Residents left out in the cold
Red Ants evict illegal occupiers of council flats
Motseki Phara got a rude awakening yesterday with people banging on his door.
Phara, who is wheelchairbound, crawled out of his bed to hide in the wardrobe fearing for his life. He was one of 95 residents of Fleurhof Extension 30, west of Johannesburg, who were evicted yesterday by the Red Ants.
They had illegally occupied a block of flats developed by Calgro M3 as part of mixedhousing development of the City of Johannesburg.
Locals illegally moved into the flats in May 2016 after they were left vacant and were being vandalised by nyaope addicts.
Many of the illegal occupiers were frustrated residents from Meadowlands, Soweto, who had been waiting for houses.
Phara, who also cannot talk, wrote on a piece of paper that at first he thought he was being robbed. “I was shocked to see the Red Ants. When I got outside I tried to show them my papers that I was the legal owner of the flat but they just continued with their work.
“I watched helplessly as they took my furniture [out] to the street,” Phara said.
Scores of evicted occupants lined up on the street with their belongings scattered around them. Children as young as two years sat on mattresses as their parents tried to save their furniture.
Pensioner Mirrima Banda, 62, said she had a full title deed to her flat but her pleas to the Red Ants fell on deaf ears.
“I was relocated here by the officials from the City of Johannesburg. These people broke my door and coffee table. They don’t even respect the fact that we are pensioners, they just forced themselves into our houses,” she said.
Community leader Sifiso Sithole said it’s been 14 months since people started occupying the flats.
“These are the people from Meadowlands who were angry to see people without documents being moved here.
“We have C forms which allow us to qualify for a government house [RDP].
“We have asked the City of Johannesburg to come and do an audit [but] instead they are sending people to evict us,” he said.
The City of Johannesburg had not responded to requests for comment at the time of going to print yesterday.