Nyakallo Tefu
The Chairperson of the Portfolio Committer on Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation Machwene Semenya has condemned evictions carried out by municipalities in Lawley in Johannesburg and Khayelitsha in Cape Town.
The municipalities carried evictions despite clear instruction from President Cyril Ramaphosa that for the duration of the COVID-19 lockdown, no one should be evicted from where they reside.
“When the President and the Executive announced that there will be no evictions, we understood that those instructions would be respected by all,” said Semenya.
Semenya said it was unacceptable and ‘inappropriate’ that these municipalities have undermined the spirit of the lockdown and have shown clear disdain and lack of empathy for the people, especially the poor.
At the weekend, the Mayor of Johannesburg Geoff Makhubo visited evicted community members in Lawley, Johannesburg, while Minister of Human Settlements Lindiwe Sisulu visited residents in Khayelitsha in Cape Town after they were evicted from their land.
The evicted residents were accused of illegally erecting their structures on privately owned land.
“There should be no evictions at this time, however, illegal occupation of the land undermines the law of the country and should not be tolerated”, said Semenya.
Demolitions caused outrage in communities, with many saying these defeat the purpose of lockdown and attempting to flatten the curve as people will now be left homeless.
“We urge the municipalities to desist and refrain from any planned evictions henceforth, and to abide by the regulations”, said Semenya.
Meanwhile, the ANC’s Joburg region has launched a scathing attack on the South African Communist Party after it criticised City of Joburg mayor Geoff Makhubo for the violent way in which he handled the evictions in Lawley, south of Johannesburg.
“The SACP maliciously accuses the City of Joburg under the leadership of the Executive Mayor, Councillor Geoff Makhubo of evictions in Lawley. For purposes of clarity it ought to be stated that City is dealing with a turbulent crisis of land invasions,” said ANC’s Joburg region spokesperson Dada Morero.
“This longstanding issue has created precarious tensions in communities where legal occupants have found themselves in direct conflict of those who’ve opportunistically used this period to invade public land.”
“As the ANC we fully support all regulations as set out by government during this unfortunate period and as stated by our alliance partner, reverberate that the priority of all spheres of government should at all times be the people. However, we are equally baffled by vilifying utterances made by the party on the subject of land invasions when they fully agreed in an alliance secretariat that the City must urgently address the issue of land invasions.”
