Old man thrown from own house in Mamelodi
Pensioner Feli Moses Mathebula from Mamelodi West in Section B3 finally moving back to his house after fifteen years.
The startling story of a pensioner thrown out of his house by bogus family emerged in court this week.
Feli Moses Mathebula (81) finally moved back to his house in Mamelodi West in Section B3 on Monday.
This took him more than 15 years.
ALSO READ: Residents to be relocated
A order by the High Court in Pretoria and police intervention made it possible for him to get his house back.
It all started when Mathebula’s wife died more than 15 years ago.
After the funeral, he was thrown out of his house by so-called family members.
Mathebula said he and his wife got married many years before in a traditional wedding.
He then bought the house for his wife in Mamelodi West and they had been staying there since.
“Unfortunately we were not blessed with any children,” he said.
After the funeral, people claiming to be family members said he had to move out, saying the house had been his wife’s property.
Mathebula accused so-called grandchildren from Bushbuckridge of being behind his eviction.
Mathebula said the existence of the self-proclaimed grandchildren was news to him because he and his wife never had children.
ALSO READ: Metro police continue to demolish illegal shacks
He said one of the so-called family members used umuthi to chase him out of the house.
Rituals that he could not stand were performed in the house and he fled, fearing for his life.
Mathebula said he rented a place in the same street for a couple years then he moved to Soul City informal settlement in Section B3.
He stayed there for few more years until the residents were moved to Nellmapius.
With the help of his own family members, he eventually took the matter to court.
The title deed of the house listed him as the owner of the house.
Family member Prince Maluleke said a young man and his mother had taken over the house.
They were collecting rent from tenants living in the house at the time that Mathebula left.
“The mother then left and went back to Bushbuckridge, leaving her son behind,” he said.
ALSO READ: Complaining residents are ‘illegal squatters’
It was later discovered that the young man had been collecting rent money from nine people, some living in shacks in the yard.
At some point, he apparently tried to change the names on the title deed.
Evidence of this was varying names on the electricity bill.
On Monday, the court ordered the young man and his mother and other illegal occupants of the house to move out.
Mathebula was declared the rightful owner of the property.
The young man living there refused to move out until the police gave him two days to vacate the premises.
He did so on Monday and Mathebula moved back into his two-bedroom home.
He changed the locks without delay.
He said he was happy to be back, but discovered that some of his furniture was missing.
Another nasty surprise was an outstanding municipal bill of R480 000 on the property.
Efforts this week to track the illegal occupant down for comment were fruitless.
Comment from the metro could also not be obtained immediately.
Do you have more information about the story? Please send us an email to editorial@rekord.co.za or phone us on 083 625 4114.
For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites:
For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram
