At least 18 shacks have been erected near a railway line in Goodwood, a stone's throw away from the Acacia Park Parliamentary village.
But since the shacks were spotted in March and the matter was raised at Parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) little appears to have been been done to curtail possible expansion.
The shack dwellers who claimed they had been told to leave, have questioned why they had been allowed to stay on the site for nearly two years only to be threatened with eviction now.
Amy Simon, 45, who lives in a shack on the piece of land, said she settled there when she heard there was land available.
In the tiny structure, which she revealed she was busy renovating following heavy rains last month, Simon lives with her two adult sons.
She explained she had moved out of her family's home in Kraaifontein to look for work eight years ago.
"I have been staying outside ever since," Simon said.
Simon said they were of the view that the land was vacant and free.
“My understanding is that this land is free, they allowed us to build our ‘hoks’ here. Nobody cared to come and get us when the pandemic hit, why are they wanting to remove us now?
“If we were not allowed, why did they allow us to stay? Why don’t they just give us this land?” Simon asked.
Another shack dweller, Leanna Manewil, also questioned why the City was not allowing them to stay on the land.
She said the community was considering challenging the move to evict them in court.
“We are afraid of being told to leave because we have a lot of stuff and where will we go, but we understand that we can fight and we can go to court,” Manewil said.
Scopa chairperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa said the inaction came as no surprise.
“It’s typical of government to turn a blind eye and then cry wolf when things get out of hand and become a major problem.
“This cannot be seen as a single issue, it is indicative of the snail's pace of how the government responds to issues,“ he said.
Hlengwa, who lives at Acacia Park when in Cape Town, said he was more concerned that this would lead to yet another massive land invasion and likened it to the Philippi railway line land invasion.
“That is not a place that people should reside, we have seen what happens when people shack up near railway lines, and now we have a situation where trains cannot go into Gugulethu, this is a failure to protect infrastructure and it is a dereliction,” Hlengwa said.
While two of the shacks were closer to the Acacia Park parliamentary village, the majority of the shacks were near the railway line outside a perimeter fence.
At the height of the Covid-19 lockdown, thousands of people erected shacks along train tracks in Langa.
The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) turned to the courts to have the shacks removed.
An interdict was granted in August last year.
Questions sent to the the City of Cape Town, the Department of Correctional Services and Prasa were referred to the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) which acts as the landlord to MPs who reside in the parliamentary village.
Prasa spokesperson Andiswa Makhanda said: “It’s not on our property. We have deployed security, working alongside law enforcement agencies to ensure that there is no encroachment on our rail network and rail reserve.
“Anything outside of our rail network and rail reserve is not our jurisdiction. No person is allowed to build their shelters on the rail network and rail reserve.”
She said the relocation process of the people who had illegally occupied the Central Line would be done in different phases, led by the Housing Development Agency.
“Phase 1 is at advanced stages and involves the relocation of the informal settlement around Langa Station.
“Phase 2 is Khayelitsha and Philippi. The relocation requires a bit more time but enumeration has been completed.
“Once alternative land for relocation has been identified, we will be able to provide more information,” Makhanda said.
Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula was in Cape Town this past week to oversee the partial reopening of the Central Line.
Spokesperson for the Department of Public Works Thamsanqa Mchunu said they were unable to respond to queries by deadline.
Weekend Argus