The warning comes after the municipality started effecting a court order on Thursday, last week, preventing a person known to the municipality from invading or procuring, encouraging, soliciting, organising, taking any money whether directly or indirectly in respect of this issue or in any other manner being involved with the invasion of Tsakane Extensions 17 and 21.
Furthermore, the municipality began a process of evicting people who had illegally occupied the said council land earmarked for future development.
“There is a person or a syndicate in the community who has been fraudulently selling council land to unsuspecting community members. This led to land invasion in Extension 17 and 21, Tsakane, almost two weeks ago resulting in the municipality taking legal action,” explains municipal spokesperson Sam Modiba.
The Ekurhuleni Metro on Friday, 09 August, obtained an urgent interdict preventing the illegal selling of council land which was not adhered to.
Modiba says a criminal case has been opened against the person(s) involved in the illegal selling of land.
“We want to sternly warn those that illegally sell land that such actions will not be tolerated and the law will have to take its course and to caution community members not to fall prey to such schemes as they will end up losing their hard-earned money.
“The illegal selling of land not only prejudices the public and private interests but it also infringes on the rights of thousands of households in Ekurhuleni who are denied access to housing and services because of such illegal land occupations and invasions,” states Modiba.
The municipality appeals to community members to always report incidents of land invasion to their nearest law enforcement agencies and where people need to verify the validity of any land transactions, they are welcome to visit the Human Settlement Department offices at customer care centres across the metro.
