East residents forcibly evict illegal tenants in ‘hostel takeover’
The family units were illegally occupied by hostel dwellers from the old hostel blocks who turned the family units into a criminal hideout.
The tragic shooting of a young man last week led to an angry mob of Mamelodi west residents forcibly evicting people from “empty” family units near Sun Valley on Monday morning.
Now the residents who chased them away, say they will stay at the units themselves. And that they are willing to pay for any services.
“It was about time the community stood together and fought for what should have been handed to them a long time ago,” said Community First Foundation spokesperson Clearance Malaza.
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“Mamelodi residents desperately need a place to stay and these illegal occupants had been staying at the family units since 2014 for free. Some of them were even making money out of the units by renting them out to unsuspecting residents, who desperately needed a place to stay.”
Malaza said the local community was also unhappy about the crime at the units and that police could not solve the young man’s shooting.
“The people living there now are prepared to actually pay for services. The Tshwane metro shouldn’t worry about them not paying their bills.”
“The police failed to protect us,” said Mamelodi hostel residents committee chairperson Daniel Sello.
Sello was speaking on behalf of the previous inhabitants who were forcibly ejected on Monday.
He claimed that the locals had firearms when they chased them away.
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“Police responded too late to help us because they say they were supposedly ‘waiting for reinforcements.’”
He claimed the “people who shot and killed the young man was not even staying at the family units”.
“These families are now all homeless and their furniture has been destroyed. What is painful is that there were children among them.”
No one was injured during the fracas, said police spokesperson Captain Johannes Maheso, “even though later that evening the two groups tried to attack each other and shots were fired”.
No arrests were made, said Maheso.
“The situation was controlled by the presence of police and it was contained.”
Police said they would monitor the situation at the family units. No evictions would be made.
The contested units were built in 2013 to house residents of a hostel, which was demolished to make place for the units.
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However, as the metro dragged its feet in supplying services such as electricity and stormwater drainage, the units remained empty.
That is, until a group of people moved in who claimed that the units were built to house them in the first place, according to Sello.
“People moved in because the units were empty and drug users were vandalising them.”
Tshwane metro spokesperson Lindela Mashigo said the units in question are 148 built by Gauteng Housing and Human Settlements in the 2012/13 financial year. Fifty-six of them were built in ward 67 and 92 units were built in ward 38 with the structures completed.
“The outstanding work resulted in an occupation certification not being issued and that affected the allocation process. The delay in the allocation process resulted in the invasion of the units.”
“Our legal department has been requested to obtain an eviction order as we all know there are processes and procedures that must be followed when evicting illegal occupants,” said Mashigo.
ALSO READ: Compliance operation at east hostel blocks
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