‘Prepare a mass funeral’

Residents of Pimville have given the government until the end of May to remove all the shacks at Chicken Farm informal settlement. Residents made this ultimatum during the Ministerial Crime Prevention Imbizo held at the Pimville Community Hall on Thursday last week.

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It comes after they accused the area of harbouring cable thieves who have been tormenting them for years now. According to residents, the police and Eskom have failed to solve the issue of cable theft which cause unplanned outages in the area every week.

The situation escalated to violence last month when one resident lost his life after being shot by one of Chicken Farm dwellers with an assault rifle.

“Listen here Mme Mpho, we are not going to listen to you saying you are going give those people water and electricity. We don’t want those shacks, they must go. If we are not being listened to, then we are going to die. We will do it ourselves then because we can’t have police who are scared of going there because they know they will get shot at,” said Thabang Moloi, a Pimville community leader to Mayor Mpho Phalatse.

It is not the first time residents of Pimville call for the removal of Chicken Farm shacks and they seem to be getting impatient by the day.

Another community leader, Nhlanhla Lux echoed Moloi’s sentiments and said the shacks, not only in Chicken Farm but in other areas as well must be removed in 30 days.

“The 28th of next month will be a Saturday. If the squatter camps are still there on Sunday, you must as well prepare a mass funeral because we are going all out guns blazing,” said Lux to government officials who attended the meeting. Residents also called for the closure of scrap yards in the area saying they perpetuate cable theft.