An organised group has been terrorising pensioners who were recently allocated RDP houses in Chief Albert Luthuli Park, near Daveyton, on the East Rand, by throwing rocks and petrol bombs.
More than 40 families, mostly the elderly, have been living in fear after they were allocated these houses, which had previously been illegally occupied by the group, which has been intimidating the rightful beneficiaries for weeks now.
Some of the people allocated the houses had been on the waiting list for 25 years and had hoped that their lives would change, but now they are faced with constant threats to their lives.
About eight families said the group attacks their houses at night and that they had reported the matter to the Crystal Park police but had not heard back from investigators.
The community said when violence broke out in February, after Ekurhuleni housing MMC Lesiba Mpya allocated the second group of families their houses, there had been police visibility, even at night.
But a few weeks ago, police began patrolling during the day, with the attacks happening at night.
Provincial police spokesperson Cpt Kay Makhubele had not responded to questions at the time of going to print. He said he needed information from the station but later his phone was not answered and he did not respond to text messages.
The latest incident happened in the early hours of Monday, with a house attacked with what the family said was mining explosives.
Yandiswa Sobudula, the daughter of a pensioner who was allocated the house, said her mother was in the Eastern Cape due to ill health and she was looking after the house.
“I had been fearing to move into the house because of the violence in the area,” said Sobudula, adding that she just goes to the area to check if her mother’s house has not been vandalised.
Sobudula said she was glad no-one had been in the house when the attack happened.
She said the forensics team dispatched to the area yesterday told them that mining explosives had been used during the attack.
In another incident, 60-year-old Wilson Sithole’s car, a Toyota Corolla, was smashed and set alight at about 8pm on Saturday while he was cooking.
“We have no electricity, so while I was preparing food from a gas stove, I saw a flame from the front windows where my car parks. I jumped up and went outside and I put out the fire using water and soil.”
He said the intimidation had started weeks ago when the windows of his house were broken in the early hours of the morning while he was asleep.
“I just heard people walking outside then there was a banging sound from my bathroom window and a brick smashed the door,” he said.
Sithole said the police refused to open a case for him and told him the case for the complaints in the area would be centralised into one.
The father of four said he feared for his life but would not leave because he had waited 25 years for an RDP house.
“I’m tired of renting but now I’m being forced to fight for a property the government has given me after years of waiting,” he said.
Another resident, Prisca Gamogotse, 70, whose windows were broken on two occasions, told Sowetan she was ready to leave the house to save her life.
“I live alone and I’m very scared now. A brick hit my legs while I was asleep a week ago.
“On March 21, my front windows were smashed together with my neighbour’s windows. We need soldiers or a security company because the police are not here all the time. They leave us alone after 10pm, allowing these criminals to attack us,” Gamogotse said.
It will be land first and houses later
The illegal occupation of RDP houses is a daily phenomenon and the department of human settlements in Gauteng says it is well-coordinated.
Spokesperson Castro Ngobese said: “It’s a serious challenge which has a potential to undermine our electoral priorities and commitments. Hence, we have been consistently dissuading communities from embarking on such criminal acts. Clearly, these illegal occupations are well-coordinated. We are working with relevant law enforcement agencies. We also need the support of our communities.”
Ekurhuleni member of the mayoral committee for human settlements Lesiba Mpya said the illegal occupation of houses is a serious problem for the city.
“There is a criminal syndicate that takes money from unsuspecting people with the promise that they are going to make their realisation of housing achievable at an accelerated rate. Immediately when the houses are complete, as we are calling for those who are approved to come and be allocated, they then quickly move in.
“It is a syndicate. It is prevalent in Ekurhuleni. It has its eyes on our project. They know what we are doing and where we are doing it. They know the performance of each and every project,” said Mpya.
He said the city was currently in court to secure evictions for the illegal occupation of houses in other developments such as Mayfield Park and Mackenzieville in Nigel.
Mpya said the city was trying to find new ways of handling housing developments.
“Our long-term plan is to give people serviced stands. A beneficiary will be told there is your stand. It has been fully serviced. It has electricity, water and sewerage system and roads. Please go and occupy. Once you have taken occupation, in the next two to three months we come back and erect a structure,” said Mpya.
In February, hundreds of unfinished flats in Olievenhoutbosch Extension 37, near Centurion, which cost nearly R190m were illegally occupied by people from Diepsloot and Alexandra.
In the same month, a total of 32 families were evicted from houses in the Savannah City development, south of Johannesburg. The families claimed that they had applied for RDP houses and had not been allocated houses after waiting for years.
In August, 2,000 people were evicted from the City of Johannesburg’s most celebrated mixed housing development in Fleurhof.
In July 2019, the Sowetan reported of illegal evictions of RDP beneficiaries in Alexandra. In that instance, a group of residents went on a rampage on weekends removing people from the River Park flats and accusing them of being foreigners.
But when the Sowetan visited the development, it found that the residents were naturalised South Africans while others were born of locals and foreign nationals. The residents had their furniture thrown out and the houses were left vacant. At a later stage, the group would allocate one of the residents on their own to the flats.
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