Business is booming for a group of shack builders, selling illegal shacks to desperate land grabbers on the municipal land currently under invasion in Ballito.
KwaDukuza municipality spokesperson Sipho Mkhize said they had attempted to remove the squatters several times but due to the violent response had asked for police assistance, which he claims had not been forthcoming.
Since the coronavirus pandemic there has been a staggering rise in land invasions in the region.
Illegal land occupiers have flocked to secure small plots on the R445 (Ballito Drive) sandwiched between Shaka’s Head and the upmarket Caledon Estate, and in Sheffield.
Shack-builder entrepreneurs have been making a healthy profit as well.
So, too, have the pop-up industries that support people moving from one place to another – food vendors, tuck shops, merchants selling household goods, among others. And with no running water selling buckets of water is also a thriving business.
A land occupier told the Courier he paid R1 500 for his one room shack.
A 50% deposit secured him the shack and the balance was paid when the shack was completed.
A bigger shack can be had for R3 000.
Sipho (22) said he lost his job and income when the country went into hard lockdown last year and he could no longer afford to pay his rent in Shaka’s Head.
He said he was aware the land belonged to the municipality and all he wanted was a piece of land to live on.
The shack did not cost him anything as he built it on his own.
Hlengiwe (47) admitted that she was aware she had invaded the vacant land.
But she said she had nowhere else to live, and because the land stood vacant she moved in.
“We must be given help to live in peace‚ not cast out onto the street,” she said.
Some land invasions have resulted in the formation of new neighbourhoods. If you ask Kwanele (31) where he lives he will tell you “Hlanganani” which means place of togetherness in Zulu.
Hlanganani is the densely populated settlement in Sheffield compromising more than 100 shacks and 600-plus land occupiers.
The municipal owned land was invaded in 2019 and has been weathering a number of storms ever since.
The shacks spread across a green belt bordering an upmarket eco-estate, where apartments can be bought for R3 million and houses sell for up to R9 million.
Some squatters told the Courier that they had previously been living in shacks, often in the backyards of other homes, and could no longer afford the rent. So they looked for land where they could live rent-free.
KDM spokesperson Sipho Mkhize said the municipality had been granted a court order in November last year to remove the land invaders living on the Sheffield site earmarked for a mixed-income housing project and demolish all the illegal structures.
However the application was challenged by the Shack Dwellers Movement, Abahlali baseMjondolo, saying they have “a valid claim to the land”. The matter is pending.
With regards to the land invasion on the P445 Mkhize said it was still not clear if it was owned council land or privately owned.
“The municipality’s legal and property sections are working to provide council with authentic information that shall respond to ownership and guide on a way forward. The Human Settlements Section Slum Clearance teams have been deployed on several occasions to stop the illegal occupation of this piece of land. These operations were undertaken with the assistance of the municipality’s crime prevention teams. On these occasions the perpetrators tend to be violent, the municipality has since escalated the matter to Saps who have indicated that they do not have capacity for now.”
Umhlali Saps spokesperson Vinny Pillay denied this, saying the local police were willing to assist where needed.
“In cases like these we call out public order policing for assistance,” he said.
