Illegal occupants are currently being evicted out of the Ga-Rena Rental Village by the Polokwane Municipality.

Municipal property assistant manager, Robert Maetisa, says the eviction comes after a court order was obtained.

He says occupants owe the Polokwane Housing Association (PHA) over R63m in services and rental.

“The PHA is an entity of the Polokwane Municipality who executed a court order to evict all illegal occupants in 117 of the 508 units in the complex,” he says.

Maetisa adds that the rental village was hijacked in 2012 by tenants who took over and allocated units themselves.

“We have been engaging with these illegal occupants since 2018 and gave them an opportunity to obtain a lease to start paying rent. A few obliged but the rest blatantly ignored our calls,” he says.

Maetisa adds that the occupants are in the process of appealing the eviction, and that the Municipality will stop the eviction once they receive official documents.