Johannesburg Metro Cops Destroy Shacks in Ennerdale

• Scores of people who occupied municipal land in Ennerdale Extension 7 are demanding answers from the municipality after their homes were demolished this week.
• They say about 50 structures were demolished by the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department without prior warning.
• About 600 people moved onto the land in August last year. They say the land was earmarked for a housing project over ten years ago but it never materialised.

Banele and Mabasa Mabona say they had just finished breakfast when they heard Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) officers banging on the sides of their zinc shack.

The Mabona brothers say they were ordered out of their home, built on municipal land in Ennerdale Extension 7. They say officers immediately started to demolish the structure.

“We tried to save our furniture, fridge and other items as they were breaking down our home,” says Banele.

The brothers say they moved onto the land in January with their mother and uncle. Their mother, who works as a caregiver in Johannesburg’s northern suburbs, is the only breadwinner.

Previously, the family rented a small room in the city centre for R2,500 a month. Since moving to the land, their mother could afford to buy groceries.

“She is very stressed about the whole situation. We are too. We have nowhere to go,” says Banele.

He managed to salvage some of the zinc sheets and built a shelter on the same land.

About 50 structures we demolished on 16 March.

Like the Mabonas, many families rescued materials and rebuilt their homes. Those whose building materials were confiscated are now living with relatives and friends.

Lizzy Chuene says she lived in a crowded home with her extended family in Ennerdale, before moving to the occupation in January. She took out a bank loan R11,000 loan to buy materials and pay a construction worker to build a one-roomed shack.

Chuene says she had already left for work when neighbours phoned her to return home because JMPD were demolishing her shack.

“They took everything. My zinc, my doors, my windows. I’m heartbroken and pissed off. And I still have to pay back the bank for the loan. Where will I get the money to rebuild?” asked Chuene.

She has had to move back to her family’s overcrowded home.

Occupation leader, James Golden, said the land they occupied was earmarked for government housing around 2014 but no development had taken place to date.

“We have engaged every level of government for over ten years since Paul Mashatile was MEC for housing, to alert them to the growing housing crisis in Ennerdale. There have been promises but no development, so the community decided to occupy the land and build their own homes,” said Golden.

There have been no substantial housing developments in Ennerdale since the end of apartheid, despite the increase in population in the area.

Golden said there are around 600 people staying in the settlement. He claimed the JMPD had not provided the community with any sort of eviction notice before demolishing their homes.

James Golden, one of the occupation leaders, said the community decided to occupy the land last year because the land, which was earmarked for development in 2014, had stood vacant for years.

Superintendent Xolani Fihla, spokesperson for the JMPD, confirmed that “50 illegal structures were demolished, and the materials were removed without resistance”.

The JMPD said that the operation followed a “tense incident at the same site last week, where JMPD officers were violently attacked by a mob during their duties”.

The video of the incident shared on social media shows JMPD officers fleeing after being attacked by a group of people.

But Golden and other residents at the Ennerdale Extension 7 land occupation, said that last week’s incident occurred at another occupation a few kilometers away in Ennerdale Extension 11.

The Extension 7 land occupiers believe the JMPD returned and targeted the wrong land occupation.

The JMPD are yet to respond to our questions asking for clarity on the allegations. The article will be updated when they respond.

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