A Schoenmakerskop resident, whom the municipality tried to serve with an eviction notice, stood firm against metro officials, swinging his hockey stick in an attempt to hit them before setting his dogs on them.
Mike van Niekerk, 65, screamed, yelled, threatened and swore at Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality officials from the animal control unit as they confiscated his 12 dogs.
His ducks, pigeons and chickens were also confiscated.
Van Niekerk, with his wife Rouanna, have been living in a shack between the bushes near the Noordhoek Ski Boat Club for 18 years.
The municipality confiscated the animals following several complaints that joggers and cyclists had been attacked and bitten by the dogs. Also, keeping the animals transgressed environmental bylaws.
The city also served the couple with a notice to move or face having their structures demolished as it was regarded as an illegal invasion of land.
While inspecting the surrounding areas, the metro found allegedly stolen goods on the site, including CCTV cameras with municipal barcodes and tools suspected for use in breaking into vehicles, among other things.
On Friday, Van Niekerk charged at officials and threatened to beat them up, even throwing a plank of wood he picked up from his chicken coop.
As he set the dogs on them, the metro dog control officials captured the dogs and loaded them onto vans.
The municipality was represented by a large team of about a dozen officials and municipal security members.
The beachfront squatter swore at the security before eventually locking himself inside his large shack.
His wife, Rouanna, 66, tried to calm him down and pleaded with him to co-operate as she eventually unlocked the gate that Van Niekerk had locked in an attempt to keep municipal officials out.
Municipal spokesman Mthubanzi Mniki said the dogs had been confiscated because the municipality had received several complaints from locals of dogs biting joggers and cyclists along the route.
“The dogs and other animals transgressed bylaws as no animals are supposed to be kept in the area and that family was illegally occupying the land they were on,” Mniki said.
The municipality’s chief operating officer, Mzwake Clay, said the Van Niekerks had been transgressing the municipal bylaws for some time.
“A total of 12 dogs were confiscated as the dogs were being kept in unsatisfactory conditions, some chained, which is against the Animal Protection Act, and others were allowed to roam around in open spaces [with no fencing], posing a threat to human safety.
“A warrant was obtained from the magistrate’s court for the search and seizure of the animals,” Clay said.
Rouanna said when they arrived there, they had lived in their trailer but had soon started clearing bush and eventually erected their shack.
“We moved here from Johannesburg when we started having problems with our children. When we got to Port Elizabeth, we didn’t live out here but gradually things started out badly and we found ourselves here,” she said.
Rouanna, who said they sold wood to make a living, said her husband had been upset because he saw the officials taking away their dogs, which he loved dearly.
“He’s very upset about the dogs; he loves his animals because we’ve had them for more than seven years,” she said.
As the commotion continued, a man who was visiting the couple sat calmly in a detached shack reading a book.Earlier this week, during a three-day human settlements housing indaba held at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, portfolio head Nqaba Bhanga said a moratorium would be placed on land evictions.
Asked if Friday’s eviction notice did not contradict what he had said earlier this week, Bhanga referred questions to human settlements executive director Nolwandle Gqiba.
Gqiba explained that the metro would place a moratorium on evictions on condition there were no invasions and on condition these complied with the law.
“Before evictions are done, lawyers first check, investigate and find that there is no compliance with legislation.
“There is something called the Prevention of Illegal Evictions Act, which protects the invaders from being evicted illegally. We followed all our processes legally.
“It doesn’t mean that when someone’s said there’ll be a moratorium that legislation goes out the window,” Gqiba said.