UPDATE: Eviction of Olievenhoutbosch home grabbers at “advanced stage”
The houses were finished in 2015, but were taken over before the rightful owners could move in.
Plans to evict a group of people accused of “stealing” RDP houses previously promised to Mooiplaas residents are at “an advanced stage”.
This was according to Gauteng human settlements department spokesperson Tahir Sema.
The houses in question were finished back in 2015, but were taken over by people from Olievenhoutbosch before the rightful owners could move in.
“The process of evicting these illegal occupants is at an advanced stage,” said Sema.
The department did not elaborate.
“The houses will be allocated after the eviction.”
Sema said the invaders appealed their eviction, forcing the department to awaiting the court decision.
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Earlier this year, about 1 500 residents in the area raised their concerns in solidarity with the 841 families left homeless by the house grab.
At the time ward 48 councillor Kingsley Wakelin said written commitments had been provided to the families saying they would be relocated.
“They were given these houses, but could not move into them,” Wakelin said.
The issue was brought to the attention of Gauteng premier David Makhura and then-human settlements MEC Uhuru Moiloa by an “apolitical” community team, which included Wakelin.
In April last year, the human settlements department reportedly approached the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria to get an eviction notice to have the illegal occupants removed.
“Residents were then told that because of ‘budgetary constraints’, this eviction order could not be acted on,” Wakelin said.
In January of this year, Mooiplaas residents protested by closing off the R55 provincial route.
Mooiplaas is 128ha of a 400ha farm which, through an arbitration process, was reportedly acquired by the Gauteng province for R60-million.
Some residents have been living there for as long as 30 years, according to Wakelin.
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