The dust appears to have settled on whether squatters living on the central railway line will still be relocated to Macassar.
Earlier this year, it was rumoured that the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) intended to relocate the unlawful occupants to the Helderberg region.
But the Central Line Relocation and Recovery Project Management Committee (PMC) quickly put the rumours to bed that no land had been acquired in Macassar.
Several entities play a role in the PMC, such as the City of Cape Town, Prasa, and the Housing Development Agency (HDA), which serves as the primary implementing agency.
It was disclosed at the time by the PMC, which was established to oversee the relocation procedure, that no land had been purchased.
It stated that the committee was still looking for suitable land for the second phase of the relocations, including state-owned land.
Phase 1 has already resulted in the relocation of hundreds of households to a plot of land behind the Philippi Stock Road transportation hub.
Phase 2 involves around 3,950 households in Khayelitsha, Philippi, and Nyanga.
In response to whether there have been any new developments, Prasa's acting regional manager, Raymond Maseko referred queries to Prasa's head office which handles the central line issues.
No response has yet been received from Prasa.
Residents of Macassar's Ward 109 had previously objected to the idea of relocations.
Waseemah Flaendorp, a community activist says: “Macassar is already overpopulated, and we still experience power outages due to this. And with the new housing development we cannot afford to have more residents, especially shacks with illegal connections.”
The community also believes that crime will increase.
On Sunday the Sandvlei Neighbourhood Watch acted quickly to stop an illegal land invasion.
Ward Councillor Peter Helfrich says most of these planned invasions are carried out by groups and people looking to make money off of unlawful land sales.
byron.lukas@inl.co.za