Many siblings and grandchildren have been rendered homeless and are forced to fend for themselves on the streets or rely on neighbours for food and a place to sleep.
According to civic organisation, Sanco, there are over two dozen homes in Soweto that have illegally been sold and many families forcefully evicted from their homes using fraudulent title deeds and forged letters of authority. They now want the Hawks to investigate allegations of fraud and corruption at the office of the Master of the High Court in Johannesburg.
The civic group also wants a former leader in Soweto to be probed for allegedly accepting bribes and working with syndicates and hitmen to forcefully evict families from their homes.
Hlengiwe Mazibuko lives with her aunt and their children in a four-roomed house in Zola 2 in Soweto. She says their cousin, whom they have not seen for more than 10 years, came to the house in April last year with an eviction notice.
He told them the owner of the house, their now-deceased grandmother, left the house to him and has already sold it. So they would have to vacate the property by the end of next month.
However, Mazibuko says the cousin’s name does not appear on the title deed and so they are surprised how he managed to sell the property.
She’s devastated.
“We are nine of us, living in this four-roomed house. It is painful because we grew up here. We have children who grew up here, who attend school here. Our children are being taunted by other children while they are playing and they come back home asking if indeed it’s true that we are being evicted. We do not know any other home except for this one.”
Forced and Fraudulent eviction?
Another case is that of Tebogo Mphulo, who has been living on the streets for eight years after he was forcefully evicted from his grandparent’s home at gunpoint by a notorious Soweto criminal who was known in the township to con people out of their properties.
The 37-year-old says the man went to the Master of the High Court and told officials there that all members of Mphulo’s family had died and now he was reclaiming the property.
However, his only setback was that he could not produce the death certificates of the deceased. He eventually took over the house by force.
Mphulo remembers coming back home to find all the locks of the house replaced with new ones. He alleges the man was able to reclaim the property through the help of corrupt officials at the Master of the High Court in Johannesburg.
“I was told by an official at the Master of the High Court that I need to pay him R60 000 if I need to own my grandfather’s estate. It is all a lie. I don’t work and my uncle doesn’t work either. What is surprising is how he is able to tell us this amount, whereas nobody has come to claim my grandfather’s estate.”
Residents marched to the Johannesburg municipal offices in Zola on Wednesday calling for intervention from the government. They have vowed that no evictions will take place and have even written in big painted letters ‘THIS HOUSE IS NOT FOR SALE’ on those houses where the families have been threatened with evictions.
Sanco intervenes
Sanco wants the Hawks to investigate allegations of fraud and corruption at the office of the Master of the High Court in Johannesburg.
The organisation’s Ntombi Tshabalala says, “There’s a crisis at the Master of the High Court. Many things happen there and when we go there we find that our people find no joy. You can’t grant a letter of authority to two family members. It is uncalled for. So, something is wrong there. One has the letter of authority and the other one has a title deed, but the family never sat and discussed it together. So, there’s corruption there.”
Sanco also wants a former leader of the civic group in Soweto known as Mngadi to be investigated for allegedly accepting bribes and working with syndicates and hitmen to forcefully evict people from their homes. However, Mngadi says he’s done nothing wrong. He has also denied being confronted by one of the children who alleged Mngadi arrived with hitmen armed with guns and pistol-whipped them as they evicted her, together with her mom and siblings, from their Soweto home.
“My mom was present and my son. They took them out of the house and they were pistol-whipped. My mom is injured and my son is injured. They evicted (us) at gunpoint. They never warned us that at this time you must vacate the house.”
A spokesperson for the Justice and Correctional Services Department, Crispin Phiri says an investigation led by Special Investigations Unit (SIU) is under way into allegations of corruption and maladministration at the office of the Masters of the High Court in Johannesburg.
“That investigation is almost at finalisation stage. The SIU will be giving us this report. We will study it and the patterns of maladministration at Master’s office and we will then consider the findings to ensure it gets to the relevant law enforcement for further investigations in light of any revelation of potential corruption and so on.”
Sanco has also urged communities to refer complaints to their offices for further investigation.
