Homeless occupy ‘promised land’
The small group of homeless people evicted from the council-owned land along Main Reef Road, Boksburg North, have recently invaded the privately-owned land at the corner of Rietfontein and Main Reef roads.
The landless squatters living in camping tents claim that Ekurhuleni employees, along with two EMPD police officers, told them to move to the privately-owned vacant piece of land on Rietfontein Road.
‘They evicted us from the council-owned land and gave us permission to occupy the small piece of land next to the traffic light at corner of Rietfontein and Main Reef road, for only 48 hours.
“From there, the police told us to move to this privately-owned vacant piece of land, which has been standing vacant for years,” says Thys Booyzen, one of the settlers.
The settlers are getting impatient about moving from one place to another and, are, therefore, threatening to resist the looming eviction from their current location.
“We don’t know where to go from here. Where must we go now? This will be our fourth eviction. We were evicted from outside the Boksburg North Clinic, then it was the piece of land next to the Boksburg North Hotel, also from the mine-owned land next to the traffic light, and now we have to move again,” say the frustrated residents.
The squatters accused the local municipality of not doing enough to provide them with land and houses, adding that the only way to stop them from occupying vacant land is to provide them with a piece of land to put up their tents.
“All we need is land to permanently put our tents. It’s not nice moving from one place to another all the time,” says a resident, Lydia Morrison.
The squatters say they had been squatting for about seven years now, and nothing fruitful had come from the government.
They, however, thank all those who helped them with food, blankets, clothes and other donations.
– @FanieBoksburg
