Durban - Police had to intervene again to stop a second land invasion attempt in Shallcross at the weekend.
eThekwini Metro police spokesperson Senior Superintendent Parboo Sewpersad said the police had to be on guard during the weekend.
“The community was adamant that they want the land,” he said.
Sewpersad said the police’s public order policing unit on Saturday had to intervene and dispersed the crowd.
He said yesterday there was another attempted land invasion. The land was privately owned by the developers of Ridge Mall Centre.
The Daily News last week reported on a land invasion that was averted when residents tried to invade the same plot of land. People had marked plots of land with plastic packets along Link Road. The invasion was averted after community leaders intervened.
This was one of several incidents police had to attend to. Sewpersad said that in Amatikwe in Inanda they had to disperse a crowd that had gathered outside the house of a man who had been suspected of murder. The group of people had been blocking the road outside the house. It was claimed the man had killed another man because he did not pay the former on time for work done. “The community was angry because the man had been released and was back home at his mother’s house and they wanted him gone,” said Sewpersad.
Municipal spokesperson Msawakhe Mayisela previously told the Daily News that the rapid rate of urbanisation, resulting in an acute shortage of affordable housing in eThekwini was a big part of the problem.
Mayisela said there was a housing backlog that required billions of rand from the government to eradicate.