New Age2.png
Lenasia land battle resolved MEC calls a halt to demolition of houses, offers redress Ntombi Nkosi, The New Age, Johannesburg, 26 November 2014 The government has halted the demolition of illegally constructed houses in Lenasia following a meeting with residents. Gauteng human settlements MEC Jacob Mamabolo said the demolition of houses will be stopped following a major breakthrough on the redress of affected families. This was announced following the meeting between Mamabolo and the Special Lenasia Intervention Task Team members held on Monday night in Johannesburg. "As a caring government we are mindful that some people were genuinely duped by a manipulative and well-orchestrated syndicate in acquiring government land. So redress will be considered for those whose houses were demolished. However, we know that some people participated knowingly in the scam and as such we will not be using a one-size fits all approach, but we will be looking at each case individually," Mamabolo said. He said Lenasia's task team would hold meetings to finalise outstanding issues and then return to the South Gauteng High Court to make the agreement a binding court order. The task team was established by former housing MEC Tokyo Sexwale after the demolition of illegally built houses in Lenasia and large scale, illegal sale of state land. The provincial and national departments of human settlements, the city of Johannesburg, two concerned residents groups from Lenasia, NHBRC, Legal Resources Centre, Human Rights Commission and Bishop Paul Verryn, from the religious fraternity, were present at the MEC's announcement. "This matter has been lingering on for a long time and we need to put this chapter behind us and proceed with speed to implement the recommendations of the Lenasia intervention plan," Mamabolo said. Mamabolo made it clear, however, that the government would not tolerate land invasions and would fight them. "We will not allow anarchy and lawlessness in our constitutional state, which is founded on the sacrosanct principle of the rule of law. I am sending a strong warning to all communities in Gauteng that all such opportunistic elements that have made invasions their careers will be dealt with, with the full might of the law," he said. A number of people have been convicted of illegally selling government land in the area, including an official from the city of Johannesburg. Sifiso Handsome Litau will appear in court on December 14 for sentencing after being found guilty of the illegal sale of land in Lenasia. Kingpin Richard Zikhali was sentenced in August to five years' imprisonment on 94 counts of corruption relating to the illegal sale of land in Lenasia. A 76-year-old pastor, Mandla Dlamini, is already serving a three-year jail sentence. [email protected] From: http://tnaepaper.co.za/ -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
