Duncan Village residents yesterday blocked the Mdantsane Access Road for more than five hours as they demanded RDP houses.
More than 100 residents from Buffalo City Metro’s ward 1 burnt tyres and threw garden refuse and rubble onto the main road causing major traffic backlogs.
Police said the violence started just after 4am forcing hundred of commuters travelling to work to use alternative routes.
Residents said they were protesting because 87 people from the ward were denied access to their RDP homes built in the Reeston area.
They claimed the houses had since been occupied by other families who now refused to move out.
One of the alleged housing beneficiaries, Nokhuselo Ngangalala, said she could not get the illegal occupier out of her house.
“I am not going to qualify for any housing subsidy from government and my house has been taken by a stranger,” she said
Duncan Village police spokesman Captain Stephen Marais said there were no reported injuries. “The road was opened back to traffic after 10am.”
Duncan Village residents have complained since 2007 that their homes, built in the Reeston area, were being occupied by strangers.
BCM mayor Zukiswa Ncitha has intervened on a number of occasions following protests to calm matters down, only for violence to flare again later.
Yesterday’s protests were the fifth this year.
“All we want is the homes, we need these houses as they belong to us,” said Ngangalala.
Ntombekaya Mlanda said the person who occupied her house was refusing to move out.
“He refused saying the municipality was the only one who have authority to remove him,” said Mlanda.
But BCM ward 1 councillor Mongezi Ngcaba said residents’ issues were being dealt with.
“These residents are protesting after they heard that the houses that are currently being built in Reeston will be given to other people not them.
“I never forced them to protest but we are doing the best we can to help them get their houses,” said Ngcaba. — bonganif@dispatch.co.za
Mayhem as residents demand homes
More than 100 residents from Buffalo City Metro’s ward 1 burnt tyres and threw garden refuse and rubble onto the main road causing major traffic backlogs.
Police said the violence started just after 4am forcing hundred of commuters travelling to work to use alternative routes.
Residents said they were protesting because 87 people from the ward were denied access to their RDP homes built in the Reeston area.
They claimed the houses had since been occupied by other families who now refused to move out.
One of the alleged housing beneficiaries, Nokhuselo Ngangalala, said she could not get the illegal occupier out of her house.
“I am not going to qualify for any housing subsidy from government and my house has been taken by a stranger,” she said
Duncan Village police spokesman Captain Stephen Marais said there were no reported injuries. “The road was opened back to traffic after 10am.”
Duncan Village residents have complained since 2007 that their homes, built in the Reeston area, were being occupied by strangers.
BCM mayor Zukiswa Ncitha has intervened on a number of occasions following protests to calm matters down, only for violence to flare again later.
Yesterday’s protests were the fifth this year.
“All we want is the homes, we need these houses as they belong to us,” said Ngangalala.
Ntombekaya Mlanda said the person who occupied her house was refusing to move out.
“He refused saying the municipality was the only one who have authority to remove him,” said Mlanda.
But BCM ward 1 councillor Mongezi Ngcaba said residents’ issues were being dealt with.
“These residents are protesting after they heard that the houses that are currently being built in Reeston will be given to other people not them.
“I never forced them to protest but we are doing the best we can to help them get their houses,” said Ngcaba. — bonganif@dispatch.co.za
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