Dainfern residents allege 'capitalists exploited Mandela' for upmarket development

Nelson Mandela has been accused of allowing himself to be exploited by capitalists in the eviction of residents to make way for an upmarket residential complex.

Some members of the 64 families evicted from Riverglen in Dainfern, near Fourways, yesterday flashed newspaper clippings showing a smiling Mandela arriving at the development site alongside Douw Steyn, one of the estate's owners.

The property, to be developed on a piece of land wedged between Diepsloot and Dainfern, will include about 10 000 exclusive residential units.

It will also have a golf course, boutique hotel, hospital, helipad, school and clubhouse. Residents claimed a house would also be built for Mandela and former US president Bill Clinton.

"They are using Mandela for their own interests, as Winnie Madikizela-Mandela said. The evidence is available," they said in a memorandum.

The families also accused Lucky Mosimane, a resident who represented the community in meetings to find alternative accommodation and encouraged them to sign up for the RDP houses, of betraying them for self-gain.

Gogo Lettie Ngoma, 75, braced the drizzly weather to join fellow Riverglen residents on a soggy patch along William Nicol Highway, next to the 2m-tall wall demarcating the land in dispute. It's here her piles of belongings were discarded after her house, like that of other families, was demolished on February 8.

That she had lived in the Riverglen community, formerly known as Zevenfontein, for 62 years did not matter.

"My husband was born here. He died here and was buried here. All my children were born here," Ngoma said, pointing at her first-born, Ben, aged 58.

"My heart is sore. So painful because I have no proper place to call home."

Ngoma and her sister-in-law, Johanna Sithole, 72, whose family was also evicted, now rent a room in Diepsloot at R500 each. They both use their pension fund allowance to pay.

Sithole chronicled her family history at Riverglen.

"I was born here on April 6, 1937. I used to walk on a path to Witkoppen Bantu School before I got married here in 1979. My husband died here on February 14, 2004," she recalled. "It's painful because they just chased us away like useless dogs."

Ina Sithole, 72, travelled all the way from Kwaggafontein in Mpumalanga to make her voice heard. "I am now squatting with relatives because I have nowhere to go. It's like I am a refugee," she said.

The residents were evicted after the landowners, Golden Creek Investments - an Auto & General-owned company - obtained an eviction order from the Johannesburg High Court. Golden Creek Investments bought the land in 1994.

At the time of the evictions, the owners said the company had arranged 4 500 RDP houses for residents in Cosmo City, but that some "were digging in their heels" about moving.

Auto & General Property Holdings managing director Giuseppe Plumari said residents had ignored an earlier court order issued in 1996.

"There've been countless court cases. They've lost every single one. I don't know what they expect, but they refuse point blank to move," he said.

But yesterday, the families were still adamant their tenure rights were ignored. In their memorandum handed to a director in Human Settlement Minister Tokyo Sexwale's office, they demanded to be moved back to their land or to an alternative place with low-cost houses built for them.

The Star

Posted at 10:29AM Mar 31, 2010 by Editor in Commercial  |  Comments[4]