Cato Manor squatters face eviction after an IFP minister accused Sanco of orchestrating land grabs. But shack lords may be behind the problem, reports Farouk Chothia
THE kwaZulu/Natal Minister of Housing and Local Government, Peter Miller, has accused the South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco) of “orchestrating” the occupation by squatters of land earmarked for a low-cost housing project in Cato Manor, near Durban.
In an interview with the WM&G, Miller, an Inkatha Freedom Party member, said: “We have strong prima facie evidence that Sanco southern Natal organised the land grab.”
Sanco regional organiser Sydney Madida accused Miller of having his “facts quite wrong” and of “running away from the problem. We are totally against the occupation of land but demolition is not the answer. It leads to violence. Let there be negotiations.”
Miller’s allegation came after an urgent application in the Durban Supreme Court last Monday to have the minister’s plans to demolish about 400 shack homes declared illegal.
Squatter Themba Hadebe, whose shack now threatened with destruction is the sixth home he has built, said in an affidavit its demolition would infringe his rights under the new constitution. He said the government was resorting to a “barbaric law” — the Prevention of Illegal Squatting Act of 1951 — to evict the squatters.
Another squatter, Isaac Gumede (30), said: “All I want is a home of my own which I will build on my own. If they don’t want us here, they must give us other land.”
Miller is refusing to make alternative sites available for the squatters, who are adamant they will not move.
“They didn’t fall out of the sky. These are not people who have no housing. They are a bunch of land-grabbing renegades and opportunists,” he said.
Mr Justice Piet Combrinck made no ruling on the application after legal representatives for both sides agreed to a moratorium on demolitions until the crisis was resolved.
Miller said the government had “hard evidence” that shack lords were selling sites “to more then one person and then leaving people to fight among themselves”.
Other sources, while denying Sanco was behind the invasion, agreed. They said it was “organised” by shack lords who profiteered from such invasions. They claimed a similar occupation had been orchestrated in Cato Crest, another squatter settlement in Cato Manor which is home to about 20 000 people.
“Shock troops first invade the land. Later, the area is densified. Sites are sold. It is like a real-estate agent business. The same people behind the initial Cato Crest invasion are behind the present invasion. If they survive, they will let more people come in at a fee,” said a source.
Defiant squatters continued building shacks this week, vowing they will defend their homes to the bitter end.
National Housing Minister Joe Slovo was in “broad agreement” with Miller and was opposed to “queue-jumping” as it would deny those in “desperate” need of housing, said his spokesman, Stephen Laufer.
He said the invasions could not be justified as they jeopardised the “biggest housing programme this country has ever seen”.
Slovo is to meet the nine provincial ministers of housing in Durban today and will tour Cato Manor.