Joburg’s vacant land to be monitored during lockdown
The City of Johannesburg has warned that it will dispatch law enforcement teams to keep watch of its vacant land during the national lockdown.
The notorious Red Ants spent most of Wednesday and Thursday demolishing shacks in Lawley, south of Johannesburg.
The city says there has been a rise in the building of illegal structures since the start of the lockdown.
“What we’ve noticed is that there are criminal syndicates that are using this period of Covid-19 and the lockdown for their own gain and invade pieces of land throughout the city of Johannesburg,” says city spokesperson Nthatisi Modingoane.
“So, as part of the operation, we have set up a team that monitors these pieces of land so that we don’t allow lawlessness to happen because there’s a period of lockdown.”
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The power supply interruption is said to have occurred when the transformer was overloaded by community members who bypass their meters, illegally connect themselves to the network. Eskom technicians were dispatched to restore the power supply but had a run-in with some of the residents.
Modingoane says no one was forcefully removed during the raids.
“The teams moved swiftly to curb the invasion of land.
“The structures that were demolished were vacant structures or half-completed structures where nobody was residing, so people were having an intention of building or residing in these structures.”
He adds the city has made several shelters available for the homeless.