It started as a land invasion next to a piece of land that was donated to blind and deaf people of Mthatha in the Eastern Cape.
Now, the blind and deaf are fearing for their lives and say they are at the mercy of extortionists who are allegedly demanding what has become known as a protection fee. Failure to pay could lead to their homes being taken by force.
Police have confirmed five people aged between 39 and 57 had been arrested on charges of extortion. They were expected to appear in the Mthatha Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday.
“Circumstances surrounding the incident form part of the investigation. They appeared in the Mthatha Magistrate’s Court on July 16. They are remanded in custody and are appearing in court today for formal bail application,” said Eastern Cape police spokesperson Siphokazi Mawisa.
Sonwabo Mankuntywana has been living at the Efata complex for over 30 years, after the homes on the property were donated to blind and deaf people by an organisation at the dawn of democracy.
He said that the Efata Special School for the Blind and Deaf is also on the property, along with residents living with disabilities, and staff.
Reflecting on the first traumatic experience he had with the alleged extortionists, Mankuntywana said: “They continued invading the land, giving people sites to build houses and charging money, outside (adjacent to) Efata. The land is full now of houses.
“They decided now to collect the money from the blind people. After they finished the land, they started to sell the site in our yard. In 2005, they sold two sites in my yard. They built up the houses in my yard, but I was helped by the police. They threatened me a lot, I couldn’t sleep. Breaking my padlock, putting (in) their padlock, they take my keys, open the door, taking all the stuff outside. They said ‘this house belongs to us now, we are going to rent it out to the people’.”
Even a protection order could not help the situation.
“We are not safe. We are asking the police to help us and evict them in Efata. Be visible at night.” He said: “They first called us in their meeting telling us we must pay the protection fee. They said we must pay R200 per month so we can be protected from the robbers. They will create a (WhatsApp) group, all of us will be in this group. When a criminal comes and breaks into our houses, we must report it to the group so the forum can respond to us quickly.
“They saw we were reluctant to pay this fee. They say if you don't want to pay you will see yourself, you will be in danger. Then they started demanding more money, they now wanted us to pay rent to them.
“March, April, May, then June they came again to our houses, they said those who didn’t start to pay the rent, ‘we are now giving them a seven-day deadline.
After seven days we are taking the key’.
They went to a woman who is a totally blind person, her gate was locked, they called her to come and open the gate because they wanted to take the key.”
Police were apparently called after the woman was allegedly threatened with assault.
National Council for the Blind executive director Lewis Nzimande said they were ready to support the community in the pursuit of justice.
“We are appalled for both community leaders and the government. These are vulnerable members of society who deserve protection from everybody. We will mobilise all legal resources to support them all the way. People must not be released.
“The situation is that there was a piece of land that was donated to the blind and the deaf members of the community in Mthatha. This NGO left after developing the property, building houses and all along, workers working for the Efata special school for blind and deaf children were staying on the piece of land adjacent to school premises. Community people have started to invade the various parcels of land that are not built on. Somebody is seeing an opportunity because all of a sudden deaf and blind community members are asked to pay rent..”
Anti-crime activist Hanif Loonat said: “Criminals have taken advantage of an opportunity which is becoming very common across the country. Criminals become innovative, they start taking R20 from people then they go to a bigger scale out of greed. Like in this case it was R200, now it has gone to rental. They got away with it the first time, went higher, eventually they wanted to steal the building. ”
Cape Times