Taking us back to apartheid removals

Evictions in Lapland/Tiryville, Uitenhage

I never expected to experience forced removals again.

On Tuesday morning, I was contacted by Rev Navan Adonis as well as the leadership of the emergent United Front (UF) in the metro to come to the Lapland/Tiryville area to witness the forced removal of our citizenry from their shacks.

On arrival I saw the sheriff remonstrating with Adonis and an attorney in the community.

A good few hundred bystanders were gathered around those trying to negotiate an amicable solution to what was obviously a very emotional issue.

What really stirred the emotions was the number of children of school-going age playfully crowding the scene.

Adonis and Maggie Jacobs, one of the leaders in the community, rushed to the local offices of the metro to try to stave off the evictions. The authorities were unrelenting – the squatters had to be removed.

Sarah Sephton, of the Legal Resources Centre, had sent through an e-mail stating that the metro was unwilling to grant a stay in the execution of the eviction order.