Land grabbers clash with Sol, police

LERATO Park residents clashed with the police and Sol Plaatje Municipality security officers during a land grab attempt on Thursday.

The residents started clearing plots on a piece of land that was reportedly earmarked for the Finance-linked Individual Subsidy Programme (Flisp) and has already been serviced.

They demanded to be allocated a portion of the available land for RDP houses.

The residents were stopped by the Ward 30 councillor, Robert Kock, who persuaded them to put the land grab on hold and rather engage with the municipality for clarity on the land.

The residents accused an official from the Northern Cape Department of Cooperative Governance, Human Settlement and Traditional Affairs (Coghsta) of selling plots.

They said plots are being sold to people who were previously allocated land at other settlements like Lethabo Park, while the community continues to be referred to the housing support centre in Moshoeshoe Street to get a reference number.

The residents claimed that the official who is in charge uses “delaying tactics” as he always says he cannot trace the reference number when the beneficiaries want to claim their promised plots.

The community further demanded answers on whether it is Coghsta policy that the shacks be moved once in a while over the weekends and with private vehicles.

According to them, piles of photocopies of the IDs of the beneficiaries on the waiting list were found dumped in one of the empty shacks near the Veterans Housing Development.

“The people who are allocated our plots have left ghost shacks in Lethabo Park and plan to occupy them when there is electricity,” they said. “Now they are also blocking us, who desperately need these plots.”

The residents further pointed out that it was agreed in a community meeting that the relocation of shacks to the new plots be done in groups and with the assistance of a municipal truck.

“Now we just see people that we don’t know, of whom some confess to be paying a certain fee for a plot, moving onto the plots.

“Some of those people, of whom some are public servants, don’t even have those reference numbers that we are sent so far to go and get.”

The community agreed later in the day to put their plans on hold until they have had a meeting with the municipality on Friday.