March 16, 2006
By Anish Abraham
PEOPLE who illegally occupied complete and unallocated houses in the New Claremont housing project, to the west of Joburg, were evicted by the City on Wednesday, 15 March.
This was done after some residents from surrounding areas broke into and occupied 42 of the Reconstruction and Development Programme houses on the night of 14 March.
"The project is aimed at alleviating the housing problems of the surrounding suburbs as well as the Kathrada Park informal settlement, but in a systematic and orderly manner," said City spokesperson Nthatisi Modingoane.
Charles, Hamilton, Griffith and Princess roads in Claremont encircle the housing project.
According to Region 4's manager for housing, Leslie Magoro, after the invasion the City obtained an interdict from the high court, which made it illegal for any of the occupiers to be within 10 metres of the project.
The day started with a meeting at the Sophiatown Police Station between representatives of the occupiers, senior Sophiatown police managers, metro police and officials from the City's housing department and Region 4.
Back at the housing site, about two dozen metro police officers and several South African Police Service officers kept an eye on the occupiers, who gathered next to a road.
Houses are allocated to people who have put their details on the housing waiting list and who qualify for the subsidy. The waiting list has to be approved by the provincial government.
An eviction in progress
According to a community representative, people were dissatisfied at the length of time they had been on the list, saying that some more recent arrivals to the area had managed to secure a house.
"The government has acknowledged that there is a housing backlog, but people should not engage in such behaviour. Illegal invasion of property will not be tolerated in Johannesburg," Modingoane said.
According to Thozamile Jayiya, a project manager in the City's housing department, construction on the project started in August 2005 and should last till June 2006.
"There will be 483 similar sized units in total once completed. As part of phase one, 68 of these units have already been allocated to families who are now occupying them legally," he said.
Allocation of the houses in phase one is split on a 50-50 basis, with residents from Kathrada Park being allocated half and residents from surrounding areas such as Claremont, Westbury and Coronation, being allocated the other half.
However, Jayiya said the local communities were demanding a higher percentage of the houses, claiming the process was biased toward those living in the informal settlement.
Towards late noon, the Red Ants, an eviction unit under the Sheriff of the Court, arrived and proceeded to enter the illegally occupied houses and empty them.
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