An Alex councillor has been accused of ‘ducking and diving’ residents following a land grab with potentially violent implications in Ext 9 on the border with the more affluent houses of East Bank.
Nicholas Malaza, leader of a group of concerned residents from East Bank, said since the land grab intensified over the past two weeks, with members of the Squatter Camp Campaign now laying foundations on the land, they have not been able to access their councillor, Tefo Raphadu of Ward 105.
“We have called the councillor on numerous occasions and he never answers his phone. Sometimes we leave messages that he does not return. He has not bothered at all to return our calls,” Malaza said.
The leader of the East Bank residents said they had finally reached a mutual agreement with the land-grabbers, which included trying to call a meeting with the councillor, the land-grabbers and residents of East Bank in an attempt to thrash out an amicable solution to the impasse.
He said the meeting is being proposed for 12 August at the Alex Cricket Oval in East Bank. “We have mutually agreed with the land-grabbers that there will be no more building activity on the land until we meet on 12 August and that, on our part as residents of East Bank, we will not destroy or interfere with the structures that have started appearing on the land,” Malaza said.
“I don’t know why our councillor is ducking and diving us but we commit ourselves to abide by the agreement we have reached with the land-grabbers to facilitate the holding of a peaceful meeting on 12 August.”
As a way of facilitating easy communication between the land-grabbers and the East Bank residents, Malaza said he had urged members of the Squatter Camp Campaign to form a committee which the residents could liaise with when the need arises, instead of dealing with different individuals on a daily basis.
Ever since the breakout of the land grab, Alex News has been calling the councillor whose phone goes answered and leaving messages that have not been returned.
Read: Land-grabbers and affluent East Bank property owners on brink of war
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