Vryheid KZN: Frustrated Nseka residents saved from evacuation by AbaQulusi Municipality

The community of the newly-developed area in Nseka between Vryheid and eMondlo have been living in fear of having their houses demolished, after it emerged that the land they had bought belonged to a certain church.
The community members claim they had no idea the land belonged to the church when they bought the stands… and were in fear of losing their homes as talks grew that they would be evacuated and their homes demolished.
“I have spent a lot of money building this house and I still need to spend a lot to complete it. How am I going to recover the money should this happen? But since the municipality is here to assist, we are hopeful all will fall into place. I just want to encourage people who are still planning on buying a piece of land to ensure that whoever is selling to them is the rightful owner, otherwise they might find themselves in the same predicament as us,” said one of the homeowners.

Also read: Vryheid KZN Land claim feud leaves 80 affected

AbaQulusi Local Municipality Acting Mayor Mncedisi Maphisa visited the community with an agenda to ensure that people did not lose their homes and to offer a way forward for all involved parties.
“This year has been a year to be remembered, as the Covid-19 pandemic has created a new normal, with hygiene and sanitation being of utmost importance for the survival of mankind. As a municipality, the past week has been significant for us, as we managed to make major highlights in our quest to deliver services to the community.
“The Nseka area has been surrounded by a burning issue where people’s houses were set to be demolished due to an issue of land ownership where citizens had built on land that belonged to a church in the area. The municipality engaged in a very robust process with the Department of Rural Development & Human Settlements to request them to purchase the land on behalf of our citizens, and the process was a success,” said Maphisa.
He added that they held a session with the community to inform that, “Their houses would no longer be demolished and that the municipality would be facilitating a process for them to acquire title deeds for the land they have built on. This was a significant milestone for us as a municipality, as many households were saved and our people will not be short of shelter during this very difficult season.
“Furthermore; with hygiene being of utmost importance, we presented a contractor who will repair our sewer lines at Bhekuzulu Location and in the eMondlo areas. This achievement will see our people get jobs and service delivery efficiently taking place in the communities that have been targeted.”
Maphisa said, “It is true when they say ‘perseverance prevails and that the only constant in life is change’.
By this, fellow citizens, I mean that when all confidence and trust was lost in this municipality, when we were placed under intervention, when we did not know the extent of challenges our municipality was in; we persevered. We focused on the right things and we are still continuing along that path, I wish to assure the residents of AbaQulusi that forward we go, backwards never. Our communities have mandated us to improve the quality of services we provide to them by being accountable and working closely with our communities; we will honour this mandate and continue serving our communities efficiently.”
Maphisa further gave his assurance that they have engaged with the department on the Nseka issue “as a matter of urgency. On the issue of the value of the land, this will come from an independent evaluator after evaluation has been done. On the Bhekuzulu and eMondlo projects, a budget of R2.5 million has been set aside for both areas and so far, eight people have been employed in Bhekuzulu. The contractor will continue recruiting whenever work demands more. In eMondlo, they will start with 10 people and likewise, they will continue recruiting if the work demands more people,” he added.

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