Calm returns to Nellmapius
ANC councillors accused of telling residents to illegally occupy land.
Calm has returned to Nellmapius, Extension 22, after clashes between residents who illegally occupied land and the Red Ants security broke out on Tuesday.
Residents have been illegally occupying land since Friday, but have since left and threatened to go to the Mini Munitoria in Mamelodi West to burn offices.
Clashes started on Tuesday morning when the Red Ants shot protesters with rubber bullets, who then retaliated by barricading Solomon Mahlangu Drive, burning tyres and throwing stones.
The residents said they were sleeping peacefully when the Red Ants entered the area around 06:00 and started forcefully removing residents, stealing their belongings and beating them.
Donald Mazibuko, a resident, said they voted for the DA and they were merely fighting for what they had been promised by the party.
“We want the new mayor of Tshwane to come and address us,” said Mazibuko.
Dumisani Zulu, a youth community leader, said the houses in Nellmapius Extension 22 were abandoned. They found keys to the houses and started living there.
He said what the residents did was not illegal as the houses belonged to them.
“Those houses belong to the residents of Mamelodi, no one else,” said Dumisani.
Some of the residents have been waiting for their RDP homes since 1996.
No comment was received from the Tshwane metro police at the time of going to print.
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