Pretoria - More and more communities in the Tshwane region have heeded the Economic Freedom Fighters’ calls to grab land.
The latest is the Lusaka community in Mamelodi East which has been in a tit-for-tat war with metro police officers over a piece of land next to Pienaarspoort Station in the far east of Mamelodi.
The community started occupying the land on Saturday after identifying it a few weeks ago.
However, their occupation was short-lived as the Tshwane Metro Police Department got wind of the land grab and demolished at least 100 shacks a few hours after they had been erected.
Clashes ensued, resulting in the metro police firing rubber bullets at the illegal settlers. The community retaliated by throwing stones at the police.
That has been the order of the day for the past four days.
On Tuesday, community leader and EFF member Sello Mokoti said they were supporting the community which settled on the vacant piece of land but they did not lead the invasion.
Mokoti said they were also enforcing the party’s policy of “grabbing land without compensation”.
“This land is not being used for anything while people do not have places to live. They live in backrooms and shacks elsewhere in Mamelodi and Lusaka, but do not have a place they call their own. It’s God’s land, they need to occupy it,” Mokoti said.
He said most of the people in the area could not afford to buy houses or pay rent because they were unemployed.
Mokoti accused the metro police of brutality. “They didn’t even tell us what was happening. They didn’t explain anything to us, all they did was demolish our shacks and began firing rubber bullets and chasing us off the land,” he said.
Other places that have been invaded in recent months include “Malemaville”, next to Nellmapius, and “Dali Mpofu View” in Soshanguve.
In both instances, the people were evicted after clashes with metro police.
The occupation coincided with the EFF’s announcement of plans to intensify and accelerate its campaign of land occupation in Gauteng following a meeting of its provincial leadership.
Pretoria News