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Saturday Star writes that the over the last year, 150 properties in the North West mining town of Rustenburg belonging to the big three mining groups in town, namely Impala Platinum, Anglo American Platinum and Sibanye-Stillwater, have allegedly been illegally occupied.
Now some concerned homeowners fear their homes could be next, so they have cancelled their Christmas holidays. The alleged illegal occupations are pitting communities, mining companies, political parties, the SA Police Service and the municipality against each other. Political parties have been unable to resolve the impasse which threatens to spill over into violence. Residents claim the alleged illegal occupations started quietly in December 2019, but are now very public and violent. Residents and the DA have pointed the finger at the ANC, EFF and taxi drivers. A DA spokesperson said a group of people would simply occupy an uninhabited house, sometimes in broad daylight and sometimes under the cover of night. “They just rock up and close off the road and move into an empty house. Nobody says or does anything because we fear for our safety.” One resident said: “The rumour is that this is politically driven. The municipality of Rustenburg is apparently involved and SAPS refuse to assist. The water and electricity is illegally connected. Some of the invaders claim that they bought these houses from the Rustenburg Municipality with illegal documents. The actual invaders are not living in the houses, they are renting out the rooms. Rustenburg is currently in a crisis”. The three mining houses said they’ve had mixed fortunes with the courts in their attempts to get the alleged illegal occupiers evicted from their properties.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Norman Cloete at Saturday Star
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