Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Fed-up residents occupy land
6 81 arrested for public violence following land grabs in Zwelihle
THE CITY and the province have been dealing with an increase in land invasions, with the latest incident in Hermanus this week.
Zwelihle residents took to the streets, set up burning barricades and built illegal structures.
The Red Ants were summoned to dismantle the structures and evict people occupying the land. A satellite police station was partially burnt.
Police arrested 81 people for public violence and they will appear in the Hermanus Magistrate’s Court next week.
Meanwhile in the city, Site C residents and backyarders placed rubble, burning tyres and pulled a shipping container across Govan Mbeki Road.
Roads have been closed and traffic redirected to avoid protesters while the police and private security have been called in to guard against illegal land grabs.
Earlier this month, following the burning of a post office in Gugulethu as a result of land protests, Mayor Patricia de Lille urged private landowners to “act proactively, to safeguard property by fencing, monitoring or hiring private security”.
“It is also advisable that they act quickly to obtain court interdicts against illegal land occupation,” she said.
Khayelitsha is the second largest township in the country and is subdivided into 22 areas.
It also has the largest single concentration of informal settlements in the city, many of which are located on land that is unsuitable for housing due to floodplains.
For more than two weeks, hundreds of Site C residents have been trying to occupy vacant land in nearby areas. One of the tracts of land is reserved for an initiation school in Kwezi, on the corner of Govan Mbeki and Swartklip Roads.
Traditional leaders in the area have condemned the attempted invasion as “opportunistic attempts to draw unnecessary attention”.
The second piece of land is on the corner of Govan Mbeki and Swartklip Roads, at the back of Mandalay. The land is wet and filled with reeds.
Khululwa Njoli, 28, of Lower Crossroads, one of the land-claimers, said the reeds and the water on the land were not a problem.
“We will deal with that issue when we get there, right now we need houses, we cannot continue to live in our small homes with our parents. A little bit of water and reeds will not deter us,” she said.
The third piece of land is Washington Square earmarked for a housing development, shopping centre and police station.
Nolusindiso Khaka, 36, told Weekend Argus she had been moving from backyard to backyard for most of her life. She said she had joined the people trying to occupy the Washington Square piece of land which is between Thembani, Bongweni and Kwezi.
It is collectively known as Thembokwezi. The land is owned by Old Mutual.
There have been a number of fights between the communities of Thembokwezi and Site C since the beginning of the month.
Site C residents claim ward councillor for the two areas, Ntomboxolo Kopman, gave them permission to put up shacks on the vacant land but Kopman denied this.
Kopman said the community’s residents’ association had “dealt with a similar attempt two years ago, they know how to deal with the invaders so they must sort this out”.
Claimants of the land have vowed to fight until their housing demands are met.
“We have lived in shacks and backyards all of our lives, this land has been vacant since I arrived in Cape Town more than 15 years ago.
“We are constantly told
‘We have lived
Cape Town’
about Old Mutual owning the land but we are sick and tired of people dying or being robbed on that land because Old Mutual just wants to own and keep land in the townships,” said an angry Mzukisi Ngobese.
Thembokwezi Residents Association chairperson Kholekile Mwahla said attempts to engage with the Site C residents had proven futile.
“We were told they are waging a leaderless struggle, everyone is a leader and thus we could not get anywhere with them in terms of negotiations,” he said.
Mwahla said the association was disappointed by the lack of intervention by the law enforcement agencies.
Ntomboxolo Somdaka, spokesperson for MEC for Human Settlements, Bonginkosi Madikizela confirmed there was a housing backlog.
asanda.sokanyile@inl.co.za