A farmer is in despair after he loses R1-million in property damage.
21 October 2022 by Sipho Jack
An Olievenhoutbosch farmer lost an estimated R1-million in property damage and crop due to the illegal land invasions that took place in the past week.
“When we sent someone to go and inspect the farmhouse, we found it stripped of electric equipment fittings, plugs, lights, and the boards. The doors have been removed and some of the roof sheets have been removed,” Hennie Henrico said.
He revealed that the illegal invaders tried to extort money from him, telling him he should pay a certain amount of money to stop more people from occupying the land.
“Last week I received a call from a guy named Rasta. He is staying in one of the shacks on my property.
“Rasta is asking for money to prevent people from occupying the house on the farm.”
“He wanted R60 000 and when I said I didn’t have it, he then wanted R20 000 and to bring R30 000 later,” Henrico said.
He said he hadn’t given him anything to date, as he was still contemplating whether to open a case or not.
Henrico said he once opened a case of extortion at Olievenhoutbosch.
“We have opened a case before and nothing happened, so I am not sure if it’s worth opening a case again.”
Furthermore, he said he had opened multiple cases at the police station before and nothing had happened, adding that he once called Colonel Corbett to complain to no avail.
“I opened a case on September 24, and to my surprise, on September 30, the case was closed. I was told there were no leads and the case was investigated, so it had to be closed,” he added.
Attempts to get comment from the police were unsuccessful.
Sources:
Tshwane metro to continue fight against ‘shack farming’ and land invasions
“The Tshwane metro police department is always willing to work jointly with SAPS and home affairs in combatting illegal immigration.”
September 27, 2022
Reitumetse Mahope
The Tshwane metro will continue tackling illegal “shack farming” and land invasions, it said.
This comes after the Deputy Minister for State Security, Zizi Kodwa, and Gauteng premier, David Makhura, met with municipal mayors on Friday.
The meeting was aimed at strengthening ties and working relations between local municipalities in Gauteng to fight threats to the province’s stability, according to State Security Agency spokesperson Mava Scott.
Scott said the meeting focused on a presentation by the agency on the lessons learnt from the July 2021 riots.
A report found that malls located next to informal settlements were mostly looted.
It also said that the police admitted that the large number of looters pouring onto the streets was overwhelming.
In some instances, the crowds were violent and some police officers were injured. The arrival of members of the SA national defence force was too late to help stabilise the situation.
Public order police (POP) unit never reached its full staff complement. The units are centralised and not distributed across police stations. As a result, there is invariably a time lapse between their call-up and their arrival when called upon to assist.
The national and provincial governments and most elements of civil society believe that there was a major failure of intelligence concerning the July riots. The intelligence community, on the other hand, believes it had given sufficient warning, at least of the levels of dissatisfaction among the population, and the dangers and possible consequences thereof.
Budget constraints also resulted in the POP not having sufficient rubber bullets and tear gas canisters.
“We were informed that there is only one water cannon per province available to the POP,” the report outlined.
The report recommended that all government levels seriously attend to the socio-economic challenges facing the country.
He said there was a need to build relations across all spheres of government as there was a lack of enforcement of by-laws by municipalities.
Kodwa said the agency took the recommendations to improve coordination of intelligence information and strengthen relations between various agencies, provincial- and local governments seriously.
Makhura said that some of the issues flagged as triggers and threats to the province’s stability included the worrying proliferation of illegal immigrants.
Tshwane spokesperson Sipho Stuurman said the meeting was not focused on local government issues solely.
Tshwane, however, fully committing itself to working jointly with law enforcement agencies.
“The Tshwane metro police department is always willing to work jointly with SAPS and home affairs in combatting illegal immigration. We will also focus on also preventing illegal shack farming and land invasions.”
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