Residents use councilor’s name to make money

BARBERTON – Land-grabbing and invasion are still very rife here and it is giving the Umjindi Local Municipality sleepless nights.

Just a few weeks after the Kosovo Villa residents vowed to defy the Northern Gauteng High Court interdict issued on behalf of the municipality, it has emerged that residents, most from Ext11, have invaded an open area in Ward 4, near Sigwagwane Farm.

This reporter interacted with various residents who were busy erecting shacks and they voiced out different views as some indicated that they had decided to occupy the land since they were struggling to get houses.

They argued that if the municipality could provide land for the Kosovo Villa residents, they too will stand to benefit and stop invading open land.

This paper has since learnt that the new occupants allegedly paid between R800 and R1 500 for the stands.

Mpumalanga News spoke to Mr Wonder Maseko, who is a member of the Branch Executive Committee established to monitor the area, and he said, “We were very shocked when we learnt that people are invading the land. I want to state clearly that what they are doing is against the law and we hope the municipality will take steps very soon before the situation gets out of control.

“I spoke to our councillor and she said she did not know anything about the matter.”

“All the shacks here have stand numbers, so those who are building in the open space are wasting their time and energy and it’s just sad that some of them have invested their money in this,” he added.

It is reported that the UML squatter controller, Ms Sakhile Jele approached those people and urged them to stop building but her pleas fell on deaf ears.