Bonela residents take to the streets to highlight land invasion problems
A new informal settlement has now occupied this greenbelt from Carlow/Wiggins Road to the top of Blinkbonnie Road and behind the back walls of homes in Carnforth Avenue, Buckingham Road and Carlow Road. Picture Google Maps A new informal settlement has now occupied this greenbelt from Carlow/Wiggins Road to the top of Blinkbonnie Road and behind the back walls of homes in Carnforth Avenue, Buckingham Road and Carlow Road. Picture Google Maps
Durban - Residents of Bonela in Cato Manor threw rocks onto the road and set refuse alight to highlight their land invasion plight on Tuesday.
For close to four months residents in Carlow Road and lower Buckingham Road were subjected to threats from land invaders who cut away grass and removed trees to build shacks in their back yards.
Carlow Road residents said the land grabbers had deliberately stolen the wire fences they put up and when residents replaced it with a concrete fence that too was damaged.
"We spoke to the police, metro police and housing departments. They are all passing the buck onto one another. These homes are our homes. We pay our rates and utility bills. The housing department had given us letters and a map to show the police the size of our properties and where our boundary's are .
Police said we must point out who was physically invading land," a resident quipped.
Mbulelo Baloyi, a spokesperson for the KwaZulu-Natal Human Settlements and Public Works department confirmed that the land in question is owned by KZNDHS.
"It is zoned as public open space. The land was subjected to a relatively recent invasion and not withstanding the presence of private security, the settlement has continued to densify. In fact, three of the security personnel employed were stabbed and assaulted in one incident. Criminal cases have been opened," Baloyi said.
The department, Baloyi said is continuing to employ private security and eThekwini’s Land Invasion Unit also plays a supporting role.
"Land invasions continue to be a challenge in many parts of the city and indeed the country. You will have noted many court cases on the matter right up to the Constitutional Court,"he said.
There were allegations that a shacklord had been charging people R2500 for a plot of land in Bonela.
Baloyi said a research conducted on our behalf by the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Maurice Webb Institute has shown that about 20 percent of people in informal settlements are paying rent to someone and a further 40 percent pay for the sites on which they built their shacks.
"We are working with the South African Police Service to apprehend those who do this. We were successful in prosecuting a Mr Zondi who was selling or taking payment under false pretences to people in the Cato Manor area. We are pleased that he was convicted and sentenced to three years imprisonment,"Baloyi said.
There are a number of informal settlements who are still waiting for services. Baloyi said they always make the point that land invasions amount to queue jumping and affect the rights of those people who have been waiting far longer.