CLAIM BACK OUR LAND IN WESTENBURG

We embarked on a strike in 2018 to show our dissatisfaction of how inconsistent is the government treating us in terms of service delivery. 

Some of the key issues was the non functional swimming pool, the bad state of the park and the staduim, the taring of roads in RDP, job creation, housing, local empowerment and the list goes on. 

We specifically addressed the issue of due procedures and processes that were not followed when the land at Westenburg Ext 40 was donated to land claimant of New Petersburg Disteneng Trust. We highlighted firstly the fact that there was no public consultation, secondly the fact that we have people who were forcefully displaced residing in Westenburg but they never formed part of the land claim and were also not considered as legitimate claimants. 

Various government departments were engaged on the issue of the land at Ext 40 and several questions such as what criteria was used to identify legitimate claimants, who represented the immediate affected community in public participation and consultation as per Section 152 of The Constitution Of RSA 1996 but we are still sitting with no answers. We were rather served with a court interdict. 

The main aim of this petition is to highlight the dire need of housing in Westenburg/Ward 19 area and to show that we were never consulted when the Polokwane municipality decided to donate the land at Ext 40 to the department of rural development/COGTHA to be developed for people who obtained a court order against these government departments to be compensated or to be given alternative land as a result of being forcefully removed and displaced from Disteneng. The claimant were offered land next to Serala view but there were unexplainable issues pertaining to the Serala View land and that's when the decision was taken to donate the Ext 40 land. This all happened while our ward councillor is the MMC (Member of Mayoral Comitee) on land and spacial planning which means he knew about everything as no issue pertaining land can be dealt with without going through his office. 

Our rights has been violated and no court interdict will scare or derail us from practicing our democratic rights which are enshrined in the Constitution which is the highest law of the county. 

We are therefore calling on all our people to support this noble cause of fighting for our rights as well as fighting for the land that was meant for the future expansion of Westenburg to avoid three generations staying in the house. 

These are injustices that we should never accept. We are aware of the people who were tasked to distract us and to discredit the fighting for our rights. Please ignore such stupidity and use your energy to fight for the future of our children. 

#Claim back our land 

Ray Goulkan Of Westenburg Development Forum    Contact the author of the petition