Category Archives: land occupation

Makhaza Land Invasion

Makhaza Land Invasion

Abahlali baseMjondolo Western Cape support the initiative of creating community from below by Makhaza back yard dwellers.

Within the city of Cape Town there is a backlog of housing for more than 500 000 people and this number increase by 20 000 while the city of Cape Town can only afford to build 8 000 houses per year.

It is clear that people who are in the waiting list and those living within informal settlements will have to wait more than 30 years before they can access decent houses within the city of Cape Town.

For the past few days people of Makhaza at section 36 have been building their own shacks at an open space of unused land for more than 17 years, most of these people have been in the waiting for more than 15 years.

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Attempted Land Occupation in Makhaza

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http://www.iol.co.za/capeargus/makhaza-backyarders-invade-plot-1.1061131

Makhaza backyarders invade plot

April 26 2011 at 12:00pm

SIBUSISO NKOMO

Staff Reporter

HUNDREDS of Makhaza backyarders invaded a vacant piece of land, marked out plots and started erecting shacks until police intervened and stopped them from continuing.

Backyarder Mzukisi Mbipa said they started erecting their structures on the land early yesterday morning.

“We are tired of not having land. There were other people from another area that were allowed to build there, so we decided to join them,” said Mbipa .

Harare police spokeswoman Constable Nosiphiwo Mtengwane said the police were called to stop the building as it was illegal.

“We decided to sit down with them and negotiate and told them they must follow procedure if they wanted housing,” said Mtengwane.

She said the backyarders agreed to stop building.

“They will meet with a housing representative today and see what they can do going forward,” said Mtengwane.

sibusiso.nkomo@inl.co.za

http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/2011/04/26/makhaza-stand-off

Makhaza stand-off
26-Apr-2011 | Elvis ka Nyelenzi
IT was a tense Easter Monday for one Cape Town community when police clashed with residents trying to build new shacks

Three vans full of South African Police Service officers and several car-loads of metro police and the city’s anti-land invasion officers faced-off against about 200 residents from Makhaza, Khayelitsha, yesterday.

The residents had earlier taken over a vacant piece of land and demarcated plots, saying the shacks and backyards where they lived were too full.

Makhaza shot to prominence last year when its residents, and the ANC Youth League protested against the “open air” toilets erected for residents by the City of Cape Town without walls.

“We need to build shacks here but the law enforcement people are taking us out. Why are they doing this? Our children are dying here in these overcrowded conditions,” an irate Masixole Kegama said.

Another resident, Mkhusela Baartman, said many people had recently lost their jobs and could no longer afford to rent rooms.

“We really don’t know what to do or where to go. We are residents of Makhaza and we need a place to stay,” Baartman said.

Anti-land invasion unit officer Piet van Wyk said: “We are here to protect the city’s land. People have invaded illegally. We don’t need a court order to remove their pegs.”

By late yesterday, the police, city officials and representatives of the people were locked in a meeting. But other residents said they would erect their shacks at night.

http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/2011/04/29/residents-vow-to-defy-orders

Residents vow to defy orders
29-Apr-2011 | Elvis ka Nyelenzi

About 200 people demarcated plots for themselves on an empty piece of land last Monday. But SAPS officers and other city law enforcement officials quickly removed the pegs.

On Freedom Day the group built four shacks but these were razed the same day.

When Sowetan visited the scene yesterday, about 250 angry residents had started rebuilding.

“We will build them again and again. We need as many new shacks as possible because there are many of us here. We need this place,” Nosiphiwo Shandu said.

Another resident, Akhona Ndabankulu, said: “I do not understand why my family has to crowd like sardines into one shack while the land nearby has never been used for anything useful.”

City manager of informal settlements Mzwandile Sokupa could not be reached for comment.

Mayoral committee councillor in charge of housing, Shehaam Sims, was in a council meeting and could also not be reached for comment.

http://www.thenewage.co.za/16724-1011-53-Hall_torched_in_housing_protest

Apr 29 2011 2:41PM
Hall torched in housing protest

Mandla Mnayakama

A land invasion protest turned violent after a community hall was burnt in Makhaza in Khayelitsha on Wednesday night.

