Illegally erected houses been demolished in Lenasia

[Citizen X]

I a homeboy of Lenasia..born and bred..this is my hood...

The Provincial Government stated that these illegally bought/erected houses will continue to be demolished. Apparently criminal elements sold these government plots for as little as R2500, in some cases as much as R90 000. They even provided fraudulent title deeds.
I know and understand that I can’t just wake up one morning and find an unoccupied piece of government land and put up a for sale sign! I also appreciate that many people are on the waiting list for council houses and that there is due process for obtaining council homes. I don’t condone what the criminal elements done nor do I condone the ignorance or or the fact that some buyers were co perpetrators with the criminals who fraudulently sold the plots.
I don’t accept the manner in which people’s homes were destroyed. These are real families with kids. The government should have at the very least arranged proper alternative accommodation for them. When you for humanitarian causes, you don’t always look at what criminal element was behind the houses, you should look at the present state of affairs, 100’s of families without homes!

[IanF]

Vanash
I have heard that there was electricity, water and sewage connections. Is this total corruption?
I do feel sorry for the guys who had their homes destroyed but we should wait for the whole story

[Citizen X]

Vanash
I have heard that there was electricity, water and sewage connections. Is this total corruption?
I do feel sorry for the guys who had their homes destroyed but we should wait for the whole story

Good evening Ian, Yes, there were illegal electricy connections. Water and sewage will point to council corruption itself as they are equipted to render these services. I know people on a waiting list for a council house feel vindicated, but most of these families have school going kids. I just wonder why their lives must suddenly be turned upside down because of this. I also have many friends in extension 13 who are actually happy that this took place, they cite non-nationals and criminal elements making their way to residential areas. Extension 13 is exactly 3 km's from my home, just around the corner! I'm also waiting to see what emerges. It's interesting though that the Human Rights Commission got involved. It's really now a humanitarian disaster. Many of the homes demolished were unoccupied and some of the structure were very poorly built. They was also sub-letting taking place in certain of the demolished homes. The majority however were your typical working class family...

[Dave A]

Ordinarily, whomever is found in possession of stolen goods loses the goods - even if they bought them in good faith. I know it was a big problem with motor vehicles at one stage - may still be; I just haven't any such tales of woe of late.

I would have thought it would have been a little different in this scenario, though. Wasn't/isn't there some legislation that puts pretty onerous conditions on evictions - the Security of Tenure Act or something like that?

[Citizen X]

Ordinarily, whomever is found in possession of stolen goods loses the goods - even if they bought them in good faith. I know it was a big problem with motor vehicles at one stage - may still be; I just haven't any such tales of woe of late.

I would have thought it would have been a little different in this scenario, though. Wasn't/isn't there some legislation that puts pretty onerous conditions on evictions - the Security of Tenure Act or something like that?

There are actually a few(In this case council houses but the problem is they not council houses. Legally(in the case of a council house), the court must be shown that the tenant has a home/place to move to before the court will grant the order. Arguably, these can't be said to be town houses.I always think about the kids in situations like these, especially the those in grade 12 writing exams etc. What a time for your life to unravel. I just sense that there's alot more going on here than meets the eye. We want all the details of all the corrupt officials involved!