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Residents vow to defy court order to demolish their shacks

Elisha Molefe

Elisha Molefe

The South African National Civics Organisation (Sanco) in North West has vowed to give Moses Kotane municipality "a hard time" if it carried out its threat to evict some residents.

The municipality has given residents of Mabele a Podi village near Sun City, outside Rustenburg, until today to demolish the shacks they erected on the farm Rhenosterspruit and to vacate the area.

According to a court interdict by the Mmabatho high court, if the residents fail to demolish the shacks the sheriff of the court is authorised and directed to evict any person from the property, demolish the structures and confiscate the building materials.

The court has also ruled that both parties would be responsible for paying their own legal costs.

Adam Mogodiela, president of Sanco in the Moses Kotane region, said yesterday that they would fight the municipality "every inch of the way".

"This land belongs to the people.

"When Mangope [president Lucas Mangope of the former Bophuthatswana] was the ruler, we used to plough this farm. But after he killed our donkeys we stopped farming.

"Now the people want the land so they can have roofs over their heads," Mogodiela said.

A spokesman for Moses Kotane municipality was not available for comment yesterday.

But a woman, who did not want to be identified, told Sowetan that the matter was now "in the hands of the law".

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