The incident occurred shortly after the land invasion unit and the police destroyed seven shacks erected at a nearby piece of land.

On Monday afternoon a group backyard dwellers who are mostly young people from the nearby homes, erected shacks in an open land between Ncedo and Galela Street.

They demanded that the authorities allow them to build their homes to ease overcrowding in their extended family homes.

Zusakhe Rhoji, 28, said they decided to build homes in the vacant area as there were risks to them because of muggings and rapes. The demolishing of shacks sparked an angry protest. A furniture company vehicle, dropping off staff, was also looted.

Another private company vehicle was also torched on the same day.

On Tuesday angry land invaders also erected other shack structures, but the unit and the cops also destroyed these.

On Wednesday morning the group barricaded Ncedo Street, Dibana and Walter Sisulu Road with burning tyres and shipping containers.

They later erected other new shacks but these were also destroyed by the authorities.

One of the seven shacks was completed with a bed inside when the police and the unit arrived and got busy.

Confrontation broke out between the police and the group of more than 40 protesters who attempted to prevent the demolition of the structures.

The unit’s demolition personnel dodged stones that were hurled at them from the back of the nearby private homes.

“Please destroy it or you better kill me,” shouted a man in his late 20s as he surged forward pleading with the police.

“No, I am not trying to fight, I’m just defending my building material from being destroyed,”

he shouted with stretched arms and open hands while watching his newly built one-roomed shack being dismantled.

“Come on shoot and kill us all because we are not committing crime here, we are just trying to settle because we do not have shelter. These are our rights and we will continue to fight for them,” screamed one woman.

Just before 8pm protesting youngsters torched the Desmond Tutu Community Hall after they threw missiles and burning tyres at the facility.

They also broke the front windows with stones.

The attack also damaged some businesses accommodated in the hall such as the Ikamva Youth Development Centre which offers after school computer training in Maths and Science.

It also damaged the Zimele Pre-School, the offices of the DA, City of Cape Town and SASSA Pension Pay Out office based in the hall.

Const Nosiphiwo Mtengwane, a spokesperson for the Harare police station said no arrests had been made.

Mtengwane appealed to residents to control their emotions and also use the proper procedure in order to get their problems attended to by the authorities.

“People must stop damaging private property,” she said.

Background to the eMmaus Shack Settlement

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This document is excerpted and adapted from a longer document prepared by Christof Haug and the eMmaus community with the help of Zodwa Nsibande.

A brief history of eMmaus (~1990 – 2010)

The settlement was created after people had to leave Motala Farm in the late 1980s because the land that they had occupied there was sold by the Roman Catholic Church to some industry. Some of the people were promised to receive two room houses as a subsidy but not all of them actually received such a church built house (on then church owned land at eMmaus). As a result, they either rented one of the rooms from those who did receive a house or they built a shack nearby. This is how the shack settlement was formed in the early 1990s.

The shack settlement started to grow due to the growth of families, both in the formal houses and in the shacks. In the formal houses, the growth of the house owning families implied that they could no longer rent out part of their house any more so the tenants (whose families were also growing) were forced to move out and build shacks. The growth of the families living in the shacks obviously also implied the need to build more shacks.

Sometimes – especially in Winter – there were shack fires which meant that the tenants of these shacks had to move away.

The attacks on the community started in 2006 when Africon – a subcontractor of Mahogany (i.e. Mahogany Ridge 2 Property Owners Association), who claims ownership of the land – demolished the whole settlement unlawfully, i.e. without a court order. The community did not have the strength to resist the demolishing of the shacks but as soon as the demolishers had left, the community started to rebuild their shacks.

After 2-3 years (i.e. 2008 or 2009) the very same people (i.e. Africon) returned with the mission to demolish all the shacks once again, which they did (including destroying belongings of the inhabitants).
This time, the shacks where not immediately rebuilt. Rather, the people moved to other informal settlements or stayed at a shelter provided by the firm where they work.

