By Luvolwethu Ngani
The City of Tshwane has served the Afrikaner settlement of Kleinfontein, east of Pretoria, with a court notice compelling it to file a new spatial planning and land use management application. The community now faces the threat of demolition after being flagged as one of 17 illegal and improperly zoned township establishments in the metro.
According to the municipality, Kleinfontein’s existing land use application, submitted in 2013, has expired and is no longer valid. The city insists the community must reapply in line with current spatial planning and land use management regulations.
Tshwane’s MMC for Human Settlements, Aaron Maluleke, said an August 2024 Gauteng High Court ruling confirmed that Kleinfontein’s governing body had failed to submit the required land-use paperwork.
“The city has classified Kleinfontein as an illegal township — an informal settlement to be precise,” Maluleke said.
Kleinfontein community spokesperson, Dannie de Beer, voiced disappointment, calling the city’s approach punitive and costly.
“Instead of engaging the community around the table, Tshwane has decided to take us to court and threaten us with demolition,” he said. “As far as we know, we are the only settlement being treated this way.”
The settlement, long a lightning rod for debate, has previously been accused by critics of fostering exclusionary practices. Kleinfontein’s leadership, however, insists it is a private settlement with its own rules and regulations.
One Tshwane resident, who asked not to be named, said he was shocked to learn about Kleinfontein’s status.
“I never knew there was an ‘Orania’ in Pretoria. I am disappointed that even with a new mayor, it feels like a small apartheid is happening in Tshwane,” the resident said.
The municipality did not respond to questions at the time of publication.
The Kleinfontein case underscores Tshwane’s broader struggle to regulate informal and unzoned settlements, with officials arguing that stricter enforcement is necessary to bring order and compliance to the city’s development.
