700 evicted in Jo'burg
2005-07-14 14:57
Johannesburg - The mass eviction in central Johannesburg was still going on relatively peacefully on Thursday as the "Red Ants" - men in red overalls conducting the eviction - worked their way through a 16-storey building.
Earlier, a brick and a bottle were thrown at the Red Ants, who are contracted to the city's metro council. A fight also broke out among residents of the Bree Chambers building.
On the ninth floor, Zandiswa Nongqotho, 24, stared out the window waiting for the Red Ants, who were on the floor below, to arrive.
Nongqotho, who had been living in the flat with her two children for six months, said she did not know why she was being evicted.
People left destitute
"We don't know what to do. We will just go outside and wait. We have no money and there are no flats in this area for us," she said.
On the 10th floor, James Chilumpha, who has been resident for four months, sighed. "It's a difficult time. My wife has been downstairs for the whole day, but I don't know where she is."
Inside the building, water and electricity was still connected but the conditions in the small room were terrible, a Sapa reporter said.
Some rooms had six mattress crammed into them and the communal bathroom were heavily vandalised, he said.
Thomas Khosasi, 18, ran up 14 flights of stairs to find his blind sister who had been caught up in the mass eviction.
He was terrified that as about 700 people were evicted from Bree Chambers, pronounced unsafe by the Johannesburg city council, Theresa would get lost and be unable to find her way out.
Illegally occupied
By 13:20 about 600 Red Ants had worked their way to the eighth floor of the building which used to be an office block, which the people had illegally occupied.
Khosasi, a vendor by profession, had been living with three people in one tiny room for the last three months.
Once reunited both said they were: "Desperate, confused and stranded."
"We don't know where to go," said Theresa as she strapped a one-year-old baby girl to her back.
Roopa Singh municipal spokesperson said between 500 and 700 people were evicted.
She added others may have moved out before the eviction.
The eviction had so far gone without serious violence, but one municipal employee had been hit on the arm by a brick thrown from above.
On the higher floors, residents hung out their windows shouting loudly across the street.
Nothing more to do
Democratic Alliance councillor Daniel Mohlatlole said negotiations with the residents had been going on for two years.
"There is nothing more we can do now," he said. "These people must look for another place. We want people to be safe."
The eviction is the result of a high court order due to serious bylaw contraventions.
"The 16-storey building is an office block which has been invaded and illegally converted into residential accommodation," Singh said.
"The conditions that exist within the building pose serious threats to the health and safety of the occupants."
- SAPA