WATCH: We'll rebuild our homes, say defiant Dunoon backyarders despite evictions

BACKYARD dwellers from Dunoon vowed to rebuild homes after they were evicted. SISONKE MLAMLA

BACKYARD dwellers from Dunoon vowed to rebuild homes after they were evicted. SISONKE MLAMLA

Published Jul 1, 2019

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Cape Town - Backyard dwellers in Dunoon say they will continue rebuilding shacks despite being kicked off the land by authorities.

The group have been protesting since early on Sunday morning, burning tyres and setting vehicles alight.

One of the residents, Nosipho Maji, said they had been living like animals on their “own land”. “Every day the police are kicking us out of our shacks. We have nowhere to go and we are not going anywhere. This is our land.”

She said their children were displaced and their ward councillor, Lubabalo Makeleni, and the City's mayoral committee member for human settlements Malusi Booi were doing nothing about their situation.

Another resident, Lungile Ndaliso, said: “Our votes seem to be going to waste, because we are taken for granted even by the parties that we vote for.

“They must kill us, if they want to. We are not going anywhere,” Ndaliso said.

Makeleni said people were taking advantage of the land issue. “These people do not want to listen to anyone. Last time, I stopped this eviction and wanted to know whether the notice was granted or not and had been challenging it,” he said.

He said there were people who were hijacking and selling the land for R1600 to needy people. “I do not know them because the same residents do not want to point them out. They are afraid,” Makeleni said.

“Some people here have places in Khayelitsha and Gugulethu but they want the land to build flats and do their businesses, whereas some are in serious need of a place to stay. I have been trying to talk to them to at least identify those who are seriously in need. I will also engage with the City of Cape Town.”

Backyard dwellers in Dunoon say they will continue rebuilding shacks despite being kicked off the land that they tried occupying by authorities. Video: Sisonke Mlamla/Cape Argus

Booi said land invasions would not be tolerated. “The owner of the land requested us and the police to assist them. However, this is not the City's property,” he said.

After the residents were kicked out over the weekend, Potsdam Road between Malibongwe Drive and Killarney had to be closed when protesters set alight a truck at an intersection and threw stones at passing vehicles, said Maxine Bezuidenhout, the City of Cape Town's traffic department spokesperson.

Police spokesperson Andrè Traut said they were policing the area following evictions conducted by the City’s Law Enforcement. “Our members have been deployed in Dunoon to maintain law and order, and will remain until tranquillity has been restored.”

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