Matatiele under siege as land grabs spread
By ANDILE MOSHOESHOE
“If you don’t have a budget to build us houses, we shall be invading or grabbing the vacant land for now until you make it available…”
This is a stern warning raised against the Matatiele Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape by irate residents in a meeting held at Area C Community Hall on Monday evening.
The meeting, attended by a local councillor, Thembeka Dyantyi intended to address land grab issues after thousands of community members sub-divided hectares of municipal land – between Matatiele and Maluti – among themselves.
Part of the divided land has an Aerodrome. However, explanations given including lack of funds as some (funds) were diverted to priority government programmes such as NSFAS have fallen on deaf ears.
They said if the funds were really diverted into NSFAS, learners shouldn’t be protesting and free education was part of the promises made by the government anyway.
“We can never allow to be used as objects to vote… no houses no votes,” they said. They said their reaction was part of the municipal promises made by the then municipal manager, Tsepang Nakin who even told them the municipality has reserved Area M&J to build houses but it has yet to happen.
“This was after the municipality’s rent to buy option failed,” they said. They said they are sharing rooms with their sons and daughters who also have their own children.
“The Municipality threatened us with a court interdict while at the same time they are sending our councillor to us. They are throwing her under the bus because they want us to fight with her… we won’t do that because she is us,” they said. They demanded to meet with the mayor, speaker and the municipal Manager to get answers.
Municipal manager, Lizo Matiwane has condemned the community’s reaction but further said they have engaged law enforcement agencies to intervene and they are seeking to interdict the invaders.
