BARBERTON – Residents who defied the Northern Gauteng High Court interdict that was issued on behalf of Umjindi Local Municipality (ULM) to stop them from invading the piece of land which was renamed Kosovo Villa in 2013, have decided to abide by the court order.
Mpumalanga News learnt that some of the community members who invaded the municipal land illegally, had been allocated stands.
Speaking to Mpumalanga News, the chairperson of Umjindi Community Forum, Mr Vusi “Snobo” Gwebu said,
“We have given up on the establishment of the informal settlement because the municipality already allocated stands for the people.
“But there are still those who are on the waiting list to receive their stands and I can safely say that it’s promising,” he said.
This publication also posed a question to Gwebu what was going to happen to those slums that were unoccupied.
This stems from previous reports that bus commuters who travel at dawn complain about criminal elements that target them from those shacks.
“They are not going to be demolished at this stage because there are still pending issues with the municipality and the police.
There were criminal cases whereby suspects were arrested and released, so the slums will remain there until everything is resolved,” he explained.
This whole drama started when furious community members stated that they were sick and tired of playing hide-and-seek games with ULM as they claimed that they had waited for a very long time to get their stand/RDP house.
They hadn’t seen any progress in terms of delivering homes as they believed that invading the municipal land illegally and building shacks would send a clear message to their leaders that they really needed houses.
When Mpumalanga News visited the informal settlement and interacted with various people, they voiced different views.
One of the residents, Ms Sarah Nkosi said,
“I am unemployed and I really need a place to stay. Building a slum is the only solution because I need a place to live in.
I have been waiting to get my RDP house for a long time. They need our votes during the upcoming local government elections, but still our leaders fail to fulfil their promises.”
