‘Paul Mashatile, give my land back,’ say elderly Alexandra residents

Property owners from Alex are protesting outside Luthuli House, saying government 're-expropriated' their land and failed to issue title deeds.

Picture: Nigel Sibanda.

Elderly residents in Alexandra township marched to ANC headquarters Luthuli House in the Johannesburg city centre on Monday morning to protest against the alleged withholding of title deeds by the government.

The residents, most of them elderly, say they have land claims filed with the government, some dating as far back as Nelson Mandela’s presidency, and those claims have not been resolved.

A spokesperson for the group, Richard Mbalukwana, told eNCA: “We’ve been pleading, now we are demanding that our title deeds must be issued.”

“Everyone is given title deeds, all those on municipal land, but we who are private [owners of land that] was expropriated by the apartheid government haven’t been issued with title deeds,” Mbalukwana continued.

“Instead around 1998 … the City of Johannesburg re-expropriated our land, and we’ve been trying to negotiate through the land task team for all those title deeds to be issued,” said the spokesperson.

One placard called on the City of Johannesburg to “release and restore title deeds legally belonging to” Alexandra residents.

Another said: “You claim to be for the people, yet you expropriate land.”

Yet another placard mentioned Paul Mashatile, who as a current member of the executive council for human settlements and cooperative governance in the Gauteng legislature, is one of the leaders involved in the issuing of title deeds.

“I am 83 years old. Paul Mashatile, give my land back,” it read.

Residents of Johannesburg's Alexandra township are marching to Luthuli House this morning over housing concerns. eNCA's @malungelob is on the ground with the latest. Courtesy #DStv403 pic.twitter.com/pIUOj48wQx

— eNCA (@eNCA) August 6, 2018