EMPD cracking down on illegal squatting
Never Never residents forced to relocate after their homes were demolished
The EMPD Land Invasion Unit demolished numerous shacks at the Never Never informal settlement last Tuesday morning.
Resident Charles Links says the EMPD arrived at around 10am and starting breaking down the shacks without prior warning.
Links says that residents were threatened with firearms when trying to intervene.
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Links says: “They could at least have come here with a court order or something.
“If we knew we had to relocate we would have done so.
“But instead they just come and demolish our homes.”
Links says the EMPD told them that Never Never was declared private land, and the owner asked that the shacks be demolished and the people relocated.
Many parents who had their shack demolished were dismayed.
One parent says: “It is the middle of winter now.
“Our children are freezing in these temperatures.
“What will happen to them now?”
A brief community meeting was held where residents agreed they had been treated unfairly, and that they should have received a warning beforehand.
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Residents would like to speak to their ward councillor Thulani Simelane, but say that he is not returning their calls.
“We understand that the EMPD are only doing their jobs.
“We can’t be mad at them, but we need some answers from the council.”
On Thursday, Links said the entire community of Never Never will meet on Sunday to decide on a way forward.Simelane says the land is privately owned, and that the EMPD was given a court order by the business to demolish the shacks.
Simelane says the owner became concerned when the number of shacks started to increase dramatically.
The councilour says the Department of Human Settlements has built a megacity in Brakpan for the residents to relocate to.
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“I was there before the lockdown and told them not to build more shacks, but then the number started to mushroom and the owner asked for a court order.
“Human Settlement did a survey and saw that the number of shacks increased by 100 during lockdown,” says Simelane.
The metro have failed to respond to our inquiries at time of publication.
The owner of the land was not available for comment at time of publication.
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