The SANDF has denied claims that it did not offer alternative accommodation
- Members of the South African Defence Force have evicted people living in Happiness Village, a settlement on military land in Marievale.
- For months the army had been negotiating with them to be relocated to Zamani informal settlement in Duduza.
- However, some people we spoke to said they were excluded from these relocation plans because they were immigrants.
- The SANDF said it carried out the eviction in a lawful manner and denied claims that it had not offered alternative accommodation.
Dozens of people, mostly immigrants, spent the weekend with relatives and friends after their shacks, built on army land in Marievale, were demolished.
On Thursday, members of the South African Defence Force (SANDF) evicted people living in the settlement known as Happiness Village. This was not the first eviction by court order from the land.
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For months the army has been negotiating with the residents of Happiness Village to relocate to the Zamani informal settlement in Duduza.
However, resident Mateo Maphosa and six of his friends say they were not included in the relocation offer.
Maphosa said he watched helplessly as an army vehicle drove through two shacks where he had lived with six others. While he managed to remove his bed, utensils, clothes and blankets, Maphosa and his friends now sleep outside with their belongings stashed in a nearby bushy area.
"If only they had left our shacks ... Now we will have to sleep outside in this cold winter," said Maphosa.
Happiness Village's last stand
Happiness Village came into existence after people were unlawfully evicted from buildings on Marievale Military Base in 2017. The families then erected shacks near their old homes.
Represented by Lawyers for Human Rights, they have been fighting their eviction for years.
In 2018, the army and the City of Ekurhuleni were ordered by the high court in Pretoria to provide adequate alternative accommodation for the residents.
About 85 families, who work and attend schools near Happiness Village, refused to relocate. In July last year, 54 families were relocated to Duduza's Ebenezar informal settlement.
Most of the people who remained behind were immigrants. They say they are excluded from the relocation plans because they are undocumented.
According to community leader Chris Koitsioe, the army and municipality failed to provide adequate alternative housing as required by the court.
"The soldiers had no right to demolish shacks. The people were illegally evicted because they were excluded from the initial court order, and the law says one should not be evicted without being provided with alternative accommodation," said Koitsioe.
Louise du Plessis from Lawyers for Human Rights confirmed that they had told the army to apply for another court order before evicting the group of immigrants who were not in the initial court order. But the army insisted that everyone would be evicted, and yet it had not provided enough shacks for the relocation.
The lawyers are negotiating with the municipality, out of court, to ensure that extra shacks are provided at Zamani informal settlement, for a broken sewer system to be fixed, and for them to be provided with electricity.
In the meantime, community representatives arranged for the immigrants to temporarily share shacks with people who had been relocated.
Army responds
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South African National Defence Force spokesperson Prince Tshabalala told GroundUp that the recent eviction at Marievale "was carried out in a peaceful and lawful manner" in accordance with valid court orders issued by both the magistrates' and high courts.
"These judgments followed an extensive legal process in which the Department of Defence was granted the right to reclaim the land from unlawful occupation."
Tshabalala denied claims that the municipality had not offered alternative accommodation to all the affected families.
"While the majority accepted the relocation and were peacefully resettled, a few individuals refused the offer on the grounds that the proposed accommodation was not to their satisfaction.
"The SANDF remains committed to upholding the rule of law while ensuring that all operations are conducted with dignity and minimal disruption," he said.
