Mamelodi’s Nkandla residents evicted
Tshwane metro still waiting for eviction order from the legal department.
More than 40 unfinished structures for shacks were demolished by the Tshwane metro police and the Red ants on Monday at Nkandla Informal Settlement in Mamelodi West, Ward 67.
The rest of the shacks were left untouched because the Tshwane metro was awaiting an eviction order from legal department to remove them as well.
People who settled without permission on a piece of vacant land in Mamelodi B3 a year ago, is living in fear that their shacks could be demolished as part of Tshwane metro’s determination not to tolerate any land grabs.
Naming their settlement Nkandla after the luxurious Zuma homestead in KwaZulu Natal, residents this week expressed concern that they might be linked to the recent land invasions instigated by Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party.
Tshwane mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa told reporters last week that the metro had obtained a blanket court order to evacuate all people who invade municipal land in the city.
The residents said though some people were still in the process of building shacks, most of Nkandla residents had moved onto the land in February last year because they had nowhere else to live. They stated clearly that they had absolutely no political affiliation or motive.
The settlement has more than 500 of the poorest of the poor living there, including children. They said they were happy just to have a roof over their heads, although they struggled with water leakages when it rained.
Annah Mathebula, a resident in the area since last year, said she was excited to have a shelter she could call her own. In the period she and her neighbours had settled on the land, they had turned Nkandla into a small yet peaceful community.
“Having a shack means new life to me. It is the first time I have a place of my own,” Mathebula said.
Mathebula joined those who occupied the piece of undeveloped land after her dream of owning her own RDP house was shattered. She had been on the waiting list for almost 17 years.
“I have been waiting too long. I placed my name, like a law abiding citizen, on the waiting list in 1998 but nothing has happened – only empty promises.”
The mother of two children and a grandma of a one-year-old boy said her shack meant freedom to her.
The Mathebula family survives on monthly government child-grants for two children aged 12 and one.
Nkandla squatter camp spokesperson Terence Shirinda said the land was occupied by Ward 67 people only.
He said there were many people who had applied for RDP houses since 1996 who had not been allocated their homes. The establishment of Nkandla Valley was their solution to their housing problem.
“The population is growing in the area and old houses are overcrowded. People need a place to stay.”
Shirinda said occupying vacant land helped in the fight against crime in the area.
The area was a crime hotspot where residents were robbed of their valuables while going to work and where stolen cars were kept, Shirinda said.
Nkandla residents said they were in the process of requesting the metro to install water and sanitation in the area.
Residents of Ward 67 occupied the empty veld last year February and had been staying there ever since.
Most of the Nkandla residents had been on the RDP waiting list since 1996 and could not afford to buy a house.
“Most of us we are still staying in the backyard rooms of our parent’s houses and with our own children. The children are growing fast and we are running out of space, that is why we occupied the open space.”
They pleaded with the Tshwane metro to provide them with water and electricity.
“The Tshwane metro had no plans with the open veld. We once applied for a community park for our children to play at but the Tshwane metro refused. Our own government has failed us because they sold our own RDP houses to people who don’t deserve the houses,” Shirinda said.
Ward 67 Councillor Dorcas Mathe said: “I told the residents of Ward 67, Mamelodi West to remove their shacks as soon as possible, because the land belongs to the Tshwane metro.”
Tshwane metro police, Superintendent Kuki Shabalala said the department was aware of the problem.
“No one has been allowed to stay there. We have removed all unfinished structures because the law allows us to remove them without a court order when nobody is sleeping in those structures,” he said.
“We are now waiting for an eviction order from legal department to evict the other shacks. We are not sure how long it will take. The sooner the better.”
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