The Tshwane metro council met Olievenhoutbosch residents on Wednesday morning following the torching overnight of a councillor’s house and car by locals frustrated with government housing provision.
The council delegation was led by Shadrack Dlamini, member of the mayoral committee for housing, said spokesperson William Baloyi.
Baloyi condemned the residents’ actions and pointed out that the targeted councillor, Stephinah Morudi, had only been in her post for a month.
”We held imbizos [meetings] in the area recently, and the events have taken us by surprise. We were not aware there was a simmering problem.”
He would not comment on complaints about housing allocation.
”We are not sure about the circumstances. We have a waiting list according to which houses are awarded. We aim to get to the bottom of the matter during this morning’s meeting.”
A statement on the outcome would be issued later in the day.
About 500 residents of the informal settlement, outside Centurion, marched on Morudi’s house on Tuesday night, forcing her and her family outside before setting it alight and looting it. They also set fire to her car.
The house and the car were gutted, said police spokesperson Captain Piletji Sebola.
Police who intervened were pelted with stones, and three police vehicles were damaged, Sebola said.
The fire brigade had trouble getting to the Morudi’s house because of barricades, including burning tyres, set up by the mob on the R55 main road.
Earlier in the day, residents held mass meetings to discuss concerns about the allocation of government housing, and evicted three families, apparently from Alexandra and Parktown in Johannesburg, who had benefited from such housing, Sebola said.
”They claimed that houses were allocated to ‘outsiders’ at the expense of locals who had long been on the waiting list.”
Sebola said calm had returned to the area by Wednesday morning, but police were keeping a watchful eye.
Police were busy identifying suspects and arrests were expected. A case of public violence was being investigated.
Nobody was injured, Sebola said. — Sapa