KNYSNA NEWS - The residents of Hlalani, although thankful that they now have electricity in most of their homes, are claiming that the Knysna Municipality is still not answering their call for basic services.

According to several letters, dating back to August 23, addressed to both the director of Community Services, Lauren Waring, and the Knysna municipal manager, Johnny Douglas, Hlalani residents ask that the Municipality provide answers to several pressing issues.

"We are so very unhappy about the residents who are left without the Erf Numbers while we were fighting together for services in Hlalani," reads one such letter addressed to Waring. The letter expresses residents frustration at not being given answers by several Municipal employees. "We will be so glad if our request can reach your favourable consideration today (23/08)."
A second letter, addressed to Douglas and received on September 7, further expresses the community’s frustration of not having received a reply to the previous letter. "By writing this letter we are also trying to ask you to participate in order to finish up about the residents’ sites at Hlalani." It states that "the electrification of Hlalani is nearly to be finished, while others left without their own sites and erf numbers".

On September 14, the Hlalani community leader expressed his frustration and fear that the residents were reaching the end of their tether. "The community is in an aggressive mood," said the leader. "The municipality will not help us, and I am nervous that the community will start to march and do naughty things again." He further explained that various homes that had been electrified are being sold to outsiders while bona fide residents remain without homes. "The municipal had promised to fix this problem." Douglas was contacted and the situation explained. "It is a pity that Mr (name withheld) does not address his issues directly to us," he said. "It is also clear that the community is unwilling to take responsibility for the space they occupy and we rely on a co-operative approach in such matters. As there is no secure tenure, we can unfortunately not stop an individual from ‘selling’ his shack and in cases such as this the community often has a greater sway. If a new structure goes up we will take all steps required." He concluded by saying that the situation was being addressed.

However, after a meeting held between the Hlalani Committee and the municipality on September 22, the residents felt no closer to receiving the answers they were looking for. "During this meeting we were not given any answers to the housing problem as well as other services asked for." said the leader.
A further letter was submitted by the Hlalani Committee to Douglas on September 22, wherein the residents state: "We kindly wanted to tell you that we have discussed other issues with Madam Lauren (Waring), but some of them were not in her department. That is why we decided to write you a letter, the things that were not on her department are as follows, additional taps, construction of roads, retaining walls, street lights and cleaning process."

When asked for a response to that letter, Douglas replied: "Issues raised in (name withheld) letter do not speak to his allegations of the sale of sites in Hlalani. The correspondence as referred to has been received and distributed amongst our various departments for comment. We will respond directly to the community on this matter."

Article: Fran Kirsten


Several Hlalani residents have been left to live on this dumping site, claiming that the Knysna Municipality had failed to provide them with Erf numbers and plots as previously promised by the Municipality.


The Hlalani residents have asked the Municipality to address several issues, including the lack of roads as previously promised. Here a community leader walks on a ‘road’ which, the community claims, has not yet been addressed by the Municipality.