RESIDENTS STOP MONENI DEMOLITIONS

MANZINI – Incensed community members reportedly stopped the demolition of property at Moneni yesterday morning.

The community members are said to have organised themselves after they witnessed an excavator demolishing two one-room flats, which form part of a block of flats with 24 units.
According to Nelsiwe Khumalo (37), who resides within the block of flats, they were woken up by a deputy sheriff and other people, demanding that they vacate the houses they were renting. She said leading to yesterday morning, they had been ordered to vacate the premises, as the houses would be demolished. This, she said, led to the 22 tenants of the flats vacating the premises, leaving her with another tenant. Khumalo said when they exited their houses, the excavator started to demolish the flats; however, as this was happening, a group of people gathered around, demanding that this should stop.

She claimed that among the people calling for the suspension of the demolition were land owners, whose structures were to be demolished as well. Khumalo said: “As the people saw that the crowd was angry and was stating that they were expecting the issue to be discussed at the Moneni Royal Kraal after the elections, they left.” She bemoaned that the deputy sheriff was supposedly not in the company of the police when the property was being demolished. On the other hand, one of the people who claimed her property was to be demolished, said they had bought land from a certain family. She said they discovered that the land was first sold to one individual and later subdivided into plots and sold to nine other people. The land owner, who requested not to be named, said they had approached the Moneni Royal Kraal to report the incident and were expecting to meet over it.

However, she said before the meeting could happen, they were informed that yesterday their properties would be destroyed. Following such news, she said they tried to contact the person who sold them the land; however, they overheard him saying that the caller should be informed that he was dead. She said they had reported the matter to the police and the royal kraal. A member of the royal kraal, known as MaRand, said they were aware of the matter and were still anticipating to meet the affected people when they learnt that there was an effort to demolish the homesteads. “We have engaged the person said to have been selling the land and we are yet to meet all of them so that we get to know the finer details,” he said.

He said there were reports that community members stopped the demolitions but they were yet to get a full report. MaRand said they had also contacted the police in fear of the agitation of the community members resulting in a fatalities. Meanwhile, the owner of the flats, who was alleged to be Patson Sibandze, said he was not aware of anything as he was at his homestead in Siteki. Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Superintendent Phindile Vilakati confirmed that the matter was reported. She said the police were investigating it.

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