Tshaka said her mother was outside the house when the excavators arrived yesterday morning (Thursday).
"She called us and said they were demolishing. While I was picking little things, I saw my mother collapsing and we had to call an ambulance. She is now in hospital.
"As we speak, we don't know where we are going to sleep because we don't even have relatives around here," she said.
Residents who spoke to Sowetan said when they got the order back in 2021, they called the people who had sold them the land. However, the sellers allegedly reassured them that Mdluli Trust was bluffing and will never remove them.
The same thing happened last year when they got another court order to move. The sellers allegedly told them to stay put as no one would evict them from that land.
However, on Thursday the residents woke up to sounds of excavators in the area, demolishing houses. Again they called the sellers who were nowhere to be found.
Sindi Nkosi said she was still sleeping when her house was demolished.
“My children were getting ready to go to school but they stormed into our house and started demolishing.
"We started staying here in 2019, we bought the stands from some guys whom we called in the morning but he has now disappeared,” said house owner Sindi Nkosi said.
Sowetan reached out to the landowners, the Mdluli Trust, and their lawyers. However, none of them responded to calls to our messages.
Owners of demolished houses were warned
Interdict ordered vacation in 2021
People must refrain from buying land where they will not get a receipt from the municipality or that private owner.
This was the warning issued by Mbombela Municipality in Mpumalanga yesterday after several houses built illegally on private land were demolished. Municipal spokesperson Joseph Ngala said the owners of the land did not just wake up and decide to destroy people's houses.
"They [ land owners] served the residents with notice but they did not budge. On this one, they [land occupiers] were never provided with any piece of paper and chances are they did not even see the title deed.
"When you buy something authentic, the first thing you ask for is the slip so that you have something to fall back on. That land must have a title deed and that is common course," said Ngala yesterday.
Residents of Mataffin Trust who spent their lives building houses on land that did not belong to them watched in tears as their investments turned into rubble as they were being demolished.
One of them, Martha Tshaka, was overcome with emotion as she watched the three-bedroom house she had used her pension to build crumble before her eyes; she collapsed and was taken to hospital.
The 64-year-old woman is one of the residents of Mataffin Trust in Mbombela who had built on land that did not belong to them and had been earmarked for a graveyard. The residents were sold the land by people who were not the rightful owners.
Some of the people who bought stands started building double-storey houses even though the sellers did not give them title deeds.
Mdluli Trust, which owns the land, took the homeowners to court for building there illegally and was granted a demolition order.
According to Tshaka's daughter Lesedi, her mother bought the land for R35,000 back in 2018.
Tshaka is originally from the Free State and when she retired, she decided to stay in Mpumalanga and then used her pension money to build her house to live with her children and grandchildren.
However, in 2021 during Covid-19, Mdluli Trust served the residents with an interdict that ordered them to move from the land.
The court order, granted in August that year, stated that residents must move out three months after the state of disaster had ended.
"In the event that the first respondents who are currently in occupation of the structures erected fail to vacate the property within three months after the national state of disaster has ended, the Sheriff is authorised to evict all persons or individuals from any temporary or permanent structures erected on the property and place them outside the boundary of the property or remove/demolish any temporary or permanent structures erected on the property with the assistance of the South African Police Services," says the court order.
Tshaka said her mother was outside the house when the excavators arrived yesterday morning (Thursday).
"She called us and said they were demolishing. While I was picking little things, I saw my mother collapsing and we had to call an ambulance. She is now in hospital.
"As we speak, we don't know where we are going to sleep because we don't even have relatives around here," she said.
Residents who spoke to Sowetan said when they got the order back in 2021, they called the people who had sold them the land. However, the sellers allegedly reassured them that Mdluli Trust was bluffing and will never remove them.
The same thing happened last year when they got another court order to move. The sellers allegedly told them to stay put as no one would evict them from that land.
However, on Thursday the residents woke up to sounds of excavators in the area, demolishing houses. Again they called the sellers who were nowhere to be found.
Sindi Nkosi said she was still sleeping when her house was demolished.
“My children were getting ready to go to school but they stormed into our house and started demolishing.
"We started staying here in 2019, we bought the stands from some guys whom we called in the morning but he has now disappeared,” said house owner Sindi Nkosi said.
Sowetan reached out to the landowners, the Mdluli Trust, and their lawyers. However, none of them responded to calls to our messages.