Mayor vs Meyer in land battle

Polokwane Municipality might possibly be facing an urgent application on the grounds of perceived wrongful eviction and acting against an earlier Constitutional Court judgement expected to be brought before the Polokwane High Court tomorrow (Friday) after the removal of scores of dwellers from municipal land on the road to Matlala a week prior. At the same time a process of class action against the Police, based on alleged brutality and violence, following last Friday’s eviction is being considered.
At the time of going to press former municipal councillor Len Meyer, who has been fighting the battle of the group of dwellers who have started occupying municipal land along the road to Ga-Matlala since the Disteneng removal on 25 July this year, informed Polokwane Observer of the intended action against Polo­kwane Municipality and the Police.
Matters took a turn early Monday afternoon when Meyer intended to deliver a letter to a judge of the Polokwane High Court presiding in the eviction application by Polokwane Municipality, citing a Constitutional Court ruling in a housing-related application on 8 June this year. In the document Meyer protests against the court order made on 26 September seen to be in conflict with the Constitutional Court ruling. Later on it was learnt that he had been advised to follow due process.
Legal practitioners consulted on the eviction said the municipality merely effected the court order, but the merits on which the order was granted by the court could be subjected to appeal and pointed out that the preferred route that the municipality should have taken was to invoke the remedies provided by a specific section of the Prevention of Illegal Eviction From and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act (PIE).
According to sources things apparently turned ugly during Friday’s eviction when two women, a man and two children were reportedly left injured in a hail of rubber bullets. Despite all efforts to have them removed an estimated 70 members from the larger group returned to the point of rupture later that same day. In documentation in Polokwane Observer’s possession it is stated that the site was initially occupied by an approximate 1 300 people.
One of the men who returned to the property opposite Extension 44 upon conclusion of Friday’s eviction process informed Polokwane Observer during a follow-up visit on Monday afternoon that the injured – two women, a man, a girl of 7 years and a boy of 5 years – were among the evictees who were being removed. He attested to a large contingent of Police on the scene mid-morning on Friday.
They were adamant about staying there until Polokwane Executive Mayor Thembi Nkadimeng gave them an alternative housing arrangement, stressed the dweller who relocated there after having had to abandon his former home during the Disteneng eviction. He said that they would stay there until the municipality helped them by giving them stands.
He explained that the people, many of whom were job seekers from elsewhere in the province, were sleeping out in the bush or under trees while having almost no protection against the elements. According to him they didn’t have money to pay rent in Extension 44 opposite the road like the rest who were evicted on Friday. “We are suffering.” At the time a group of men was huddled around a fire under a tree covered with a makeshift enclosure, a bare mattress flung to the one side. In the background the meagre belongings of a desperate die-hard, who was apparently out job hunting at the time, were drying in the sun after the first rain of the season. In other parts of the city the unexpected shower was regarded a blessing.
While Polokwane Observer was on the scene on Friday around 10:00 the situation was calm and well contained by the Police and municipal public safety unit.
When approached for comment on the alleged multiple shooting, Provincial Police spokesperson Moatshe Ngoepe said “Those are allegations and anyone who might have been injured may go and open a case at the Police and it will be investigated.”

Story:
YOLANDE NEL
>>observer.yolande@gmail.com
BARRY VILJOEN
>>barryv.observer@gmail.com