Mandisa Mashego's Alexandra inquiry submissions in five quotes

EFF Gauteng chairperson Mandisa Mashego appeared before the South African Human Rights Commission’s (SAHRC) inquiry into Alexandra township, where she made submissions on behalf of party leader Julius Malema.

The commission seeks to get to the bottom of the Alexandra Renewal Project (ARP) and how the monies meant for the development of the township were spent, service delivery in Alexandra and the recent demolition of 80 homes by the Red Ants, which Mashego witnessed. 

Here is a sum-up of her submission in five quotes:

Death threats

“We walked towards the person whom he referred me to and another police officer came and pointed directly at me and said, "I will kill you if you move one step further". The community and the fighters started becoming extremely emotional, shouted at him and the meeting never happened. Everything degenerated.”

This was in reference to a meeting she had asked for with a senior member of the SAPS to inquire about the demolition court order and violence towards residents.

No court order for Alex demolitions

“The demolition itself was illegal and, of course, grossly inhumane, and not even in line with procedures of even a legal court for eviction. We tracked the head of JMPD (Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department), who confirmed to the provincial secretary that there was no court order.”

Violence

“I was addressing the community and, hardly five minutes after we began, rubber bullets started charging at us and the police vehicles started approaching. They started shooting with rubber bullets. Mainly it was the SAPS officers.”

The EFF did not invent land occupation

“We are going to intensify our struggle for land expropriation without compensation until it is equally distributed to our people. Land occupations were not started by the EFF. Townships such as Soweto expanded because of land occupation and need. We boast that Soweto is the largest township, but we forget that it is large because of land occupation, which was classified as illegal even during apartheid. Soweto grew beyond the original Orlando."

Land occupations are not disorganised

"The land occupations are very organised. They are not haphazardly done. Our communities have had to organise themselves outside of the formal government processes to occupy land. They have steering committees, allocation committees, we even do a data base."