Johannesburg - Grown men were reduced to tears as they watched armed members of the Red Ants remove their possessions from their flats in Hillbrow.
Everything from clothing to food and furniture was hurled from every room of the Williston Court building on Wednesday.
It was where about 1 500 people lived before they were forcefully removed by order of the sheriff of the court.
The mass eviction was allegedly to allow the new owners to refurbish the dilapidated building and make it safe for people to live in.
Scores of impoverished residents, including women and their children, wept as they watched their valuables being thrown into the streets.
One of them was Melissa Zwane.
Weeping uncontrollably, she described how her teenage daughters were woken up and forcefully removed from the premises.
undefinedZwane, who was at work in Fourways at the time, said she received a call from her distressed daughter, informing her that they had been evicted.
“I don’t know where we’re all going to sleep tonight. We have nowhere to go,” she said.
The massive group, some still in sleepwear, sat alongside one another in the chilly morning breeze.
They had been instructed not to leave or remove their possessions until the eviction was complete.
In a bid to salvage what they could, some attempted to evade the custody of the Red Ants as well as the large contingent of police officers who watched over proceedings.
But they were stopped in their tracks and ordered to stay put.
Chaos prevailed inside the building as the Red Ants hastily stormed every section in a bid to remove all items as quickly as possible.
While carrying heavy items down the stairs and through the corridors, they had to swerve to avoid one another and negotiate their way past the pile of items strewn on the floor.
Among the collection of debris stood a line of make-shift petrol bombs made with alcohol bottles.
An official from the sheriff’s office said the residents had used the weapons on several other occasions when the Red Ants had attempted to remove them from the building.
Lawyer Lucky Mahlangu, who is representing the embattled residents, said the eviction was “inhumane, degrading and unconstitutional” because those living in the building weren’t given sufficient notice.
He presented court papers stipulating that the case was pending before the courts, rendering the eviction illegal.
But Marcus Ferguson, who was speaking on behalf of the owners, had a different court order which granted permission for the eviction.
The papers, which were granted last month, stipulated that residents had a week to vacate the building, and were approved by the city council and the police.
Ferguson said the battle for the rightful occupation of the building began about two years ago when the landlords bought the premises.
The Star