Pretoria - Tshwane MMC for Human Settlement Mandla Nkomo has pressed criminal charges against people illegally selling pieces of land in Mamelodi. This comes after a television investigative programme Checkpoint on Tuesday night blew the cover of the conman behind the illegal selling of land in the township.
The mastermind was identified as a former DA councillor Oupa Mampuru, who illegally sold land to unsuspecting people.
The former councillor was working hand in hand with the man who the Pretoria News identified as "an administrator" in a story published in March about the same incident.
On the television programme the administrator can be seen next to the councillor before the police pounced on him.
The work carried out by the administrator was to collect money from people wanting sites on behalf of the councillor.
At the time locals told the Pretoria News that land was sold for as little as R300.
Many people who bought land where allocated sites at an informal settlement at Mahube Valley.
The illicit business to sell land was managed from a red container that has been set up on the hill.
An “administrator” at the office said he required cash and a copy of the ID of anyone wanting land, he said at the time.
Inside the office were files with scores of ID copies, and there were people streaming in to settle outstanding amounts.
According to the administrator those who delayed occupation ran the risk of having their plots taken back and transferred to buyers on the list.
In some instances, shacks not occupied were demolished to make way for new occupants.
“The process is that before you come to buy a plot you should have first identified an empty stand in the area which you would like to occupy,” the administrator explained at the time.
Nkomo said he has come to lay criminal charges against the man who was illegally selling pieces of land and fellow instigators of violence in Mahube Valley.
"Hooliganism and lawlessness will not be tolerated in our city. This is exactly what I have stood against since I took office," he said.