High police visibility during protests from removed Disteneng residents
Former residents of the old Pietersburg, better known as Disteneng had been removed with some relocated to Westenburg in the 1990s, with a promise by the state to reallocate them to land elsewhere.
POLOKWANE – The Polokwane Municipality will allocate 300 stands to claimants of the portion of land next to ext 40 along the Matlala road and opposite the Westenburg traffic lights, even though this is not the same land that the current inhabitants were promised.
This was confirmed this week by municipal spokesperson, Thipa Selala.
Former residents of the old Pietersburg, better known as Disteneng had been removed with some relocated to Westenburg in the 1990s, with a promise by the state to reallocate them to land elsewhere.
Decades later, this has however not realised.
Last Monday, some of the children of the original residents told Polokwane Observer that promises around 2010 made by the municipality to build them Reconstruction Development Programme (RDP) houses in three areas including Percy Fyfe, Serala View and in the Bendor area, have all come to little.
On Thursday, however, a group of people was found at the site, apparently with the intention to clean the land with the understanding that government would allocate the land to the remaining inhabitants of Disteneng.
After being given title deeds for this land, the group questioned if this would be revoked. A protest followed that spilled over into Tuesday, with high police visibility on the main route in and out of Westenburg.
One of the protestors, Poet Malahlela said they had been interdicted years after being given title deeds from occupying the land ahead of government’s schedule for relocation.
Selala confirmed that the new allocation of will happen next to the area that was initially promised.
“This is a new agreement with the land claimants. The municipality could, however, not respond to reasons why the claimants were interdicted after being given title deeds.”
He also could not respond to allegations by the claimants that there was no public participation process held at the time the land was donated to the Regional Land Claims Commission through a court order for land restitution purposes, as residents had attempted to find out from the municipality
Last Tuesday, the group met with ward 19 councillor, Joosuf Pemma for further discussions.
