The evictions taking place in Thokoza have resulted in the IFP threatening to destabilise Gauteng. Stuart Hess reports
EVICTIONS in the East Rand township of Thokoza are being hampered as people evicted earlier this week are returning to the houses.
No action has yet been taken against them, but there is a discernible tension in the township. The police and army are patrolling the area in strength.
Some journalists were stoned on Wednesday but no one was hurt. Inkatha Freedom Party provincial leader Themba Khoza sent out messages on pagers falsely claiming that the police had killed residents and that bodies were lying in the streets.
Ten of the 16 residents evicted by the police on Wednesday moved back to the houses the next morning. Meanwhile, the Alberton town council is continuing with further evictions in other areas of the township.
IFP leader in Thokoza, Sipho Sithole, demanded that the council immediately stop evicting residents.
The tension in Thokoza is being exacerbated by former African National Congress-aligned Self-Defence Unit (SDU) members who are assisting the town council with the evictions, said an officer from the local police station who refused to be named.
“Some of the men who are evicting people are reservists who belonged to the SDUs,” he said.
He said the IFP was unhappy about the reservists evicting residents because “they favoured the ANC”. Prior to the general elections in 1994, the SDUs were known to be aligned to the ANC, while the IFP was supported by the Self-Protection Units (SPUs).
IFP members – supported by former SPU members – clashed with police amid the continuing evictions in the township this week. Three people, including IFP youth league leader Thabani Dlamini, were arrested and charged with assault after a group of nearly 200 IFP supporters tried to stop the evictions.
The Alberton Town Council began on November 28 to evict residents staying illegally in houses. According to the council, more than 500 families are to be evicted. “Those people forced the real owners out of their homes and have lived there since 1993,” said council representative Themba Maluleka.
“They attacked the legal residents and forced them out of their homes, they should go back to where they came from,” he added.
Maluleka said the former residents were presently staying in squatter camps outside the township and plans were in place to return them to their homes.
“About 100 families have already been evicted. We would love to complete the evictions by Christmas, but the current problems we are experiencing means that will probably have to change,” said Maluleka.
Negotiations regarding the illegal occupation of homes had been taking place for almost two years, he said. Evictions would definitely continue regardless of the negotiations with the IFP, which were still continuing up to early this week.
People evicted this week said they had no idea why the council was removing them from “their homes”. One said: “This is basically a war against the IFP.”
“We have stayed here a long time and everything was peaceful, the police are only making people angry and more violence will occur,” said Simons Shongwe, who was evicted this week.
He was one of six residents at Dube Street told to vacate their houses. He said he did not know what to do with his belongings which were left in the front garden.
Shongwe said he moved into the house because nobody was living in it at the time: “The house was empty, my family needed a place to stay. Nobody gave us any trouble until the police came here today.”
Shongwe wants the government to provide him with another house. He said he would stay with neighbours or possibly build his own shack.
The IFP this week threatened to destabilise the province of Gauteng. “The ANC are using the police to get their revenge on us,” said Sithole. “The ANC accused the IFP of working with the police in 1992 and 1993, now they are using the police to enforce their authority”.
“They [the ANC] could not get rid of the Zulus in 1993 but now that they are in power they want to assassinate IFP leaders,” Sithole said.
The IFP had never denied that people occupied houses illegally, but believed the government’s current action was “outrageous”.