In September 2010 some people returned to eMmaus and started to rebuild shacks because they had learned that it was not the owner of the land (i.e. the church) that was ordering Africon to evict them so that they felt that there was no legal basis for evicting them. The basis for this assumption was apparently the fact that families that had formal houses (the ones that were provided by the church) had title deeds that showed that the land was owned by the church.

In November 2010, Africon came back to demolish the new shacks. They destroyed about 9 shacks which were not yet fully finished (and hence not yet occupied). Six shacks were not destroyed.

The current situation (2011)

Another attack by Africon followed in 21 January 2011. Security guards handed over letters from Mahogany claiming that their “digging” on the land was illegal and demanding “to stop digging with immediate effect on that property and remove all the equipment you are using on the property.” The letter also states that the matter has been referred to the police. Following this the company managed to destroy 3 unoccupied shacks as well as the self-made toilets of the community. The reason why Africon stopped with the destruction was that “a legal intervention issued to compel them to cease their unlawful actions”.

Finally, on 18 February, Africon collected all the shack building materials and drove it to an unknown place. When asked about their doing, the Africon staff said that the owner of Africon told them to do so. Later Mahogany erected an electric fence around the land.

The community has tried to check the land ownership and the municipal office they consulted told them that the land did not belong to Mahogany. According to the official they spoke to, the land belongs to the municipality (who received it from the Roman Catholic Church).

Apparently Mahogany owns some other land with offices and warehouses in the area.

The community is not happy with the electric fence near their residential area because of the danger it constitutes for small children who cannot be controlled all the time. A second problem is that the fence divides the community since there are shacks on both sides of the fence. They say that it is like a border running right through the community and it makes them feel like they live in a cage like animals. Furthermore, they mention that the fence forces some of them who work nearby to take a much longer walk to their workplace, since they have to walk all around the fence instead of taking a short cut.

The community says that this land has not been used in 16 years so they were hoping to get some development (RDP houses, schools, etc.) and they want to know why Mahogany are suddenly saying that they are starting to use it now that new shacks have been built on the land.

The community says that the ward councillor, Derrick Nkosi Dimba (ANC, ward 15), is invisible. They say that he denies that he is the councillor for their area and when they want to speak to him, he is always busy or in a meeting. For this reason the community will not vote in the upcoming elections because they don’t know who to vote for since no one comes to the community and says “I know you, you are my people.”

Sunday Tribune: Land invaders vow to keep grabbing plots

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http://www.sundaytribune.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5307203

Land invaders vow to keep grabbing plots

January 10, 2010 Edition 1

NATHI OLIFANT

A young boy plays under a tree on land marked out by his mother. In his offices in town, Estcourt Mayor Maliyakhe Shelembe is still fuming after hordes of people invaded municipal property on the Christmas weekend.

The threat of invasion still hangs over the town, but the local council has been quick to take legal action to stop people carving up plots for themselves.

Undeterred, invaders say they are not giving up, even if it means breaking the law.

This week the Sunday Tribune visited the two areas where land grabs occurred in recent weeks. In Brewitt Park near Wagendrift Dam, a teenager was building a car made of wire.

He said his family had high hopes that they would finally leave their mud and wattle hut in Bergville and move to a decent home in an urban area.

The boy, whose teacher mother was among more than 200 land grabbers who invaded the 30 hectares of prime vacant land on Christmas Day, said he had been left by his mother at the plot to familiarise himself with his new home. The plot, alongside Ntabamhlophe Road, had been marked by white paint on the trunk of an acacia tree.

“Mom said we will built a big house here,” said the boy.

His family’s dream of a new home is a nightmare for Umtshezi municipality, which obtained a court interdict to stop the land grab.

But this did not deter another group of land grabbers who, on New Year’s Eve, invaded a tract of land in Papkuilsfontein on the east side of the town. The municipality says the 121 families were part of a well-orchestrated invasion.

