Salvokop informal settlement residents refuse to be relocated to make way for multibillion-rand development project
The Baghdad Informal Settlement in Salvokop stands in the way of a proposed road that will connect the area to the Kgosi Mampuru Prison.
Salvokop residents gathered to discuss the forced move from their homes to accommodate for the Salvokop precinct development project where government will be allocating these residents to newly built shacks, 3 March 2025, Pretoria. Picture: Jacques Nelles/EWN
JOHANNESBURG - Community members from an informal settlement in Pretoria are refusing to be relocated to make way for a multibillion-rand development project.
The Baghdad informal settlement in Salvokop stands in the way of a proposed road that will connect the area to the Kgosi Mampuru Prison.
The road is part of the Salvokop Precinct Development, a mixed-use project launched in 2022 to build government headquarters, commercial buildings and housing in the area.
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Construction has already begun for the road that will pass through the Baghdad informal settlement.
However, residents are adamant they won't move.
Not too far from the settlement are corrugated iron houses where government is planning to relocate the residents of Baghdad.
One of the community leaders, Opulence Mavuso, said that the housing earmarked for them was not satisfactory.
"We have realised those shacks are very, very small to accommodate anyone, so we take it as we are not being relocated but some kind of strategy to evict us, so to speak."
The Baghdad community is planning to protest on Friday in a bid to stop the construction in the area.