News24 | Malema tells demolition-threatened villagers the EFF will put ‘land in your hands’

EFF leader Julius Malema and Nozipho Magadlela at Bhongweni Village in Buffalo City on Wednesday.

Sithandiwe Velaphi/News24

• EFF leader Julius Malema visited Bhongweni Village near King Phalo Airport, where homeowners have faced years of evictions and demolitions over alleged illegal occupation of state-owned land.
• Two weeks before the local government elections, he promised residents title deeds and vowed an EFF-led Buffalo City would never allow demolitions without authorities providing alternative land.
• A 68-year-old homeowner who has feared demolition for years told Malema she would vote for the EFF for the first time.

EFF leader Julius Malema was on the campaign trail in the Eastern Cape on Wednesday, visiting, among other places, a village where homes were demolished over alleged illegal land occupation, and promised homeowners “land into your hands”.

For many years, homeowners in Buffalo City’s Bhongweni Village, near King Phalo Airport, have faced threats of eviction and, in some instances, demolition of their housing structures by authorities who accuse them of illegally occupying the land.

The parcels of land belong to the state-owned Agricultural Research Council and the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure.

“The EFF wants you to get title deeds,” Malema told homeowner Brenda Fuba, 68, during the door-to-door campaign in the village.

“This thing of you getting threatened with evictions is not right, because the legislation states that eviction authorities must find alternative land for the affected people,” said Malema.

EFF leader Julius Malema, the EFF’s Buffalo City mayoral candidate Mkhululi Dlevu and Brenda Fuba at Bhongweni Village on Wednesday.

Sithandiwe Velaphi/News24

Over the years, the EFF took advantage of the situation in the village and acted as intermediaries between the residents and authorities.

“We have been fighting side by side with you against the evictions, using EFF lawyers. But we want you to give us power on 4 November, so that we can fight for you using majority power in the municipality.

“If you have lived in a place for 24 hours and authorities want to evict you, they must give you an alternative place. So, without that alternative, you are going nowhere. The next thing that should follow is title deeds,” said Malema.

Malema claimed that when the EFF gets into power in Buffalo City, Bhongweni residents would be afforded land of their own.

He said:

We will never allow authorities to demolish your houses without following the law. They must give you alternative land. Public Works is government. You can never be removed by government from this land, because you are already here.

“The government must just transfer the land into your hands. We want you to have electricity, water and good roads.”

Fuba told News24 she had been living in the village since 2011.

“I consider myself lucky because my house was never demolished. But I am living in fear, because I don’t know when the bulldozer is going to arrive and demolish my structure,” Fuba said.

“I have hope in Julius,” she said. “I have not been voting over the years because I don’t see the reason, but I will give the EFF my vote this time around,” Fuba said.

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Fuba’s assurance led to Malema going on a charm offensive during the brief interactions he had with the villagers, two weeks before the local government elections on 4 November.

Another resident, Nozipho Magadlela, 44, told Malema she had not been formally employed since graduating with a hospitality qualification from Walter Sisulu University several years ago.

Magadlela said:

I have been applying over the years with no response. I am over 35 now, and the bad thing is that many opportunities are for people between 18 and 35. I am worried I will never get a job again.

Malema said an EFF-led government would fight for unemployed graduates.

“We will fight nepotism, so that a person can be employed based on their qualifications, not because they know someone from the ANC,” said Malema.