ETHEKWINI Municipality was granted a High Court order on Friday compelling land invaders to make representations to court why it should not grant an order evicting them from municipal land they have occupied illegally.
According to the order, the community must first be notified before any action can be taken against them.
The illegal land occupiers have been given until Friday next week to vacate the land, failure of which could result in their eviction.
Mayor Zandile Gumede, has welcomed the decision of the court and once again appealed to all residents to refrain from invading land.
“Under no circumstances shall we allow laws to be undermined in broad daylight. It is our responsibility as the City to also protect our residents that may be on the receiving end of this illicit behaviour.”
“We admit that our people need land, more especially in urban areas with a hope of getting employment opportunities, but that does not justify land grabs. We are now moving to a stage where we are going to ensure that those invading land are prosecuted and locked up. This dents the image of our City and it has to stop” said Gumede.
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Gumede called on leaders from civil society and other political formations to desist from inciting people to invade land.
“We have leaders that are taking advantage of our desperate people. They have now turned their plight into a political football. They want to use them to destabilise this municipality. We are calling upon all our residents not to heed such leaders because all they want to do is to scare investors that we desperately need to come create job opportunities in our city” said Gumede.
The City is expected to meet land invaders tomorrow to inform them of the outcome of the court.
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