“New vagrants” on vacant land have been there all along

A vacant piece of land has become the source of many complaints in Centurion as 48 people have been squatting on it.

The owner of the land, on the corner of Hendrik Verwoerd Avenue and Rooihuiskraal Road, has built a wall on the property to try and contain the problem.

Local ward councillor Marika Kruger-Muller, said officials from Tshwane’s departments of Environmental Management, Waste, and Health, have been visiting the site over the past few months.

They met there last Tuesday and will meet again on Friday.

“This is a source of many complaints by residents in the area,” Kruger-Muller said, about these “so-called new” land invaders.

“But they had been there all along, the new wall the owner built, now only expose them on Hendrik Verwoerd Avenue. There are 48 people squatting on the property.”

Kruger-Muller said the invaders are visible from the street front.

“The vagrants are still on private property and the municipality was not in a position to apply for an eviction order.

“It is the owner of the property that must take legal action, the municipality cannot interfere with private property in this respect.”

The owner of the stand confirmed he had received a notice a while back from the metro to clear the stand of overgrown vegetation and litter, which he complied with. He rebuilt the wall, which had been damaged by the squatters.

“I rebuilt the wall several times after it had been partly broken down by the squatters. They also used water I had to pay for. Now I built a wall some distance back to exclude them from the rest of the property.

“I appointed a security company to guard the rest of the property against more squatters comfortably settling in. Somewhere between a rock and a hard place,” the owner said, “but today it is my problem, tomorrow it could be any residents.

“I am a businessman and a community member. It mattered to me and my wife that we were dealing with homeless people, they have nothing. So we offered alternative accommodation which they refused, instead, they are holding us to ransom.”

The squatters said, “The problem is that the owner offered us accommodation in Olievenhoutbosch on the basis that he would pay three month’s rent. What happens after three months, where must we go to then?”

They live off the income they earn from selling fruit and other consumables on street corners.

The owner, who asked not to be named, said he had sympathy with residents’ complaints.

“It matters that community members are concerned about muggings and theft and burglaries. But we are in the legal process to obtain the necessary eviction order, however, it takes time to get to court which is beyond my control.”

The owner said he recently received a notice from Tshwane’s health department “that forces me as an individual to take responsibility for the duties of local government”.

“Do I have to have a water tank and portable toilet installed and pay the accounts and have to supply wood or charcoal daily, and pick up their litter? To me it sounds as if I’m happily delivering a great service and that is the responsibility of the metro.”

Meanwhile, the metro would like “to state it categorically that there are various departments within the metro that are currently looking into this matter notwithstanding that this is a private matter,” Lindela Mashigo, Metro spokesperson said.

Mashigo said the metro has an obligation to adhere to legislation “as dictated by the National Health Act 61 of 2003, which mandates the municipality to act when there are violations thereof”.

“It is against this backdrop that the metro had to act following complaints by the residents in the neighbourhood where the private property is located.”

He said the metro then conducted an inspection in loco and the findings revealed that “there were contraventions in respect of health nuisance according to section 1 and chapter 10, section 89 of the act”.

“These are namely firstly a health nuisance due to overgrown conditions on the site. Secondly, people residing in temporary structures without the necessary water and sanitation. And thirdly burning of waste for cooking of food.”

The owner said in his opinion a fair approach would be that role players and stakeholders in socio-economic spheres got involved to engage in a process of mediation, which he is willing to partake in.

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: Rekord East

For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram