Hectorspruit land-invasion mystery deepens
Landowners are mystified after a group of people gained access to their property and started preparing a section of the land for development.
HECTORSPRUIT – Landowners are mystified after a group of people gained access to their property and started preparing a section of the land for development.
The property, situated outside town, is bordered by the Mjejane informal settlement. The owners have been plagued by numerous incidents of trespassing.
A few weeks ago, people started clearing trees and bushes in one corner of the land near the road.
A short time later, a high gate and corner poles for a fence were erected.
When one of the landowners approached the group to find out what they were doing, they became violent and he had to flee for his life.
The owners approached the Nkomazi Local Municipality to find out whether it had any knowledge of any development development, but to no avail.
They decided to obtain a court order to prevent the trespassers from entering the land and continuing the work.
According to rumours, the development is a new taxi rank being erected by a taxi association. This was confirmed by several community members but it could not be verified.
Upon enquiry, Mr Cyril Ripinga, spokesman for the Nkomazi Local Municipality, stated that no application had been submitted for such a development and that council had no knowledge of it.
He also urged the landowners to follow the legal route and approach the court for help, as the municipality could not interfere in a matter relating to private land.
Several procedures have to be followed before a large development such as a taxi rank can be established.
The location for the proposed development is also suspect, as there is no official access onto the N4, except for the road registered for the landowners’ use.
Although a court order was granted to the owners, there has been no activity on the land for the past two weeks.
“We have to wait for the people to come back before the court order can be enforced,” one of the landowners explained.
Apart from this strange development, people living on the border of the property have started to move onto the land and have planted illegal gardens. “We’ve tried putting up fences three times, both to mark our property and for security reasons, but it keeps getting taken down by people who live nearby illegally. We don’t know how to stop it anymore,” they said.
They hope to get to the bottom of this issue and speak to the people involved, in an effort to sort out the problem.
Anyone with information is requested to contact the Corridor Gazette offices.
