Scores of people have been clearing a field in Ennerdale, Johannesburg for the past week so they can erect their structures. Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department continue to monitor the area.
- Backyarders and tenants who say they could no longer afford to pay rent have been clearing an open field in Ennerdale’s Ward 7 in Johannesburg for a week now.
- City of Johannesburg officials say the parcel of land near James Street has already been earmarked to build more than 700 RDP houses.
- But some occupiers are sceptical, saying the land has been vacant for years.
Scores of backyarders and tenants who say they could no longer afford to pay rent have been clearing an open field in Ennerdale’s Ward 7 in Johannesburg for a week now.
The situation at the parcel of land near James Street remains tense on Friday morning as the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) continues to monitor the area.
JMPD spokesperson Xolani Fihla said, “The JMPD is aware of the matter and the Regional Command is in the process of actioning the relevant service providers who will assist in removing demarcations, half-built and unoccupied structures.”
On Thursday, people – old and young – were using spades, pickaxes, machetes, and other tools to clear the field and demarcate stands to build their structures.
Ward 7 councillor Lois Simonse (Patriotic Alliance) told GroundUp that people were frustrated over the the lack of affordable housing options in Ennerdale and surrounding areas. Simonse rubbished allegations that she had encouraged residents to occupy the land for political gain, saying she had only agreed that they could clear the tall grass as a deterrent for crime there.
Simonse urged residents not to occupy the land before the elections. She promised to meet with the occupiers once council reconvenes after the elections.
However, the land they are clearing is already earmarked to build 750 government subsidised houses.
Community leader Lenyatso Ntholeng said, “It cannot be correct to be removed from the land because we have nowhere to stay. We cannot afford to rent.
“We only want people from Ward 7 which is Finetown, Ennerdale, Meriting, Lawley and Kokotela informal settlements. We expect about 400 structures here,” he added.
“If any development is going to happen here, it will happen when we are already here,” Ntholeng said.
Franscina Lesenyeho said she was there to secure space for her 31-year-old son. “I have two children and three grandchildren. Although my son works, he can’t afford to buy a house,” she said.
She said she was not aware that RDP houses were to be built there. “Why now?” asked Lesenyeho. “I’ve been staying here since 1992. This land was left like this all these years. People were being killed and hijacked cars were abandoned here. By moving in here we are not only helping ourselves, we are stopping crime,” she said.
Mzihleli Bhengu (ANC) is a ward committee leader in Ward 7. He warned against using people to occupy land for political gain. “They are creating an area that is not recognised, and soon they will be fighting for services and will suffer.”
Councillor Simonse confirmed that a budget has been approved for the construction to start in the area. “The project was supposed to start in 2021 but didn’t due to the Covid restrictions. We are still waiting for the sewer pipes to be approved but there is no allocation. About R83-billion was approved this week [by Council], but is yet to be allocated,” she said.
Simonse said they will know after elections how much has been allocated to her ward for human settlement.
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Mr. Spy
The Man who could only Drink Milk
I know an old man who had lived a life full of adventure, but his health started to catch up with him. He\’d run the Boston Marathon, was an avid surfer, and climbed Everest, but he\’d started to have abdominal pains around his 85th birthday and went to see a doctor. Sadly, he ultimately was diagnosed with a rare degenerative liver disease that slowly made him allergic to everything he ate.
He kept copious notes, and as an avid gastronomist slowly grew to despair as everything he\’d spent his life enjoying became something he could no longer eat. Alcohol went first, then mushrooms, then bread, then root vegetables, then coffee, one at a time he had to remove them from his diet. The doctor was clear: if he kept eating something his liver rejected the autoimmune response would be quick and severe, and would lead to a painful death. Little by little, everything was taken away as an option, until the only thing that remained was milk.
In some ways, this actually made life easier, because the mental strain of remembering what he could and couldn\’t eat was gone, but then so was the joy in variety. But he took it in stride, and got his own cow and took classes from a farmer to learn everything he could about the only thing that could give him sustenance. And even within milk, he could still have yogurt, butter, cream, some cheeses, and other milk-derived products he hadn\’t fully rejected yet, so it wasn\’t all bad. But then one day a few months later he felt the pain again, and he knew cow\’s milk was no longer an option.
Lacking other options, he tried goat\’s milk, and he was delighted that it worked! The protein structure is just different enough that his body still tolerated it. That bought him another month. And that\’s when we came up with a wonderful plan to go on one last grand adventure around the world. If he could get one month of life out of the milk of every mammal, he\’d actually have a few more years to enjoy life to the fullest and see the world in all its beauty. Each month, we\’d pick a place with a new mammal, and he would immerse himself fully with the locals, learn all the ways to prepare the milk, and just enjoy the hand he had been dealt as much as he could.
We milked sheep in New Zealand. Camels in Egypt. Zebras in South Africa. Giant bats in Indonesia. Do you know how many Peruvian cuy you need to milk to get a single glass? I do. Even as his health slowly faded, he stayed cheerful, and I felt lucky to join him on the adventure of a lifetime. That brings us to today when he got to the very end of his spreadsheet, and declared that he was now allergic to every mammal. He\’d enjoyed his journey, but his time had come to an end, for there was nothing left to milk.
To which I said nonsense, I bet we can milk a few thousand karma out of this post.
Dark Burn
Chad: You have two cows. They will probably outlive you.