This week, the Brewitt Park land grabbers threatened that the land would be theirs “come rain or shine”.

On Thursday the council was in court again seeking a permanent interdict against the invaders. The case was postponed to February 25 to allow all parties to make representations.

Promised

The invaders at both Brewitt Park and Papkuilsfontein have demarcated plots by cutting the grass, painting trees, building shacks or digging a site. The Brewitt Park land invaders included blacks, whites and Indians and among them were teachers, police officers, public servants and church leaders.

“We were promised land and housing a long time ago and they are not doing anything about it. They don’t care. Now we are taking what is rightfully ours,” said Mbhekeni Mazibuko, a factory worker from Colenso.

“I applied for a house in 2003. I’m still waiting today. What are they taking us for? This land will be ours, come rain or shine. Why should the law start working when we take what is ours, and not work when our rights are being violated?” said Makhosi Vilakazi, a teacher from Wembezi.

The municipality said the invaders had come from as far as Ladysmith, Richards Bay, Newcastle, Durban and Pietermaritzburg. The invaders, who call themselves Msholozi Community Forum, have banded together and obtained a lawyer. Individuals are paying R120 each for legal services as well as a R50 travel allowance for the lawyer.

Opposing them is Shelembe, who says the invaders are not poor people, but well-heeled individuals with ulterior motives.

He said he was enjoying Christmas with his family when he was alerted about the invasion.

“I found the area populated by multitudes. You could see these are very wealthy people, judging by the cars they were driving. They were putting pegs on vacant plots. I immediately called the municipal manager and we engaged our protection services to remove them from the land.”

Shelembe vowed to do anything to protect the interests of the municipality.

He said the council intended building family houses in Brewitt Park for middle- to higher-income earners. He said this was in line with the Municipal Property Rates Act and was a means to provide the council with a rates income.

Plots on this vacant land are selling for about R80 000, and once the building plan has been approved, buyers should be able to get bank finance for the deal. Once the house was built, the value of the property would rise to between R350 000 and R400 000.

Rates

“If we lose this area, the municipality will collapse and we will have no revenue for services. Second, the bulk of this land has not been properly surveyed for infrastructure like electricity, water and sanitation.”

The municipality has already built eight houses on this land as part of its Phase 1 Project. A total of 400 houses are to be built for Phase 2.

Shelembe refuted claims by the local ANC that houses were being allocated in a partisan manner.

However, an angry housing official told the Sunday Tribune on Friday that the council should take responsibility for the situation.

“I don’t blame the people. I work at housing and I really do not know what this bureaucracy is all about, because the Land Disposal Policy was adopted early in 2008. The land is there, although not enough to accommodate all. People have been served with letters saying the matter has been placed on hold. What for?” asked the official.

The source said the land and housing wrangle in the area was a time bomb, as the municipality was failing to deal with mounting anger arising from land occupations, particularly in Wembezi township.

President Jacob Zuma’s name has also been dragged into the Estcourt land grab, with those invading the land calling themselves the Msholozi Community Forum and their newly acquired land “JZ Village”.

The invaders went as far as opening an Absa Bank account with the holder being Msholozi Community Club.

“He’s our president and would be sympathetic to our plight,” said a land grabber who gave his name as Bonga.

Mafiki Dlamini, who bought a plot and built a house at Brewitt Park, said she was angry that other people wanted a shortcut to this prime land.

“I chose to buy and live here because I wanted peace. Now I’m subjected to squatters who will not pay as much as I did for the property. I’m angry and action must be taken.”

Stakeholders and land organisations

MANGALISO KUBHEKA: National organiser for Landless People’s Movement

“People must take what is theirs. We cannot stop people from grabbing the land. They have been lied to and violated for a long time.

“People are inspired by what is happening elsewhere. These are poor people who will never be able to afford decent housing because of the adverse systems in place.

“I think the government realises now that the “willing buyer, willing seller” principle is not working – this is the same system that was used in Brazil, Mexico and elsewhere in the world. It’s fatal and will never work.”

