Joburg fire: Ramaphosa wants laws reviewed to fast-track development

President Cyril Ramaphosa wants laws that impede government from addressing development challenges in urban cities including Johannesburg to be reviewed.

He said the fire in Johannesburg this week has shown the impact influx of people into major economic centres has and government not able to deal with development, housing and other challenges.

He said the influx of people was not limited to Johannesburg, but other cities like Cape Town and Durban.

Gauteng was now sitting with a population of 15 million people.

In his meeting the mayoral committee and Premier Panyaza Lesufi after the fire these were some of the challenges they pointed out.

Ramaphosa said some of the victims of the fire were illegal foreign nationals and they did not have papers to be in the country.

But with South Africans, there were those who come from outside Johannesburg but there were budget cuts for housing.

However, added to the challenge was the syndicates who hijack buildings in Johannesburg and charge exorbitant rentals to poor and vulnerable people.

“With the budgetary constraints that we have to rollout housing, we have limitations. We have not been able to address the increased influx of people. Gauteng has grown up to 15 million people and many of them not having housing, living in informal settlements, That has led to people taking over buildings in our cities. But the saddest part is where buildings are hijacked, taken over illegally and those criminals who hijack the buildings then suddenly start levying exorbitant rentals to vulnerable and poor people.

“Local government has to enforce the laws. I am told with regard to that building, local government sought to take people out but it was stopped by a court process. There are laws that need to be enforced and we should look how those people are accommodated, A number of them do not have permits to be in South Africa, That is an added challenge that we have to deal with,” said Ramaphosa.

He said what happened in Johannesburg must be a wake-up for government on how people live.

Ramaphosa said they need to review some of the laws to deal with challenges of development. Laws must not stand in the way of development.

The City of Johannesburg has been battling syndicates who take over buildings for a number of years.

Johannesburg speaker Colleen Makhubele said this week that they have a problem of being taken to court each time they try to remove people from the buildings.

She said this was a major challenge for the city.

Ramaphosa said they must start looking at the laws that would not prevent them doing their work.

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