Pretoria News: Residents ready to invade land

Residents ready to invade land

http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?art_id=vn20080623055504594C635176&set_id=1&click_id=124&sf=

June 23 2008 at 07:29AM

Disgruntled residents in Atteridgeville have vowed to fight on until they have been allocated RDP houses by the Tshwane Metro Council. The residents had previously tried to occupy a stretch of land in Lotus Gardens, west of Pretoria.

Pretoria West police stepped in and stopped the residents from moving on to the land.

The residents, some of whom claim that they have been on the housing waiting list for the past 10 years, said they feared that the land could be sold to private developer who would then build expensive houses.

Joseph Ngoetjana, spokesperson for the residents, said they agreed at a report-back meeting on Saturday that they would continue to fight until the municipality had allocated those houses.

“The people want action. They want to invade the land to show government that they seriously want RDP houses,” said Ngoetjana.

He said they could not meet executive mayor Dr Gwen Ramokgopa as planned on June 17.

“Instead of meeting the mayor, we met with the mayoral committee member for housing, Absalom Ditshoke and his colleague Subesh Pillay (mayoral committee member for public works and infrastructure development),” said Ngoetjana.

He said the meeting with Ditshoke and Pillay was not fruitful.

“We are prepared to fight on until our demands have been met by the municipality.

“We are arranging a march to the executive mayor’s office.

“If we do not get any response from the executive mayor’s office, we will be forced to invade the land,” Ngoetjana said.