An already volatile eviction process in Fynbos has exploded into chaos, with people illegally occupying homes in an RDP housing project clashing with others claiming to be the rightful owners of the properties.
Running battles between the illegal occupiers and a 100-strong group of people claiming ownership of the houses began late on Tuesday and carried on into Wednesday in the area known as East Bank.
Homes were torched and rival groups armed with pangas, baseball bats, hockey sticks and sticks encrusted with nails threatened one another.
There were only small pockets of police officers in the area when the Dispatch arrived on the scene at 12.20pm.
Buffalo City law enforcement officials, who had been highly visible when the evictions began in another part of East Bank on Monday, were nowhere to be seen.
Police hung back as a mob went from house to house, forcing the illegal occupants out, but after about 30 minutes they fired teargas and rubber bullets to disperse the attackers, who fled into shacks behind the contested housing development.
Some of those being forced out set fire to the homes as a final act of defiance. The Dispatch saw at least two properties in flames, one whose roof collapsed within minutes. DispatchLIVE has since learnt that 20 homes were destroyed.
Some occupiers, almost all of whom are coloured, claimed police were “working with” their attackers, and shot at them when they tried to retaliate and defend their possessions.
A woman who asked not to be named, and who had driven into the development to rescue her sister’s children and those of her sister’s neighbours from the violence, said police had failed to act against the occupiers.
She said: “There were six or seven police officers in a Nissan double-cab. They came out the vehicle with guns. We asked them, 'Why are you coming to us when it’s the coloureds who are burning the houses?'
“They weren’t going to the side where the coloureds were.”
She said the occupiers had even chased away the fire brigade when it had attempted to enter the area to douse the burning homes.
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One of the occupiers, Ephraim King, said he had been watching television with his family at about 11pm when his wife told him she heard something at the door.
“I looked out the window and I saw all these people on the stoep.
“They were carrying hockey sticks and pangas, and said they were the so-called beneficiaries. But how could there be three beneficiaries for one house? It’s obvious this house doesn’t belong to them,” King said.
The attackers then forced their way into the home and ransacked it, including his DVD player and sound system, he said.
The windows of many homes in the street were broken.
“The police are working with these people. Last night they told us to go to sleep, but then the mob came. These are not housing beneficiaries, these are opportunists,” he said.
King’s neighbour, Earl Wynne, stood at his side, brandishing a baseball bat, ready to defend against the next attack.
Members of the attacking group did not want to give their names, but said they had decided to take matters into their own hands because the occupiers were refusing to budge.
“These are our homes, they belong to us. The police came here on Monday to evict them, but they’re still here.
“We wanted this to be peaceful, but now that they are not going, we are taking what is ours,” one woman said.
Once police had dispersed the attackers, several occupiers who remained on the streets started to throw rocks at the windows of the abandoned homes. Then clutches of police arrived, firing rubber bullets at those who had done the stoning.
Occupier Lyllano Card said he doubted whether the people who assailed the homes were the real beneficiaries. “One guy even told me he came from Joburg. Why would people from Joburg be getting homes here?”
Another, Donae Carelse, who runs a soup kitchen, said she had been trying to get her possessions out since being served with an eviction notice by BCM on Monday, but a mob entered the home anyway.
“They took all the groceries people had donated for a children’s Christmas party. They took everything,” she said.
BCM spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya said the city would “follow the law to the letter as per the court order”.
He said: “As much as we are mindful of the sensitivities surrounding the issues of houses and the need to make more provisions, it’s important that when we act, we do so according to the law.
“The sheriff carried out [the] evictions orders in the last three days without any major incidents, and we have been providing illegal invaders with transportation for their belongings as part of the process.
“We later on received reports that there were attempts to burn houses in the area and that the contractor’s security [guard] was chased away.
“We have deployed law enforcement together with the SAPS, they are patrolling the area. We are calling for calm and order in the area.”
Asked if the city would continue with the evictions despite the violence in the area, Ngwenya said a meeting would take place on Wednesday at 3.30pm where the assessment of the evictions would be discussed.
“That is where the way forward will be discussed.”
Though the Dispatch saw no metro law enforcement officers on site, Ngwenya said the officers had carried out evictions in the morning and might have been finished their work.
In response to accusations that police were showing bias in their crowd-control actions, provincial police spokesperson Captain Khaya Tonjeni said: “We view such allegations very seriously and encourage anyone with such allegations to officially report at the nearest police station so that the veracity of such conduct can be the subject of an official investigation.”
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