Shots were fired in Brendan Village after a group of people invaded houses in the area on Sunday evening, August 8.
These people were allegedly EFF members, but the EFF refuted the allegations.
The EFF chief whip at Govan Mbeki Municipality, Mr Thabiso Mofokeng, said the party distances itself from these allegations.
He said their members will not invade these houses.
Mr Mofokeng accused the ANC-councillors of invading those houses.
“There is no council resolution about the houses at Brendan Village. When I found out that houses were invaded, I asked a municipal official about it, but I was told that there was an advertisement in the media clarifying the criteria that they needed to follow to register and qualify for a house at Brendan Village.
“However, I don’t remember seeing such an advertisement in any newspaper.”
He questioned why only municipal officials, ANC councillors and members of the mayoral committee were seen in those houses.
“We heard that the municipality has applied for a court interdict. We want to see who are the perpetrators when the sheriff of the court summons all the culprits,” said Mr Mofokeng.
A resident at Brendan Village who wants to remain anonymous, said the invasion began on Saturday, August 7, when four bakkies full of people drove through Brendan Village. The occupants threatened existing tenants and told them that they will invade the village. Some of the men were allegedly armed.
Empty houses were broken into and door locks were changed. They even tried to break into the liquor store.
Mr Andries Venter, maintenance manager at Brendan Village, said about 30 houses were invaded on Saturday. They decided to close the offices for safety purposes.
“The office will soon be opened for people to apply to rent the houses. The land transfer process between the Mpumalanga Department of Human Settlement and Govan Mbeki Municipality is not yet completed.
“So people must know that if they want to be tenants in these houses, the usual processes will apply to them.
“Those people who invaded houses have even illegally connected electricity, and some houses have been vandalised,” said Mr Venter.
“We opened a housebreaking case at Evander Police Station,” he said.
Govan Mbeki Municipality’s executive mayor, Mr Nhlakanipho Zuma, said Brendan Village is in the name of the municipality but it has not yet been handed over by the Department of Human Settlement.
“We requested the department to hold off the process of handing over the village because we don’t have the internal capacity as the municipality to rent out those houses and to manage rental stock in the area.
“That’s why we told them to appoint a suitable person to manage the place.
“The agreement was reached that the staff who was working for the previous owner must continue their work under new management, or someone is appointed by the department. We said let those conveyers hold that property and rent it out to anyone.”
Mr Zuma said anyone, including municipal officials and politicians who qualify, can apply to rent these houses.
“I heard from the media that MMCs, the council speaker and municipality employees have houses there. There will be nothing wrong if they have applied and are approved, but should it be that some of them decided to invade and occupy the houses without following the processes, that will be wrong.
“I don’t have a report currently that shows who is rightfully there or who is not.
“I propose that people must confirm that they are rightfully there by showing proof of their approved application and all those who have invaded or illegally occupied those houses must move out.”
Mr Zuma said the municipality has applied on August 10 for a court order to evict anyone who is not there rightfully.
He also said there are rumours that some prominent individuals, such as a former member of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) and former employees of the municipality, instigating the invasion.
The mayor said if this turns out to be true, GMM is going to take decisive action against them.
“We are calling for harmony and will like to apologise to the residents who were affected, hoping that nothing was damaged on their side. We are hopeful that the conveyers will be able to sort out all necessary residential issues in the village,” said Mr Zuma.
Evander Police did not respond at the time of going to press about the cases that were opened.
