Steuart Wright: East London
HOMELESSNESS in the East Griqualand town of Matatiele has become a political football in the battle for the territory between kwaZulu/Natal and the Eastern Cape.
The chairman of the Matatiele Squatters’ and Workers’ Association, Watson Mokoatle, says there is no political motive behind last weekend’s invasion of municipal land by about 2 000 squatters.
But Matatiele mayor Libby Sorour counters that the invasion is part of a broader campaign by Eastern Cape authorities to seize East Griqualand. His accusations follow Eastern Cape Premier Raymond Mhlaba’s recent attempt to declare the town of Kokstad as one of his regional capitals, despite the fact that it is situated in the province of kwaZulu/Natal.
Mokoatle admits many of the squatters come from neighbouring Transkei rural areas but says the majority work in, and see themselves as residents of, greater Matatiele. “These are simply the people of Matatiele, they are not politically motivated. Like we said when we went to the municipality: we are not a political organisation, we are only people looking for a place to stay.” He adds that after more than five years of talks with the municipality, it had not built one house or allocated any land for more than 5 000 homeless people. Some live in caves in nearby mountains and travel to the town to work every day.
“We tried to talk to the council from 1987 to apply for houses and we got no reportbacks. Then we formed our own association and after talks deadlocked twice last month, we decided to set December 31 as the deadline to erect our own shacks if nothing was done,” Mokoatle says.
His association has no stance on whether East Griqualand and Matatiele should remain part of kwaZulu/Natal or become part of the Eastern Cape. But he points out that Sorour, who supports incorporation into kwaZulu/Natal, is not winning any friends in his actions against the squatters. On Tuesday, Mokoatle had to calm angry squatters who were threatening Sorour after he arrived with police and the sheriff to serve a court order to halt the erection of shacks on the town common.
Operations to have the squatters forcibly removed began on Wednesday after the council obtained a supreme court order to remove the squatters. There was a strong police presence at the scene as municipal workers demolished the shacks.
The Eastern Cape government has denied accusations that it is encouraging the squatter invasion of Matatiele municipal land as part of its bid to have the town included in its province. Said government spokesman Prince Msutu: “The government has never encouraged occupation by anyone in any part of the country. Its policy is that houses must be built for people and land must be made available.” The Matatiele municipality should involve all role players in discussions about land and housing, instead of “reducing this to a feud between the governments of the Eastern Cape and kwaZulu/Natal”, Msutu said.
The border feud is due to come to a head in a summit on January 16 between Mhlaba and his kwaZulu/Natal counterpart, Dr Frank Mdladlose.
The potential for conflict over the dispute last year prompted President Nelson Mandela to appoint Deputy President Thabo Mbeki and retired ANC vice-chairman Walter Sisulu to oversee an amicable solution. Since then no concrete steps have been taken to settle the two provinces’ differences. — Ecna