Illegal land invasions
Police officers receiving medical treatment after vehicle attacked in Mfuleni
The assault came after the City of Cape Town law enforcement officials demolished illegally erected shacks on Sunday.
Lawyers for property owners have been seeking an eviction order against 107 waste collectors who have been staying on the property for five years.
Several weeks back, the Western Cape High Court ruled that evictions could not be carried out while the state of disaster was still in place.
Residents burned tyres, threw stones, and moved a vehicle and a fishing vessel into the road to block motorists.
The applicants are asking the court to interdict the city from demolishing structures without court oversight for the duration of the national state of disaster.
The plan seeks to fight the mushrooming of informal settlement and illegal land invasions.
The Gauteng government has now formulated a strategy that will put an end to illegal land grabs.
Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said that law enforcement officials should act against those who illegally occupied private property and remove them so that invasions did not spread to other municipalities.
The Human Settlements Department’s spokesperson Yonela Diko said that authorities needed to be aware of what they could and could not do in the event of land invasions.
It’s understood the protest started after law enforcement tore down structures in a newly formed settlement in Makhaza.
The Khayelitsha community went to court last week after their homes were demolished. The Western Cape High Court order allowed 49 structures to be re-erected on the city-owned land.
The city says a syndicate is taking advantage of vulnerable people looking for shelter.
Lebogang Maile made the comments in Johannesburg after discussing a response to the illegal occupation of land in Gauteng with the province’s mayors.
A group of residents said to be spearheading land invasions in the south of the city was summoned to appear in court on Tuesday.
On Saturday, police had to be deployed to the area as tensions boiled over between alleged land grabbers and community members.
The EFF has criticised the validity of the Riotous Assemblies Act as well as the Trespass Act.
AfriForum will be taking on leader Julius Malema in the High Court in Pretoria, arguing that the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader is in contempt of court for continuing to incite illegal land invasions.
Residents arrived at a vacant piece of land in the southern suburb last week and started building on Monday, claiming they could no longer wait for the government to give them land and houses.
Farouk Jardine, who mobilised the illegal occupation, says he’s told at least 3,000 more residents to set up their homes.