THULANI NDLAZI: Church land programme director

“We do not encourage land occupation. We have heard about this Estcourt situation. However, this is a trend that is happening all over the world in countries like Brazil, Kenya and India.

“If you do not provide land or housing, a situation like this one will happen.

“The problem is lack of access to land and housing, resulting in influx.

“The government has no system of accommodation and most of the people are poor. Some are working but they cannot afford housing.

“The solution here would be for the government to acknowledge the problem and start developing rural areas to prevent urbanisation that ultimately leads to this.”

Government

SIPHO DLAMINI: Spokesman for Land Affairs in KwaZulu-Natal

“There is not much we can do, as this land is privately owned by the municipality. They have not approached us formally, as far as I know. However, having said that, we do not encourage land invasions. There are processes in place for aggrieved parties to follow.

“So, until such time as the land owner decides to approach us, we will allow them to take the necessary measures.”

Political parties

BONGANI DLAMINI: Estcourt ANC sub-region chairman

“We condemn the land grabs, but the IFP-led municipality should also take the rap for its failure to address land issues and its underhanded tactics in this saga.

“The land and houses are allocated to a select few. The process remains non-transparent.

“Invasions happened here before in Midway and Rensberg towards Weenen and were spearheaded by the IFP, but the municipality did not do anything. Aren’t those double standards?”

DAVID ALLEN: DA leader in Estcourt

“Our standpoint should be clear and the municipality should acknowledge that there is a land problem in Estcourt. We are, however, opposed to land invasions.

“We support development and squatters will only entrench the situation.

“We are planning a meeting where all the stakeholders will discuss the matter before it is too late.”

STEVEN HAGGARD: President of the Estcourt/Umtshezi Chamber of Commerce and Industry

“While we empathise with people who are struggling in this tough economic climate and who may be opportunistic, the land distribution processes cannot be undermined.

“If the perception is that processes are not being handled properly, there are channels available that lead to the national government, which must be held to account.

“If property owners do not have trust in the judicial system to help protect their assets, they will be discouraged to continue doing business in our area.

“This will also negatively impact our town’s economic development and therefore discourage external investments in Estcourt.”

Sowetan: Invaders take over vacant council land

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http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1100367Invaders take over vacant council land
Canaan Mdletshe
28 December 2009

Mayor says third force behind illegal invasion

UMTSHEZI municipality mayor Maliyakhe Shelembe has lambasted a massive Zimbabwe-style illegal land invasion in Estcourt in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands on Christmas Day.

About 300 people arrived at vacant municipal land and erected shacks and makeshift structures in a move Shelembe said was spearheaded by a “third force hellbent on destabilising the municipality”.

The invaders marked “their plots”, put obstructions around them and started building shacks.

“We are using the Constitution and municipal by-laws to protect civilian and municipal property. The land they have illegally occupied has been set aside for low-cost housing development. Locals know that people who will get houses there are those who earn little or no income at all,” Shelembe said.

He said contrary to this, the people who have illegally occupied the land were driving fancy cars and some were teachers and did not qualify for low-cost houses.

He said the fact that some of the occupiers came from Gauteng, Richards Bay, Pietermaritzburg and Mpumalanga was an indication that there was a third force behind the move.

“The motives are clearly criminal. We view this as an attempt to destabilise the municipality and it is our duty to preserve and protect municipal property, which is why we will use every piece of legislation to defend that property. We have deployed the police to stop people from putting up structures,” he said.

One of the invaders Sowetan spoke to accused the government of ignoring their pleas for houses. He said he had been waiting for too long for a house and when he heard of the available plots he grabbed the opportunity.

“After waiting for nearly nine years it was time for action and when I heard that there were plots available, I thought to myself that God had finally answered my prayers ,” he said.

Landless People’s Movement national organiser Mangaliso Kubheka said though the “invaders” were not their members, they supported them.

“We support the move by these people because municipalities take the land and use it to build luxury homes for rich people ,” Kubheka said.