Treehouse dwellers in Secunda: Some squatters have returned after law enforcement clamped down
Woman who is being abused has been taken to a place of safety.
Many people from the community have heard and seen a man abusing his girlfriend in the green strip area behind OK Grocer and near Highveld Ridge Primary School.
The couple lived in a tree house in the field, with at least six other people living in a tent underneath the treehouse.
According to residents living next to the green strip, they heard the woman screaming daily and when they peeked over their walls they saw the man hitting and strangling her.
Aranda Nel-Buitendag, who also lives in the area, said she would shout at the man to stop when she saw him abusing his girlfriend.
“He would run in the field after her like a Springbok to grab and hit her,” said Nel-Buitendag.
“We tried to help her and somebody even contacted the police at one stage to intervene. When the police wanted to arrest him, she would stop them saying it was her boyfriend and he could do to her whatever he wanted.”
The woman allegedly also swore at Nel-Buitendag and other neighbours when she sat near their houses crying and they asked her what was the matter.
Nel-Buitendag said the couple lived in the same tree last year in winter with a pink tent. They left after law enforcement was there, but came back in December last year and built the treehouse.
“In the beginning, they were quiet; then we would hear them screaming and swearing at one another and it just got worse,” said Nel-Buitendag.
“I feel sorry for the woman, but on the other side, she did not want to receive our help.”
Another neighbour living nearby said the screaming was so bad that she would sit in her living room with earphones on, watching a series on her phone and would still hear the woman screaming while the boyfriend was beating her.
In a video circulating on social media, taken by a passerby, you hear the woman screaming.
At one stage, the passerby asks the man while he and the woman are in the treehouse to stop, saying he will call the police. The man shouted from the treehouse that the passerby must go up to the treehouse.
The video includes those who live in the tent situated under the treehouse.
They can be heard in the video saying that the woman is crazy.
Social media posts from the woman’s friend confirmed she was receiving help and is currently at a place of safety.
The law enforcement unit of Govan Mbeki Municipality (GMM) took hands with the police and the refuse removal department to remove illegal squatters during an operation on January 29.
When the Ridge Times went to the treehouse and tent with the law enforcement unit, it was clear that the couple and the others, who lived there, made it like home.
They even started a garden with flowers and vegetables and had a ‘living room’ area equipped with benches of wood.
There were also clean clothes packed out to dry in the sun.
Nobody was there when the law enforcers arrived and they removed the tent and the structure of the ‘living room’.
The team decided not to remove the treehouse as they were not sure who or what was inside and had to organise a cherry picker to go back and then take further action.
By the weekend some of the residents who lived in the tent under the treehouse were back.
The law enforcement unit also removed the goods of illegal traders near the Secunda Mall and at the taxi rank they removed illegal dwellings before moving to the open field between Secunda Mall and the Lillian Ngoyi Centre, where they also removed illegal squatter houses.
