Police minister yet to be served R600k summons for Pretoria farm invasion
A total of R600,000 was spent to remove the land grabbers and their structures after police failed to take action.
Red Ants remove a group of squatters who invaded the land belonging to Dr Motodi Maserumule in the north of Pretoria.
Police Minister Bheki Cele is yet to receive a summons to recover money spent on removing invaders from an Onderstepoort farm after authorities apparently failed to intervene.
The matter involves a group of squatters who invaded the land belonging to Dr Motodi Maserumule in the north of Pretoria.
A spokesperson for the police ministry said no such summons had been received, reports Pretoria North Rekord.
ALSO READ: AfriForum wants police to remove Pretoria land grabbers
“Last I checked, that hadn’t reached our offices,” Cele’s spokesperson Reneilwe Serero said.
This comes after police allegedly failed to intervene when a group of people descended on Maserumule’s farm and set up shacks in an apparent land grab in August 2018.
Maserumule said he first attempted to get police intervention when he noticed people walking “up and down” on his farm.
“When I went back to the police station to get assistance the people had already set up their shacks but authorities refused to help me,” Maserumule said.
“They refused to open a case until AfriForum came along,” he said.
Maserumule said he approached the civil organisation for it to assist him in obtaining a court order for the trespassers to be removed, and to oblige the police to co-operate.
“After two to three weeks we got the Red Ants to come and remove the structures that were erected.”
He said he ended up spending around R600,000 to get the trespassers and their structures removed.
“It was very costly and it wasn’t supposed to happen,” Maserumule said.
AfriForum head of community safety Ian Cameroon said the organisation got involved in the case to ensure police were forced to do their work.
“We are hoping that this claim will serve as deterrent should the police in future hesitate to execute their constitutional mandate.”
He said they would supervise the litigation to make the community aware the “slackness” of law enforcement would not go unnoticed.
“These summonses will serve as a sword over the head of institutions that are tasked by the constitution to protect citizens against crime, they [law enforcement] need to execute their mandate or carry the consequences,” Cameroon said.
Afriforum legal and risk manager for community safety Marnus Kamfer said the summons made an additional request for the minister to pay for the legal costs of Maserumule’s action.
For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.
