In a statement released today (Friday), the municipality condemned the Newtown woman for spreading misleading information in her online video.

The video shows the woman, an illegal occupant, accusing the municipality of mistreating her family.

She was renting a backroom in Newtown owned by a leaseholder. The municipality said the stand the woman lives on is not hers.

“The leaseholder’s mother passed away after receiving her Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) House, which she applied for years ago, but the leaseholder (her son) became the beneficiary and took over his mother’s RDP house after her passing.

The leaseholder has now moved to the new RDP House in Rockdale. The municipality has since 2018 moved 812 residents from Newtown informal settlement to Newtown Extension 1, where RDP houses have been built to replace the shacks they lived in and to provide our people with dignified homes,” said Municipal Manager Mandla Mnguni in a press release.

According to the council resolution, the municipality must demolish the structure the leaseholder lived in to prevent illegal settlements.

The woman has to find alternative accommodation since she was renting from the leaseholder.

The municipality urged residents to refrain from spreading misinformation and to seek clarification from relevant departments.