Squatters in Marlboro, Johannesburg, have vowed to fight any new attempts to evict them from the abandoned factories where they have lived in squalor for as long as seven years.
They held off the sheriff’s ”Red Ants” workers on Monday with burning barricades at the intersections of roads leading to the area.
”If they come back, we will fight them,” a resident said on Tuesday. ”We are ready to fight them,” added another. ”We have to fight for our rights.”
Johannesburg metro police, security companies and the South African Police Service kept a high presence in Marlboro amid the still-smouldering barriers on Tuesday, but there were no protesters to be seen — only youths stripping burnt-out vehicles for spare parts.
Council officials and police were understood to be in talks with squatters to clarify when the evictions would take place after these were temporarily suspended following the protest.
While the sheriff of the court refused to disclose the new arrangement, a police operational response service official said rumours have it that the evictions will go ahead on Wednesday.
Thulane Ndlovu, a resident in a factory divided into 78 rooms, said they do not wanted to be robbed of everything they own, like the people recently evicted in Hillbrow.
”That’s not fair,” he said. ”They must think of us. If they do this [evict the squatters], believe me, we are going to fight.
”What are we voting for? They [the city council] must give us stands. That’s much better.”
The squatters, most of them from rural areas, claim they were settled in the factories by the South African National Civics Organisation (Sanco) as far back as 1998 and have been paying Sanco between R400 and R500 a month in rent.
They are happy enough where they are — even in conditions described as filthy — but will have no objection to moving ”if they [the council] find a place for us we can go to”, said another resident facing eviction, Ellen Ramara.
They will even be prepared to pay rent, as they are doing now, as long as it is not too high, said Minkie Morekhure.
If they are evicted, they plan to live in shacks on empty stands nearby until the fuss has died down, after which they will move back into the factories, said Abram Moreo.
The ward councillor for the area, Connie Bapela, said she met the squatters some time ago and told them there was nothing she could do about their plight, as they were living on privately owned land and not council premises. — Sapa