Mandla Khoza’s dream of turning his life and situation around was shattered when his spaza shop was demolished by the City of Mbombela. The unemployed Khoza said he had set his spaza shop up to be able to put food on the table and maintain his family, but all that is gone now.
He said he had identified a small portion of land in front of his house in 2007 which was used as an illegal dumping site.
“I’m a visually impaired person who depends on a disability grant from the government. I took the initiative to start the shop to help myself financially because the disability grant is not enough to keep me going for the whole month,” he said.
Khoza said that after some time, the municipal officials came to his spaza shop to applaud and advise him on how to run a successful business, and what the structure should look like. He said we was surprised when they later returned to demolish the building.
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“The development and municipal workers came to show me how my structure should be and that is when I decided to improve it into a new, modernised building with blocks in cement.
It took most of my time and energy to be able to construct this structure to what it turned out to be. I was so surprised when a team of unannounced municipal officials came and demolished the structure.”
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Joseph Ngala, the spokesperson of the City of Mbombela, said people need to get permission first before using the land.
“Disposal of any land within the jurisdiction of the City of Mbombela must follow due process of applying for such alienation.
The applicant must submit an application to the City with clear intentions of what the piece of land is needed for, pay the necessary application fee, and await approval from the council if the application is approved. The complainant must approach the municipal offices in Matsulu and raise the complaint with the relevant unit responsible for land use matters,” advised Ngala.
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