Eight residents of Alexandra accused of conducting illegal evictions appeared at the Alexandra Magistrates’ Court on 7 February.
Their case was postponed to 7 March pending further investigation.
In Alex News’ article, week ending 1 February, 12 suspects were taken in for RDP chaos, Alex Police Station spokesperson Captain Stephen Malatji said the eight were suspected to be leaders of a group acting lawlessly and evicting foreign nationals from RDP houses in Ext 7 and 10. They were arrested with others who were released for lack of evidence.
The group’s representatives,
, said they are a movement and are unfazed by the charges.
Malebetjoe said, “It’s our obligation to correct the wrong caused by inept and corrupt government officials we know allocated the houses to foreign nationals for personal gain.
“We have the evidence and law enforcement agencies should rather listen and cooperate with us so that they too can get the information to help them in their investigation.”
This he said after Malatjie said there would be more arrests to stop the lawless evictions. The eight arrested on 21 January were granted free bail on charges Malebjoe said are for alleged theft, malicious damage to property and conducting illegal evictions.
He added, “The RDP houses in question were constructed using citizens’ tax money and are specifically for hundreds of poor citizens including the elderly, who were registered for them using due and legal processes long ago.
“They have waited patiently for many years for the government to rectify the erroneous allocations but in vain. This has left us with no option but to evict the illegal occupants.”
Malebjoe said the occupants and corrupt officials should instead be of interest to law enforcement who should commend rather than arresting the victims of corruption. “The occupants also know that they are complicit in crime from the paper trail of evidence of fake documents used in the illegal allocations in all housing extensions.
He added that their gripe was also communicated to senior government and security officials and politicians who they expect to take appropriate action against those involved. “We gather more evidence as we continue and urge the occupants to seek alternative homes for rent or purchase if they are properly documented to be in the country.”
Madigane alleged that those intending to scupper their action would fail. “We are not a vigilante group but peaceful despite the frustration caused by years of government’s ineptness in solving the matter.
“We are meticulous when identifying illegally occupied houses and record all items found inside where the occupants ask for time to seek alternative accommodation.”
The process he added, involved a ‘friendly’ visit to the occupants by two representatives of the movement who present them with the evidence of illegality. “When they fail to prove to the contrary, they are given an ultimatum to vacate and to hand over the house keys. In other instances, friendly neighbours are asked to store their items while they seek alternative homes.”
Madigane said in some instances they also found suspect documents in the houses which should be of interest to law enforcement agencies in their investigation.
Their action is also prompted by long-awaited results of an investigation promised by the City’s housing department. The department’s acting executive director Thabo Mayisela said that illegal evictions cannot validate acting against a constitutional guarantee for proper housing to everyone. “Those found to be illegal occupants should be removed through a due process to avoid counter illegal action meant to correct what occurred unlawfully.
“The full audit results are still pending but a preliminary sample of findings indicates irregularities in the allocations,” Mayisela said adding that an in-depth investigation will be considered to assess the extent of the corruption.
He added that the problem was countrywide and contributed to a national housing crisis which interprovincial and national housing departments are working on resolving.
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