Ward 19 residents to protest for land on Friday
Ward 19 residents will tomorrow (August 25) deliver a memorandum of demands to departments in the city as well as the Polokwane Municipality.
POLOKWANE – Preparations for a protest at key government departments are gaining momentum among Polokwane Ward 19 residents demanding land.
Tomorrow (Friday), the claimants of the piece of land next to the Westenburg traffic lights at Extension 40 will deliver a memorandum of demands to Human Settlements and Land Reform, the Office of the Premier and the Polokwane Municipality, after talks fell through between officials of the municipality who were mandated by municipal manager, Thuso Nemugumoni to list claimants’ grievances of the claimants following violent riots in demand for the land which they had already been allocated title deeds for, according to resident, Poet Malahlela.
While the municipality on August 8 committed to allocate 300 stands to beneficiaries on land bordering the original land, according to municipal spokesperson, Thipa Selala, other government authorities remained mum on the matter.
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“We hope there will no longer be a reason to ignore our request because we will make sure the memorandums reach all of those who must release our land,” Malahlela said.
Some claimants in July claimed to have seen unknown visitors portion off land originally allocated to them by the municipality.
An obligation for Provincial Government to allocate land to the disgruntled group is brought forth by the forceful removal of a much older generation of the currently aggrieved land claimants years ago, from the old Pietersburg or Disteneng area, to Westenburg for land restitution purposes.
However, after several promises to allocate them land at various areas, this has not come to fruition, Malahlela mentioned.
The march will start at 08:00 at the entrance of Westenburg’s RDP section.
