Gallery Update
KNYSNA NEWS - Last week, Bongani informal settlement residents took to the streets to show their dissatisfaction with the Red Ants and Knysna municipal law enforcement for demolishing their shacks on Sunday 2 August.
This led to an altercation between the police and the community, in which two people were arrested and charged with public violence. Bongani residents told Knysna-Plett Herald that the area they were building on was approved by the municipality.
Resident Nozipho Ntlange believed that the toilets and water tanks in the area are proof that the municipality has approved the building of shacks in the area. "Why would you bring toilets and water for people you don't want to be there?" asked Ntlange.
Another resident, Kamva Oliphant, said he was in the process of building his own shack in Bongani.
"But now I have to wait and see how this thing turns out because shacks are being demolished."
Photo gallery: Red Ants oppose land invasion
Patricia Totane, a third resident, was adamant that the land was meant for houses. "If it was not meant for houses the municipality would not have brought the toilets. I have a problem at home and I don't have a place to stay. Where will I build that shack if the area we are told to build on is not meant for shacks?" she said.
Bongani residents are still building new shacks after last week's demolition of structures in this informal settlement of Knysna.
Totane also mentioned that other people had been building shacks in Bongani but that their shacks had been left untouched."People built their shacks and some are staying in them. We don't know how the municipality chooses which shacks to demolish," Totane said. But according to municipal spokesperson Christopher Bezuidenhout, the area had never been approved for the building of shacks.
"This is a land invasion matter. We have never and would never approve construction of shacks in any area. In any development process, we follow normal legislation applicable for the construction of any unit. In this case the claims are untrue," he said.
Bezuidenhout explained that the only reason why chemical toilets and water tanks had been provided was because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
"The toilets and the water tanks are to provide the people in the informal settlement with the necessary services during this time of Covid-19," he said.
A water tank supplied by the municipality to the residents of Bongani. Photos: Tembile Sgqolana
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