'contamination' and the dangers of South African politics. But guess what: as soon as Matthew Phosa 'broke free' from Grandpa's leash and became a high school student at Maripi High School in 1967, he dived headlong into the furious river of South African (student) politics, only to come up for air 50-something years later. Phosa's political memoir Witness to Power is an attempt to narrate and to review, in 18 chapters, his 50-something year journey into politics. More than a Witness We must resist Mathews Phosa's spirited, if also poetic, attempt to have us believe that he was a mere 'witness to power' as the title of his latest book and its contents seem to suggest. I put this to Phosa as we talked about his most recent work, Witness to Power: A Political Memoir, at the 'VC Book of the Month' conversation held at the Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria Campus, on 3 June 2025. The noun 'witness' conjures up the image of a curious spectator, a disinterested onlooker, a passive observer, an innocent bystander, an outsider who happened to be eavesdropping, from time to time, or someone compelled, by force of law, to testify. Phosa was and is none of the above. Not only has he been influential in the ANC, but his influence has been both national and international — putting him on first-name terms with several African presidents. In this book, he takes special pride in his unofficial role as ANC deal-breaker, kingmaker and king-breaker, as well as his informal roles as adviser and confidante to former presidents Nelson Mandela and Jacob Zuma as well as his close relationship with Thabo Mbeki in exile. He fondly recalls his camaraderie with Cyril Ramaphosa, a fellow student at Turfloop in the 1970s. Phosa puts a high premium on his relationship with Mandela, who, he suggests, sought his advice on who to appoint as deputy president of the country in 1994. At that time, Phosa voted for Mbeki, we are told. But things would later change. More than three decades of influence Phosa bitterly laments in various chapters of his book how former president Mbeki refused to reappoint him for a second term as premier of Mpumalanga. He ruminates over his time as treasurer-general of the ANC, member of the National Executive Committee and his failed attempt to become deputy president and president of the ANC. After the ANC's 2007 Polokwane conference when an increasingly (self?) isolated Mbeki 'ruled the country as a lone ranger' and 'began to run programmes parallel to the ANC's national programme', Phosa took the lead in the formulation and tabling of the unprecedented NEC motion to recall Mbeki in September 2008. This happened moments after Phosa had discreetly approached Zuma, 'two seats away from me… and asked him, 'Mr President, do you still need Thabo?'' Later when Phosa 'witnessed corruption and State Capture under the Zuma presidency on a scale that we could not have imagined when we ascended to power in 1994', he did more than just speak against it. When Zuma sought his advice on whether to resign or not to resign in their marathon meeting during the night of 13 February, 2018, Phosa advised and persuaded Zuma to resign, which he did publicly, the next day. Clearly, Phosa cannot meaningfully be described as a mere 'witness to power'. Admittedly many may, and some will, disagree with Phosa's version of what went on in the corridors of power and his precise role in it. But few will deny that he has been influential. For more than 30 years, Phosa has been a wielder of power even if he did not get to exercise as much power as he may have fancied, for as long as he might have preferred. For the poet that Phosa is, it is possible that his idea of being a 'witness to power' is intended metaphorically — as a teaser rather than a clincher, not so much to denote as to provoke, and not so much impose as to evoke. Indeed, part of the original meaning of the noun 'witness' is taken from the classical Greek word from which we have inherited the word 'martyr'. In its original meaning, a martyr is someone unafraid to bear witness even in the face of torture and at the risk of death. While Phosa may not be regarded as a martyr by any stretch of the imagination, perhaps his fearless denunciation of comrades and foes on matters of corruption and political principle has frequently exposed him to the dangers of character assassination, at least. Ready to wield power – again? The heart of this 18-chapter book is in chapters seven (Premier of Mpumalanga), eight (Trouble in [Mpumalanga] Paradise) and nine (Out of the Fold). These are easily some of the most emotional chapters in the book. Phosa seems to regard his tenure as premier as both the zenith and the nadir of his political power. Though he claims that the matter is water under the bridge, the incident of 24 April 2001 — when the then minister of police Steve Tshwete announced on national television that Phosa, Ramaphosa and Tokyo Sexwale were involved in a plot to harm and/or overthrow Mbeki, only to withdraw the allegations on 4 December, 2001 — appears to remain at once a sticking point and a turning point. Throughout his book, Phosa tries hard to maintain an air of objectivity and generosity, often finding reason to say something good about all the main characters in his book, with mixed results. Between, above and beneath the lines, behind and in front of the seemingly benign adjectives and adverbs that are occasionally summoned to describe friend and foe with kindness, the smell of anger, disappointment and fury is palpable across the pages of this book. This book is an elegy to a beloved political party and a failing, if not failed state. Phosa is devastating in his truthfulness, and stunning in his attempt to be generous to friend and foe alike. As he winds the book down to a hopeful end, Phosa says: 'In my own journey I have tasted both success and failure. After serving my term as premier of Mpumalanga, I was elected to the NEC of the ANC and later served as treasurer-general for a term. My nomination for deputy president did not succeed, nor did my later campaign for the presidency of the party. In success and failure, I have learnt a few lessons about the nature of politics in South Africa. … I stand ready to make a contribution again.' This passage is part of a repeated refrain in this book of anger and ferocity. Surely, this book is about more than a mere 'witness to power'! But could it be a political manifesto through which Phosa is announcing his readiness to stand (again) for election and for leadership? Could this be Phosa's version of Barack Obama's The Audacity of Hope (2006), which was an integral but disguised part of the election manifesto that catapulted him into the US presidency in 2008? Phosa's Witness to Power may be a statement of farewell to political innocence, but nothing in it intimates, let alone announces, a loss of appetite for political power. DM
