Thousands of residents of Mooiplaas informal settlement in Centurion, Tshwane, have been left homeless after their shacks were demolished during an eviction yesterday.
The eviction comes weeks after the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria granted property company, Chieftain Real Estate, an order compelling occupants of three portions which make up most parts of this large informal settlement situated between Laudium and Olievenhoutbosch, to leave the place.
When Sowetan visited the informal settlement yesterday, the community members accused Chieftain Real Estate, a company incorporated in Ireland, of seeking to render them homeless after more than a decade that they had made Mooiplaas their home.
There are about 30,000 people living in the area.
Mpho Baloyi, 34, said she was awoken by the smell of teargas and screams from neighbours who were being shot at with rubber bullets.
She has been living in Mooiplaas since 2010; she said they felt hard done by the evictions as they had nowhere else to go.
“Why are we being evicted from a land that we occupied long before this man arrived in SA? We settled on this land because of people who work in the industrial area.
“I have lost my valuables – my ID card and matric certificate. I don't know what I'm going to do now,” she said.
Community members were seen attempting to salvage their valuables in the rubble.
Private security guards were seen tearing down shacks with crowbars while a grader was used to demolish formal structures.
Chieftain director Gerard O'Rourke rejected Sowetan's calls and sent a text that read: "Sorry can't talk right now. Please text and I'll revert ASAP."
He did not respond.
He previously said they obtained a court order for illegal occupiers of the land owned by his company to move to an adjacent land which was bought from his company by the Gauteng department of human settlements.
Nkosinathi Tshasbani said he was called while he was at work when the evictions began.
“I got a call telling me that they [security] were tearing down our structures. I’ve lost everything because people helped themselves to my belongings. I have nothing left,” he said.
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