Hammanskraal: Who's right and who's wrong?
Recently, there was a major incident at an informal settlement, Extension 3, near Jubilee Mall in Hammanskraal. The full truth is rather hard to tease out from the various news articles, tweets and statements, but here is what seems to be the basis of the story: private security provider(s) were hired, in particular the iconic Red Ants – eviction specialists – to evict the reported 16000 illegal residents of the settlement. The residents resisted, violently and zealously, and the subsequent confrontation between security forces and residents lead to the deaths of at least two people, of which at least one was burnt alive.
According to the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa, there is no valid basis for the evictions. They point out that no eviction order was found yet by their investigation into the matter, and they claim that the government is required to provide alternative arrangements for the people being evicted. The City of Tshwane, in contrast, stated that evictions will go ahead as per court order. Researcher Nomzamo Zondo said: “I’ve seen the order but I’ve not seen any of the papers in the matter and from what I can see it might be that there wasn’t an eviction order, it might be that there was an interdict or there was an [agenda] against a group of people.”
The evictions are being carried out in response to a request from the Kekana Royal Family. Of course, this means that the incident has brought up all sorts of questions about the communal law of South Africa. According to Prof Ben Cousins of the University of the Western Cape, given that the land in question is communal land, the Royal Family hold administrative powers, but are not entitled to call for an eviction without following due process. Cousins said, as quoted from Radio 702: “The eviction of residents of Hammanskraal on communal land at the request of the Kekana [R]oyal [F]amily signals the confusion of the powers and functions of traditional leaders, tribal councils and property rights. Professor Cousins is on the radio to chat about an Act which has not been passed into law is meant to deal with communal and traditional councils and how much power will traditional councils have, should the Communal Land Tenure Policy proposals be adopted.”
The residents of the informal settlement claim that City of Tshwane officials told them that the land had been approved and budgeted for and that they were thus allowed to live there. The residents have vowed that they as a community will not be going anywhere. There are even many reports that those whose houses have been destroyed, are rebuilding by now. While the residents claim that the local councillor gave them permission to live on the land, the police claim to have seen no evidence of the alleged official approval.
While the City of Tshwane claims that several requests were made for the residents to vacate the area, the residents say that the evictions are unexpected and that no prior notice was given. The African National Congress (ANC) has stated that the piece of land in question, Sekampaneng, was only meant to accommodate 121 shacks, compared to the 16000 residents that now occupy the area.
One resident says: “There was no warning, nothing. They gave us a court order, but it's dated from 2014 and our suburb is not even listed in the order.” The community claims four people were killed, while only two bodies have been found. The confirmed deceased were at first believed to be members of the Red Ants, but that was afterwards called into question. Thus, the identities of the deceased are unknown. The Red Ants company has stated that none of its members were killed or injured. Five people have been arrested.
For more information on this history of the Red Ants (which is, in itself, filled with many questions and odd stories), click here.
This is a tragic event by any standards and there is no stable indication of which parties were in the wrong. What seems clear, however, is that government officials did not make the regulations regarding the area clear to the residents in general. I believe the current emergence to largely be a result of poverty and failure to reach RDP housing targets, situations that trace inevitably back to inadequate work over the last two decades or so by the local ANC government.
The destruction of these people’s homes is, very mildly put, terrible. It is very likely that the shacks were all that they owned, and these shacks and much of was inside, have now been destroyed. Of course, even this does not justify killing. The Red Ants, other security services and SAPS were doing what they were paid to do, simply trying to make a living, like all of us. And now two people have been killed, at first mistaken for Red Ants, but apparently from an as yet unidentified group. Who were these poor souls, who died so wretchedly in this tragedy?
There will certainly be investigations, recriminations and plenty of hand washing – the City of Tshwane has made it very clear that it was not the antagonist of the eviction débâcle, for example – but that will not bring back two lost lives, but broken houses and lives back together, or solve the ongoing land crisis in our country. So, while the smoke keeps rising from our cities, ask yourself where royal families find up to R60 million in provincial budget allocations and salaries – each – to spend on lavish homes while the people the purport to lead are sitting on broken metal sheeting and rubble as they mourn the loss of their humble homes, at the behest of those very same royal families and the ANC that supports them.
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