Hijack nightmare
ANC cadres fight over who owns flat
TWO JOBURG ANC leaders are embroiled in a spiteful dispute over the ownership of a flat – in what is the latest incident highlighting the ongoing problem of hijacked buildings in the city.
George Lebone, a community activist and ANC veteran, has accused Vusi Mhlongo, the ANC chairman of Ward 67, which includes Yeoville, of frustrating his attempts to occupy the flat that he (Lebone) legally owns.
Mhlongo has allegedly hijacked the flat and uses it to house homeless artists.
Lebone, 68, said he was gifted the flat in 2013 – and a title deed search conducted by The Star shows that he is the legal owner.
He told The Star that the flat was already occupied illegally when it was given to him, but that he was confident that he could convince the occupants to move out as they were fellow ANC members.
But this didn’t happen, and Lebone, who suffers from cardiac problems and related ailments, hasn’t been able to move in.
“Vusi has been sending me threatening SMSes. He has been intimidating me, (saying) he’ll deal with me. He called a me an askari (and said) I’m conniving with the settlers and colonisers in stealing from blacks,” Lebone said.
But an angry Mhlongo dismissed these allegations as a smear campaign and accused Lebone of being used by a white community leader in an attempt to get black people removed from the area.
He also accused The Star of being part of this plot.
“The agenda of The Star is about white domination… Your agenda is to see black people taken out of town. You want to use The Star to represent thugs,” he said.
Mhlongo also claimed that the flat he is staying in isn’t the one owned by Lebone as its number doesn’t correspond with the number in the title deeds.
The Star’s investigation revealed that the block of flats has 13 units, numbered from 1 to 13. According to the title deeds, Lebone’s flat is unit 13.
But Mhlongo claims his flat is in fact unit 12 and not 13, and that Lebone and his friends have colluded with the Deeds Office to manipulate the title deeds.
Diane Stuart, the former owner of Lebone’s flat, insists that the flat in which Mhlongo is now living was the one she gifted to Lebone.
“That’s the flat we bought. It doesn’t matter what the flat is numbered; that floor space is the one that George bought,” she told The Star.
Stuart says she moved out of the flat in 1995 and rented it out through an agent. A few years later, it was occupied illegally.
“When we did pay the bond off, we transferred it into George’s name. It was under the understanding that he would have to get Vusi out. He didn’t seem to think it would be an issue for him.”
Mhlongo says he’s a target because he has been the only one who has challenged Lebone and his white friend, who he claims are in fact the ones who are building hijackers.
“You are advancing an agenda of a white man who wants to turn Yeoville into his little white colony. Black people have to be victimised because they don’t have access to resources and the newspapers. I’ve never been a thug in my life.”
Mhlongo said he was housing about 20 homeless artists in the flat and that at one stage he had around 45 people staying with him.
Veteran actor and playwright Sol Rachilo, 85, is one of the people living in the flat with Mhlongo.
Lebone said he had approached police for help and they had referred him to the anti-hijacking squad, which in turn told him to approach a lawyer, “who wrote him a letter, giving him 30 days to evacuate, and since then he sent me another threatening SMS,” said Lebone. The Star has seen the letter, which Mhlongo laughed off as a fake.
Jolidee Matongo, the spokesman for the Gauteng ANC, said he wasn’t aware of Mhlongo’s living situation, but that the organisation did not condone the illegal occupation of properties.
Agenda of a white man who wants to colonise Yeoville
PATRICK Wisani, a former community police forum (CPF) member and an ANC Youth League (ANCYL) leader has been accused of illegally occupying the house in which he allegedly sjambokked his girlfriend to death.
Former ANC MP Sisa Njikelana said his Yeoville house had been hijacked by the same people he’d employed to assist him in removing other illegal occupants. These included Wisani, who is the chairman for the ANCYL’s Joburg Inner City branch, and Simphiwe Naki, the deputy chairman of the Joe Slovo branch.
Both are former Yeoville CPF members.
Wisani allegedly beat Nosipho Mandleleni, 24, to death with a sjambok and a broomstick last month.
Njikelana said he bought the house in 1994, and when he moved to East London four years later, he rented it out through an estate agent.
“The agent left South Africa and never informed me. The person who was there defaulted a couple of times and then just left. The next thing I was told there were illegal occupants.”
In November 2013, Njikelana decided he’d had enough and wanted to sell the house.
He approached Yeoville CPF members to assist him in evicting the illegal occupants.
Among them was Wisani, who at the time was the chairman of a sector of the Yeoville CPF, and Naki, who was the CPF’s deputy chairman.
They evicted the illegal occupants but then moved in and refused to give a potential buyer access to the house.
“I was shocked. These people are supposed to be my comrades and part of the CPF. The most painful is (that they) are ANC members. My own ANC.”
What followed has been years of fighting.
“All of a sudden, they started demanding money.”
But Njikelana says he never agreed to pay them for helping him and claims that his pleas for the police to intervene fell on deaf ears.
The Star has seen two letters which Njikelana sent to Yeoville police asking for assistance in removing the illegal occupants.
But the station’s Constable Thabo Malatji said Njikelana was told to open a case.
“For a case to be investigated, the owner must register a case with the police. The guy was advised to open a case docket,” he said.
Numerous attempts to get hold of Wisani for comment have been unsuccessful. At one stage, a man claiming to be his brother answered the phone and said Wisani didn’t want to comment.
Naki confirmed that they had been asked to assist in removing illegal occupants.
“When (Njikelana) was supposed to give us back what he promised us, he was playing duck and dive. Our agreement was to (let us) stay in the house until he decided what to do with the property. (We thought), if you want to be arrogant with us, let us stay.”
Gauteng ANCYL spokeswoman Mbali Hlophe said the organisation wasn’t aware that Wisani and Naki have been occupying the house illegally.
She said the league didn’t support property hijacking.