“There are shelters in Johannesburg’s inner city that the displaced people can stay in. They do not want to abide by the rules and regulations that shelters have, such as no alcohol, so they choose to stay wherever they want.”
Mamonyane added that Metro police bylaws dictate that people staying on privately owned land without permission should be removed. “The land next to Macdonald’s, where the displaced were removed on 25 February, is privately owned. The police do not evict people before giving them notice, but in this case the structures set up were informal and new [temporary] so we quickly took them down before the squatters made it a permanent home.” According to Mamonyane, notice was not given because these structures were temporary and not fixed shacks.
Two of the squatters, Memorial and Golden (surnames withheld) confirmed that Metro police just arrived and moved them. “On 25 February, Metro police came and set our things on fire. They told us to leave.”
According to the lawyer for the displaced people, Kgadima Kekana, the matter of the Metro police removals is still in court, as he maintains that an eviction notice was needed.
The squatters complained that all attempts to contact Ward 92 Councillor Leepile Motsumi were to no avail. Midrand Reporter spoke to Councillor Motsumi who said, “I have been tied up in other council duties. I heard that Metro police cleared the land and burnt the plastics (sic) that were there as shelters. I will meet with the displaced people on 28 February.”
The squatters were first evicted from Church Street, across the road from where they now live, in January.
