Residents feel victimised by Metro police

Alexandra residents in Extension 9 were living in fear everyday as they felt victimised by Metro police who threatened to take down their shacks.

The residents who live in RDP flats close to the Jukskei River said Metro police have been harassing them about the shacks in their yards.

The residents complained that the houses were too small and they built shacks to make more room for their large families. This was not the case for some residents. One who preferred not to be named said, “I don’t work and the shacks help because I can rent them out, I have to make ends meet.”

The residents were initially given 48 hours to remove the shacks, but after talks with the police they were given three months. The homeowners may only extend their houses after 2015, five years after occupancy.

“They say we don’t have title deeds to the houses so they belong to the government,” said another resident who wanted to remain anonymous.

“There was also one house where the occupant had extended with bricks, but the police took down the house. If these are not our houses then whose are they because we live in them,” asked another frustrated resident.