By Everson Luhanga
Thousands of people who erected shacks on open veld in Austin View, near Rabie Ridge in Midrand, have been left in the cold after the authorities tore down their homes.
The operation by the Gauteng human settlements department, the Red Ants and the Johannesburg metro police left thousands of people without a roof over their heads.
After the destruction of their makeshift homes made of board, plastic and corrugated iron sheets, children, women and the elderly were seen covering themselves with blankets in the cold, rainy weather on Friday.
The operation started at about 9.30am and ended just before noon.
Residents are fighting to stay on the land although no one seems to know who it belongs to, as there are no signs indicating ownership.
After the authorities left, men and women were seen picking up the broken pieces of their homes and starting to rebuild them.
Community leader Sibonelo Duma told Scrolla.Africa that residents were told the eviction would happen last week.
“When we saw they didn’t come, we knew they didn’t have the orders to remove us. This morning, they came and told us they would only remove shacks that were not occupied. But they ended up dismantling other shacks which had people inside,” Duma said.
A father of three children, Justice Mthombeni, said he was inside his shack when the metro police and Red Ants came and started breaking down his shack.
“I had to run out with my children before we were hurt,” he said.
Another resident, Samartha Dlamini, said: “We are not asking the government to build us houses. We are building our own places where we can stay with our children. But still, we are being victimised.”
Scrolla.Africa recently reported on how so called “shack farmers” were profiting from renting land and shacks to desperate people in the area.
Residents are charged R700 for a space and have to contribute R300 to a fund to pay for lawyers to prevent their eviction. There are roughly 3,000 shacks in the area which have no electricity, water supply or toilets.
A “shack farmer” who has been collecting money from residents, claiming he would use it to pay lawyers to stop the government from evicting them, has fled.
On Friday, some angry residents said the man failed to turn up at a community meeting and had disappeared with about R400,000.
Community leader Mxolisi Mhlongo said the “shack farmer” had run away after a group of residents went to the lawyer he claimed to be paying and the lawyer said he had not received any money from the man.
“He is in hiding. We are looking for him,” Mhlongo said.
Another lawyer, Osman Mgomezulu, who was called by a group of residents when the shacks were being torn down, said the City of Johannesburg would be interdicted from evicting residents from the area.
Mgomezulu said the damage had already been done but the government would be asked to rebuild the shacks that were destroyed or damaged.
Pictured above: Dismantled shacks in Austin View near Rabie Ridge, where countless residents were evicted.
Image source: Everson Luhanga
