Blairgowrie evicted resident lives on pavement

An evicted resident said she has had her house stolen from under her nose and, in protest, has been living on the pavement for the past month, Randburg Sun reported.

Barbara Nyika said she has been living on the pavement next to the house in question on Standard Drive opposite Delta Park School since July.

All of Barbara Nyika’s property is on the pavement on Standard Drive.

According to Nyika, she has lived there with 10 people, including a 2-year-old child. On the morning of September 6, Nyika and several others burnt tyres in protest of this eviction.

She explained that she finished paying off the house in 2010 and later approached a home loan company so she could renovate it.

By 2014, she had no job and therefore could not pay the full instalments on the house. Nyika said she then explained this to the home loan company and asked to pay a smaller monthly instalment.

She claimed that by July of this year, her house was then illegally sold through an auction on the internet and added she was never given the proper notification of the sale.

Barbara Nyika shows where she has been sleeping for the last month.

The disgruntled evicted homeowner said she has not eaten since she was kicked out of the property.

This, she added, is not in protest but rather her fasting, as she is quite adamant she will get her house her back.

Ward 99 councillor Nicole van Dyk said residents of the suburb alerted her to a land invasion matter to which she responded, accompanied by Metro police. ANC members were also reported to have joined the protest.

Men in ANC shirts on Standard Drive in protest. Photo: Nicholas Zaal

It was then that she learnt the house was purchased last year through an auction after the bank repossessed it as Nyika had defaulted on the house payment.

Van Dyk explained Nyika and the new homeowner spent most of last year in a court battle due to the number of tenants she had living on the property.

Van Dyk said it is also alleged that there were about 30 to 50 tenants at a time.

Many of these tenants have since sourced alternate housing but all of Nyika’s property still remains on the pavement.

Chief Superintendent Wayne Minnaar explained Metro police sees anyone living on the street as a vagrant, which means even with her claims of ownership of the house, Nyika will be seen as such.

Minnaar also said the police would never throw people’s goods away but rather they would be taken to the Metro police pound.

The Metro police recently started with their removal of vagrants campaign in the suburbs, and this campaign is in full effect.

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