LISTEN: Blame game between Tshwane, province amid Olievenhoutbosch protests

The City of Tshwane has laid the blame for Friday’s protests in Olievenhoutbosch squarely at the feet of Gauteng Human Settlements MEC Uhuru Moila. 

Residents took to the streets on Friday morning over housing issues and evictions in the area. 

The protests come after the Gauteng Department of Human Settlement approached the courts to evict the illegal occupants of RDP houses by end of June.

Mandla Nkomo, the city’s MMC for Human Settlements, says the residents’ anger must be directed to the province as it made the decision to head to the courts. 

Nkomo says it Moila's responsibility to engage with the community members to explain the decision. 

But Moila has fired back at the city saying he cannot take responsibility when people take the law into their own hands. 

He says the protestors are living in houses that do no belong to them – and that makes them guilty of a criminal offence. 

Moila says the provincial government is in possession of a High Court order, which allows it to evict the occupants without the need to find them alternative shelter.  

Gauteng police spokesperson, Kay Makhubela, says six suspects have been arrested and the situation is calm.