Khayelitsha residents whose illegal structures were demolished by the City of Cape Town’s land invasion unit, have pelted the vehicle of a mayoral committee member with stones. Mayco member for Human Settlements Malusi Booi escaped without injury, but his vehicle was damaged in the incident. The city says there have been a number of attempts to illegally occupy land. This in direct contravention of lockdown and COVID -19 regulations.

The former backyard dwellers say they have nowhere to go.
But the city says the occupation of vacant land during the lockdown is illegal. Booi says the city obtained a court order to remove the shacks erected on city-owned land in Makhaza.

“We get to confront that on a daily basis, because people that are invading land are very much agrieved by the fact that we come in and remove their structures, so we always expecting such indidents , its an unfortunate situation because its not a way of engaging, its a violent way of doing things which is unacceptable.”

Resident Nomathemba Gqum says they have been living in the Mpolweni informal settlement in Makhaza since September last year.

“We know its illegal, they must give us suggestions where must we go to build houses, they must talk nicely with us, we are human beings like them, they dont want to talk to us, they shoot us with rubber bullets we did ran just because there is no place to go.”

Source: SABC