EFF land invasions disrupt housing plans, undermine the poor: Tshwane

The City of Tshwane has vowed to fight the EFF land invasion programme wherever it rears its head.

This follows a court interdict the council secured, that allows it to fight any illegal occupation of land in the city.

The EFF last week declared that it would continue to invade unoccupied land and this would become “a lifestyle”.

Over the past few months, the City of Tshwane has been embroiled in battles with the EFF concerning the illegal invasion of land.

The city has had to remove invaders from unoccupied land in Sokhulumi, Mamelodi, Soshanguve, Mooiplats, Donkerhoek, Atteridgeville and Olivenhoutbosch.

Tshwane mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa said the EFF was disrupting their plans to provide housing to the poor.

“Land invasion is a declared political programme of the EFF. All of the pieces of land the EFF wants to invade is where we have earmarked people to move. They want to gain political currency... They are actually undermining the poor,” he said.

In the current financial year, Tshwane metro is building 82 000 housing units, a programme which will mostly benefit the poor. At least R2-billion is needed by the council to realise this target.

Ramokgopa told journalists in Centurion today that the city has identified assets that will be sold to raise money for the housing developments. These include properties which do not generate revenue for the city and unused land.

The latter will be sold mostly to developers enabling the city to start generating revenue from the assets.