The situation in Marlboro, north of Johannesburg, has turned violent. Residents, whose homes were demolished by the Red Ants on Friday morning, have started burning nearby homes belonging to other residents.
About 80 structures were razed to the ground because authorities say they’ve been erected illegally.
All the structures that were erected have been brought down using bulldozers.
It is understood the red ants were executing a court order issued months ago.
The media is not been allowed close to the scene and the residents are very hostile and are refusing to talk to journalists.
Police are not yet on the scene.
A substation supplying electricity to Marlboro residents is on fire by angry residents. Illegal structures were demolished by red ants earlier today. #Alexdemolish #sabcnews pic.twitter.com/e59SOMU2gy
— Ditaba Tsotetsi (@tsotetsiditaba) May 31, 2019
According to some unconfirmed reports, a 5-month-old baby may have been trapped inside one of the houses as the demolition took place.
The mushrooming of illegal structures in Alexandra was in the spotlight amid the #AlexShutdown protests earlier this year.
Residents took to the street in protest of what they regard as lawless behaviour in the area; and voiced grievances about the lack of service delivery.
The Human Rights Commission has since joined hands with the Public Protector’s office in which they are probing whether there were human rights violations leading up to the protest action.
The two organisations are also investigating what happened to the budgets allocated towards the Alexandra Renewal Project.
