The atmosphere in the hall was tense as the frustrated residents demanded answers as to the illegal land invasion at the Roodepoort Rugby Club informal settlement.
The councillors for Wards 70 and 84, Caleb Finn and Gert Niemand held a public meeting yesterday evening (10 May). Finn welcomed the attendees and said,
“This is a very serious matter. The reason for the meeting is to give residents some feedback on the land invasion and what is being done about it.”
The meeting was also attended by officials from the Department of Housing, Superintendent Sonai from the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) as well as councillor Suzanne Clarke, the councillor for Ward 83, as well as the chairperson for Housing.
Initial article: Florida falls prey to illegal land invasions
The Housing official confirmed that the land is the property of the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) and has been earmarked for housing, but residents needed to be patient, as there are many processes to be followed before houses could be built. “At the moment we have a team of Housing officials sitting down to try and find a solution to this problem,” said Thozamile Jayiya from the Department of Housing.
Sonai assured residents that, as soon as they obtain the court order the eviction process will not take that long. “Our first attempt at evicting the illegal land invaders was met with violence. I had to cancel the operation, because we did not have the help of the Public Order Police (Pops) unit. We only had live ammunition, and I could not allow that. We do not want another Marikana,” she said.
Before the meeting was adjourned, the residents were informed that the court order was granted, which meant that evictions could start.
Read more about what was said during in the meeting in the Record’s next edition.
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