Over 300 Limpopo families’ homes were demolished because they allegedly refused to pay rent to the landowner to help with the upkeep of the land and to regularise their stay.
Some of the residents were at work when they were called by neighbours and relatives about the demolitions and rushed home in the rain to find excavators busy tearing their houses down.
Aggrieved resident Leholohonolo Kubajane lamented what happened.
“We cannot leave a place where our grandparents have been living for a long time; it is not fair at all,” he said. ”We grew up in these homes, and our children grew up in these homes.
“I was at work when I got a call saying our houses were being demolished. Next thing I knew, our belongings were being thrown outside, and we were being transported to the bushes. They intimidated everyone with this huge force of police. We have been sleeping in the bushes ever since, with no place to go,” he said.
However, Joseph Makgoba, the landowner, said a court order granted him authority to demolish the structures on the land which housed more than 300 families after they failed to cooperate with efforts to regularise their stay and start paying rent.
Next thing I knew, our belongings were being thrown outside, and we were being transported to the bushes.
— Leholohonolo Kubajane, aggrieved resident
He said people had been living on the land rent-free for decades, some since the 1990s, with generations having grown up on the property while using municipal services without charge.
But Makgoba, through the private Makgoba Asset Management company, and with the support of the Makgoba Community Trust, said the situation had become unsustainable.
He said the trust, which represents the original beneficiaries of the land, had long raised concerns that the growing informal settlement on the property was consuming their resources.
“When we took over from public works, and after we signed a long-term lease agreement with Makgoba Community Trust, electricity bills were over R2m, everything was a mess. We then decided we cannot develop this place until we regularise it,” he said.
Makgoba said more than 300 residents were issued letters asking them to begin paying “legitimate amounts” and sign documents to formalise their occupation.
“We even sent the sheriff there. The sheriff came back with only 10 or 15 out of the 300 having agreed, and the others burnt the letters,” he said.
After months of deadlock, the trust approached the courts in 2023. Makgoba said the judge eventually ruled that those who refused to regularise their stay must vacate the property.
In a court document seen by Sowetan, the Limpopo high court issued an eviction order for residents on the Remaining Extent of the Farm Middlekop 552 LT.
The sheriff served the order on June 17, requiring respondents to vacate by July 17. Some residents were granted until September 17 to vacate the property.
However, Makgoba said when the sheriff and the police arrived, the community resisted.
“They stood their ground and decided they weren’t going anywhere. Eventually, there was an uprising. We went back to court to force the police to do their job. The court insisted that we could not remove them without providing them with a place to stay, and the [Greater Tzaneen local] municipality was ordered to provide temporary accommodation.
“We even went far and beyond, booking transportation trucks so that wherever they wanted to go, they could go. We spent millions on this case to get them off the land,” Makgoba said.
Devastated resident Lesiba Phethule said his grandmother’s home was demolished.
“My entire family was raised there. Although we all agreed to go our separate ways, it is very heartbreaking to know that a family home has been torn down as if it meant nothing to us. That is our ancestral home that we all go back to when we are meeting all together under the same roof; it’s important to us,” he said.
Sowetan