City demolishes homes without prior warning

DURBAN – HAMMARSDALE residents were left fuming on Monday after the eThekwini Municipality demolished more than 15 formal housing structures, without giving home owners any warning.

According to them, the land previously belonged to a farmer when they settled there in 2018. They further allege the farmer sold the land to the municipality last year, while many were already living there or had started building.

A homeowner, who asked not to be named, said her heart was bleeding after municipal officials demolished her house, in front of her. She said they came last Thursday and marked their houses with red crosses.

“I did not understand because they also didn’t say anything. On Monday, more than 20 metro police vehicles, a trailer and other municipality vehicles came and demolished our houses. They did not even bother to tell us why they were demolishing our houses, we spent so much money building those houses for them to be demolished like that,” she said.

Another resident, Muzi Zungu who had his house marked, said the municipal officials told him they would demolish his house today. The 70-yearold Zungu said he started building his house last year and had already spent more than R200 000 on the project.

“I moved in last year August and have been staying here with my whole family and grandchildren. I haven’t been able to sleep because of the stress. If they come and demolish my house, I don’t know where I, together with my family, would go,” said Zungu, adding the municipality was heartless and careless about the people it served.

“The land was owned by a farmer, and they did demolish our house before. However, the municipality bought this land while we were already here. They should have made us pay, at least, for the services. People have spent hundreds of thousands of rand and yet, their houses are demolished like they are nothing. If they come to demolish this house, I will go inside and lock, they must demolish it while I’m inside. They must kill me first.”

Local ward councillor Sibusiso Ngcongco said the municipality should have at least communicated with him as a community leader regarding the change of ownership.

Ngcongco said after the houses were marked, he called the municipality and the municipality leadership and was assured no demolitions would take place until a meeting had been held.

“To my surprise, on Monday, I was told that houses were being demolished,” he said.

After a long meeting with the municipality’s Human Settlement Department, the speaker, Weziwe Thusi, Ngcongco said he was told the municipality had bought the land last November.

He said he was also shown a new title deed and the municipality told him it wanted to build RDP houses on that land.

“All along, we understood that the land was privately owned. The municipality had no right to demolish structures that were already there when they bought the land. Many people started building on that land from 2018,” said Ngcongco.

He said the municipality had suspended the demolition of the houses until further notice. Ngcongco said the speaker had advised the matter be taken to council and a decision taken.

Municipal spokesperson Msawakhe Mayisela confirmed the municipality’s Land Invasion Unit did attend to the area and illegal structures were demolished.

“We cannot divulge any further plans as these are highly sensitive information that cannot be shared with the public,” said Mayisela, adding land invasion continued to be a serious problem.

Mayisela said the City was trying everything possible to ensure land invasions were dealt with within the ambit of the law.

“While doing that, the City will not derive any joy from demolishing structures that are occupied and built legally,” said Mayisela. —

Today we have a story headlined “Soldier implicated in illegal ivory dealing” in which a soldier and three others appeared in court charged with illegally dealing in ivory.

The crew was found in possession of ivory worth US$12 480 but their matter cannot be discussed indepth as it is still subjudice.

However, there are many other similar matters in which the accused were found guilty as illegal trade in ivory is fast becoming a common crime.

Cases of poaching continue to increase in the country and measures should be taken to root out such evil practices that are threatening to make elephants, rhinos and many other endangered animal species extinct.

Every week there are reports of poaching of animals especially the rhino and the elephant for their horns.

These acts, against rhinos and elephants mostly, are occurring all too often and the populations of these animals continue to diminish.

The sight of a faceless rhino maimed by heartless poachers is a common cruelty. It is a cruelty that has seen 90 percent of the Zimbabwean Rhino population diminish since 1970.

The rhino is fast becoming extinct in Zimbabwe and the world in general.

The increase in rhino poaching has seen the rhino facing a real danger of extinction. So real is this danger that - if everything continues at this rate - we will see the last rhino die during our generation’s time. Our grandchildren will see this beautiful creation on old television shows or at the museums.

As Zimbabwe, now is the time to start doing something about it. It is up to us as a country — or as Southern Africa — to preserve this important specie, to safeguard and protect it from ourselves.

That is a sad irony; that man has become an enemy to his own ecosystem. That, to gain a few dollars, people risk their lives in the wilderness to maim an innocent animal. Medical myths regarding the use of the rhino’s horn have again led many into killing the rhino — perhaps this explains the latest case.

The Minister of Environment, Water and Climate, legislators and the courts should work hand in hand to bring the cruel men behind the killing of the elephant and the rhino to extinction.

The five rhinoceros species must be protected and countries privileged to still have the animals, like Zimbabwe, should spearhead raising awareness of the threats to their survival.

If we really want, we can protect these unfortunate but beautiful animal species and ensure that our children’s children will still have the pleasure of knowing of their existence.

Africa is the world’s last hope of protecting these animals and Zimbabwe should play her part to safeguard them.