A group of residents who got involved in illegal purchases of land learnt the hard way after their houses worth hundreds of thousands of rand were demolished in Evaton, in the Vaal, on Thursday.

As a TLB (tractor-loader-backhoe) demolished her house on Wednesday, a furious Eunice Lesemela stood in between, shouting “kill me once [and for all]”.

Lesemela told Sowetan she spent around R450,000 to build the house and she was due to move into the house in Beverly Hills, Evaton, month end.

“I have already served my landlord with a notice that I will be moving out. If he has found another tenant, it means I will be homeless and out in the streets.”

Lesemela says she did not know that the land was sold to her illegally and that she never received any notices to vacate the land.

“I bought a double stand in 2019 for R44,000 and I started building in 2021. I don’t know what I'm going to do now. I could not believe what I was seeing as the TLB brought down my house. I froze. It was only after that I woke up and stood in front of [the demolished house] that I screamed; but it was too late. This was a house for my children,” she said.

Lesemela is among people who paid monies to Andrew Molifi who is notorious for land sales.

In September, the National Prosecuting Authority's (NPA) Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) successfully applied to the North Gauteng high court in Pretoria for a preservation order on assets owned by Wildebeesfontein Properties and Projects, the company Molifi claimed to work for.

The NPA said Wildebeesfontein allegedly sold land belonging to the department of human settlements, Emfuleni municipality and government.

Investigations showed that residents in Evaton West bought the stands from Molifi for R22,000.

In 2010, Molifi was part of a group of nine people who were arrested after being accused of illegal selling houses and stands in Soweto, parts of Johannesburg and the Vaal.

In total, three fully built houses, including the one built by Lesemela, were razed to the ground.

Two other owners had only built walls around their yards and they were also demolished.

Pensioner Anna Matobako said she was scared.

“I am scared for my life. My heart palpitations will kill me because of stress. I need to be around people to distract me and calm me down. The thought of being homeless numbs me,” Matobako said.

When Sowetan visited her, Matobako, 64, was standing alone at the entrance of her home  with  two bedrooms, a bathroom and sitting room. She leant against the unplastered wall.

She gave Molifi R22,000 for the stand in 2019.

“I was away selling wors when the other houses were being demolished. I almost fainted when I saw what had been done to those houses and I fear for my house.

“A month ago, people from Old Mutual came to me and warned me that I had built on Old Mutual’s land and that I need to buy the land for R170,000 or leave. They felt sorry for me as they could see that I am a pensioner.”

She said Old Mutual has visited her twice already.

Matobako said she took the letter from Old Mutual and gave it to Molifi who said he would fix the matter.

“He promised me that nothing will happen to me and that I should continue building my home. After what I saw on Thursday, I fear that my house will also be demolished. I feel like I'm losing my mind.

“I find myself walking up and down in between rooms not knowing whether to sit or stand. Andrew must give me my money back. I don’t have money. How am I going to pay R170,000. At least with the R22,000 I gave him, I can negotiate with Old Mutual not to evict me,” Matobako said.

Molifi admitted that this was privately owned land but said he was allocating stands because “that land is belong to the community (sic)".

I find myself walking up and down in between rooms not knowing whether to sit or stand. Andrew must give me my money back. I don’t have money. How am I going to pay R170,000.

“At this present moment, that land is being gazette on behalf of the community. Gazetted by the Land’s Claim Commission. It is a private land because that land does not belong to the government, it belongs to the community of Evaton.”

He said R22,00 was for allocation of land and goes to Wildebeesfontein.

“Which is the cooperative belonging to the Wildebees community... We are in partnership with the department of human settlements and rural development and land reform.

“I’m not selling the land illegally to the people. I’m allocating stands to community [members], according to our agreement and department of human settlements nationally.

“I do have correspondence from them (department).

“That thing is not a final order, it is a draft order. I’m disputing it based on two reasons – we appealed [against] that draft order. At the same time, at the present moment, the matter is still in court. It is not yet finalised.”

He denied that he was operating a syndicate scamming people.

“I’m legally approved by the national human settlements to work with them to bridge the gap for people who do not qualify for RDP houses and bond houses. It is our programme whereby we make sure that people who do not qualify for RDP and bond houses we allocate  the stand so that they can be able to build their own houses.”

People illegally built on private land, state not involved – Maile

The company that owns the land on which the demolished houses in Evaton were built, says it had not leased the land to anyone and that more homes will be destroyed.

De Wet Wessel, director of Space Securitisation, told Sowetan that the firm is the sole owner of the land in question.

He said the land has not been leased to anyone for development and was earmarked for affordable housing.

Wessel said the company is not familiar with Andrew Molifi, the man who was selling stands to the residents.

“Space Securitisation (RF) (Pty) Ltd obtained the court order together with the demolition order. The demolition of the remaining illegal structures will take place at a later date,” he said.

Gauteng human settlements MEC Lebogang Maile said he was aware of the demolitions and reiterated that it happened in private land, which does not involve the government.

“People have illegally built big houses on private land, those are not poor people. I’ve been to that area. There is a lot of illegal occupants. I was there because people had occupied our land that side.

“We were supposed to give people stands and discovered that there were people who had built on the land. People had built proper big houses there,” Maile said.

He added that the department is yet to obtain a court order to remove the people that it found on its land which was earmarked for development.

It is not the first time that Molifi has scammed people with the sale of land.