Hundreds of squatters packed their bags, dismantled their houses and left the Angelo informal settlement in Lilianton, Boksburg, on Wednesday night after a day of evictions.
Instead of leaving the job to the Red Ants — security guards wearing red overalls, tasked with helping the sheriff of the court execute court orders — about 200 squatters left the area of their own accord between 5pm on Wednesday and 7am on Thursday, said Ekurhuleni metro police.
They were issued with eviction orders three months ago, on the instruction of the court, said metro police spokesperson Chief Superintendent Wilfred Kgasago.
The Red Ants demolished 4 600 shacks on Wednesday and expected to have taken down the rest by 2pm on Thursday at the latest, ”barring anything unforeseen happening”, he said.
According to Kgasago, the 6 000 shacks being demolished formed just a part of a larger settlement of about 30 000 to 40 000 informal dwellings.
While the shacks being removed were erected about two years ago, the others have been there for about seven years.
The names of squatters in the old part of the settlement were registered on a municipal database and they are ”rightfully” occupying the land, he said. The council is working on plans to provide them with accommodation elsewhere.
At the start of operations on Thursday, there was none of the resistance offered at the start of the evictions on Wednesday, when pockets of angry residents burnt tyres and threw stones, said Kgasago.
”The operation is going smoothly,” he said.
The three Main Reef Road intersections blocked off on Wednesday have since been opened to traffic, he added.
Kgasago said the Red Ants will, in the five days after the evictions, form part of a monitoring group charged with ensuring the squatters do not return to the site.
After that, metro police will patrol the area, and the community and council will keep a lookout to identify any returning settlers, ”so we can act timeously to prevent them coming back”, he said. — Sapa