A group of former Makhulugama informal settlement residents sat around a small fire, huddled together for some warmth.
They had been sitting like this since last night, 1 August, and said that they have now been left homeless after the Red Ants and police invaded the settlement during the day. They had made the fire to keep warm during the cold night, and there around that fire each of them slept.
Read initial article here:
https://www.citizen.co.za/krugersdorp-news/386526/cops-bring-makhulugama-to-its-knees/
Across from the settlement, in a field, other residents sat among piles of their belongings, having nowhere else to go. Among them were mothers with tiny babies, with nothing more than the clothes on their backs.
“We don’t mind that they want to break down the settlement, but we just want to know where we should go now?” asked one resident.
Some tell how they were at work when they received calls from their neighbours telling them that their shacks were being demolished. They rushed home, to find that everything was already on a truck, stolen or damaged.
Watch here:
Most people walk around with their South African Identity Documents so that they could prove their citizenship when stopped by police.
One resident said that they’d had a meeting with the police on Wednesday, and were told to ‘fix their problems’ after one man killed another and revenge was taken on the murderer.
“Yesterday we saw a lot of vans coming, the police came, they used teargas, and rubber bullets, but we stayed in our shelters. And then the men came and said ‘break, break’, before the Red Ants broke down our shelters.”
Photos: Jaco Human.
Some residents are now taking what is left of their shacks to sell , to raise some money to get food and shelter for tonight.
The Honeyfield Charity quickly sprang into action and delivered hot soup and bread to more than 70 residents who had been left homeless and sleeping in the cold.
People did not go to work and children did not go to school today, and when the News was done speaking to the residents, the Red Ants and police arrived for Day 2.
The News has approached the local municipality and the ward councillor for that area for comment about the situation. The councillor confirmed that they were meeting to discuss the situation, but had not replied to our queries by the time this story was published.
