Thebe Mabanga and Sarah Duguid
Several hundred Alexandra residents who spent part of this week sleeping in the rain outside their homes were, by late yesterday afternoon, still in limbo awaiting yet another round of relocation and potential rejection by their future neighbours.
The residents of Marlboro Transit camp, also known as the TzuChi village have endured a week of torment and uncertainty. They were ordered out of the transit camp to Diepsloot in Midrand, 20km away, only to return when they were driven away by inhabitants of the informal settlement and were denied entry to their original homes.
Officials of Wozani Security responsible for the TzuChi evictions clashed with residents in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Last year there were violent skirmishes when residents were relocated after the Jukskei River, which runs through Alex, burst its banks. The flood victims were also moved to Diepsloot.
Meshack Mosia, chairperson of the TzuChi village committee, blamed the latest incident on Anthony Blandford, director of the Alexandra Urban Renewal Project. Mosia said residents who were moved to Diepsloot were allocated corrugated iron sheets and wooden poles to build shelters, but were then chased away by the community before they could complete their new dwellings. They were then barred by Wosani Security from re-entering TzuChi Village
Mosia alleges that when Blandford was phoned from Diepsloot, he denied any knowledge of the group despite having told them on Saturday that moving there was the best option.
He also claims Blandford refused to allow the displaced families to take temporary shelter from the rain at TzuChi, saying this would happen “over my dead body”. Blandford referred all queries to Mike Maile, spokesperson for the project.
Maile attributed the sequence of events to “miscommunication”. The group moved this week was merely part of a second and final phase of the relocation, the first being that of last year’s flood victims.
Councillor Sarafina Mulaudzi of Diepsloot said that neither she nor her region was informed of the pending arrival of the TzuChi refugees, and that she had met Blandford for the first time two days after the removal.
After the meeting, Blandford allowed the refugees to move back in to TzuChi while Mulaudzi consulted her constituency.
However, the impasse appears unresolved. Maile said the TzuChi residents would be moved to Diepsloot again on Thursday, adding that the settlement would receive R34-million in infrastructure funding for agreeing to accommodate the new arrivals.
Mulaudzi insisted the Diepsloot community was determined to keep out the new neighbours imposed on them.
Alan Fuchs, Democratic Alliance councillor for the area in which TzuChi falls, said evictions were an inevitable part of the Alex renewal scheme. However, he questioned the degree of planning that preceded this and last year’s evictions.
He also asked what instructions the council had given Wozani Security. This was the second time evictions had been accompanied by violence.
The DA voiced concern over evicting people and moving them “to a situation where they are worse off than before”.
After last year’s clashes, the Mail & Guardian reported that Wozani was being investigated by the Security Officers Board for alleged contraventions of the board’s code of conduct.