Angry protesters from various informal settlements in Ekurhuleni urgently demanded provincial government attention on Monday afternoon, saying they had been subject to illegal evictions.
Riot police used shields and batons to push the crowd that packed Simmonds Street in the Johannesburg city centre, where they handed a memorandum over to a representative of Gauteng Premier Mbhazima Shilowa.
The protesters charged that their municipality had acted illegally by sending the notorious Red Ants in to evict people without any court order.
They further charged that at Kaalfontein no alternative shelter was provided to those who were forced out of their homes.
”The people who have been evicted, including the elderly, infants and children, have no refuge from the bitter cold,” read their memorandum, which was also issued ”on behalf of the Landless People’s Movement”.
”They have been forced to sleep outside, exposed to the elements in below zero degrees weather,” read the memorandum.
At the Winnie Mandela settlement, the protesters said that houses provided to those who were displaced were sold to others.
”Having two families live on one stand has created a number of social conflicts,” the memorandum read.
They challenged the Ekurhuleni municipality’s reasoning that land at Maukause, where people had been living for 15 years, was in danger of collapsing.
”If the earth did not collapse under the weight of multi-ton bulldozers such as those used to destroy our homes, then why must our homes be ‘urgently’ removed from the land?
”There does not appear to be any emergency situation and we believe that the municipality is not acting in good faith in evicting us from the land.” — Sapa