Dreams of own shack turn to ashes at Hammanskraal
Tshwane in dark over who owns the disputed land
GIDEON Phiri’s proudest moment was when he was able to move his wife and two daughters out of his parents’ home and on to their own plot of land in January this year.
However, on Tuesday, less than six months later, Gideon, 46, was loading bent and torn pieces of corrugated iron and broken wooden poles — the only signs of his former house — onto his uncle’s bakkie in the Sekampaneng informal settlement at Hammanskraal, north of Pretoria.
Phiri’s home was just one of those destroyed in Hammanskraal on Monday when the Tshwane metro police, Red Ants security company and contractor Marjorie’s Trading acted on a court order obtained by the City of Tshwane to evict the people in Suurman, Sekampaneng and Kekana, Hammanskraal.
“I can’t use this to rebuild my home,” he said, pointing to the scrap on the bakkie. “I’ll have to sell it and then save some money to rebuild my house. I was happy when I moved here, I was happy to have my own place.”
Two day labourers who helped with the evictions were killed during fights with angry residents, and at least five were injured.
After the chaos on Monday, the evictions were halted and the community could begin rebuilding their homes. The City of Tshwane was left to answer questions on the ownership of the land on which the informal settlements had been built. It was unable to immediately answer what land it owned and what was owned by the Kekana Tribal Authority. Further confusion arose when it emerged that an ANC councillor gave a letter to residents allowing them to occupy the land.
Asked about ownership and who ordered the evictions, city spokesman Blessing Manale said: “This is a difficult question to answer. The best source of accurate information on the ownership of land is the deeds office. To conduct a deeds search, precise property details are required. However, generally speaking, the areas of Suurman, Kekana and Sekampaneng will have various landowners, ranging from tribally owned, state owned and privately owned.”
Professor Ben Cousins, National Research Foundation chair for poverty, land and agrarian studies at the University of the Western Cape, estimates 60% of South Africans live on land or in houses not formally recognised in the deeds system.
“It is a huge challenge to administration and service delivery,” said Cousins. “These service delivery issues are coming up very strongly in the local government election . . . so we are opening up a national conversation about the link between land and service delivery. I don’t think any of the parties have a viable way forward . . . the Hammanskraal case reminds us it can be a life-or-death issue in some cases.”
Gauteng human settlements MEC Paul Mashatile vowed this week that the evictions would be suspended. A newly created committee met for the first time on Friday to look at housing in the area while addressing the planned development of some of the land that was already occupied.