Johannesburg - “You have 30 minutes to vacate this area,” was the order by loud-hailer that covered the Marikana informal settlement in Centurion, Pretoria, but Moses Khoza did not understand what was happening.
The residents of the settlement located next to the Centurion Gautrain station were being evicted on Tuesday morning as per a court order (not available to us at the time).
Speaking to IOL, some of the residents claimed to have been living in the area for more than 10 years and had never faced an eviction attempt; instead they claimed they were promised by a former ward councillor, Peter Sutton, that they would never be removed without alternative accommodation.
The belongings that they could rescue were pitched onto the pavement while their homes were engulfed in fire that destroyed most of the camp.
Video: Timothy Bernard/African News Agency (ANA)
“The sheriff started the fire,” some said, but a reliable source informed IOL that the residents started the fire themselves in an attempt to prevent the police – who were flanked by a large number of private security companies, fire department, and men in green who would presumably do the hard labour – from entering the camp.
A man sat with his head in his hands, painting a hopeless picture that he has lost everything. Several women were feeding their babies on the pavement as the fire raged on.
“We are now homeless. They dare to do it under these weather conditions and without warning.”
Neither the sheriff nor police officials would comment on the event, but a police captain would casually warn us that we were there on our own accord.
“We cannot comment on the matter now, but we will issue an official statement later on,” the captain said.
Meanwhile, as the fire subsided, some men dressed in red overalls with hard hats started positioning pieces of palisade fencing as if to cordon off the area.
It is clear that this is a private piece of land but unclear who the property belongs to.
Early reports from the residents alleged that there were no injuries sustained and most of them were accounted for, but this will be a shocker for those who travelled to work this morning with a roof over their heads now returning to a charred open field where their homes used to stand.
By late afternoon, the section of road from West Avenue along Hendrik Verwoerd Drive parallel to the Gautrain track was closed to traffic due to the commotion of the eviction.
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