More than thirteen people have been arrested for public violence and more arrests are imminent following the eviction from a land near Lourierpark in Bloemfontein.
The notorious Red Ants demolished structures that were erected in the area a week ago.
This followed a court order obtained by the Mangaung Metro Municipality to demolish incomplete and unoccupied structures in the area. Land occupants have accused the municipality for how the order was implemented, claiming that they were told that they will not be affected.
Some of the people whose shacks were demolished by Red Ants say they blame the ANC leadership for the mess they find themselves in. Red Ants destroyed illegal structures at Brandkop farm near Lourierpark.
The land occupants claim that a local ANC councillor informed them to occupy the land.
The Red Ants accompanied by the police and Mangaung Metro law enforcement unit swooped on the land invaders and demolished erected shacks.
The land occupants moved onto the land since Saturday. Some of the occupants claim they had been given the go ahead to occupy the land by the mayor.
“So I want the mayor to come here and to do the right thing to answer back to us because he is the one who gave us the authority to go there to claim the land but there’s no answer right now.”
Another person says, “No we want our land, we don’t have places to stay. They took our shacks, we took loans with our last money. We don’t have anything we just want place to sleep that’s it.”
“Our place has been demolished and we have no where to go and we didn’t brought ourselves here. We were brought here by our local councillors , mayor even our city manager and Sanco is not around. Some are very hurt we don’t know what to do there’s nothing we can take home. So is failing us – ANC is nonsense.”
Meanwhile, The ANC in the Free State says it’s deeply disturbed by land invasions in Brandkop farm and other areas such as Thaba Nchu and Botshabelo.
Some of the people who occupied the land claimed they got the approval from an ANC councilor a week ago.
Provincial ANC spokesperson, Jabu Mbalula says land invasions are illegal and addressing the land issue is a fundamental part of ANC policy.
“We want to further say to people let follow the due processes that had been laid one of which is that – people that are deserving to get housing must present themselves to their ward councillor. Number two, they can also go to Human Settlement regional offices and present them there. Now people in this case just decided to go to invade land in Lourierpark, what are we going to say to that the people that have been there, in the housing waiting list. So, we just really felt that as the ANC we need to convey this message and further really condemn the manner in which people have been moved there.”
