Durban — There was chaos as illegal occupants were evicted from a building in the Durban CBD, around Victoria Street, on Monday morning. It is alleged that the building had been “hijacked” and occupied by “illegal immigrants”.
When the Daily News arrived at the scene the furious tenants said they did not understand why they were being evicted when they had been paying their rent consistently.
Outside the building people were coming out carrying their belongings – some carrying beds.
The street was packed with televisions, some broken and others looking new. It was also filled with bags full of clothes.
One of the tenants, Zodwa Majola, said she had been renting in the building for a while and there had not been any problems. Majola said she does not understand why they were being kicked out.
“We were paying our rent to Somalians and after a while the Gcaba brothers came in and told us that they are taking over the building. We trusted them and we have been paying our rent to them.
“Even now we just know that they are the ones who own this building. However, last week there were letters and we were told we are being evicted by the old owners of the building because the Gcaba brothers were not paying. The Gcaba brothers came to assure us that we’re safe and we do not have to move,” said Majola.
A man, who did not want to be named for fear of his life, said the building had been “hijacked” for more than a year. He claimed the high court had granted an order for the illegal tenants to be evicted.
“The rightful owners of this building went to court after it was hijacked by some gang and the court granted them the order to have these people removed,” he said.
A frustrated tenant, who also asked not to be named, said she did not understand why they were being evicted.
Shylex Bonde, renting in this building to be closer to work, said she got a call when she was home that tenants were being evicted.
“My home is in Montclair but this morning I was told to come in a hurry because we are being evicted. I am so frustrated because I have lost most of my things. I rented in town because I need to be closer to work.”
One of the Gcaba Brothers, Mandla Gcaba, said his family knew nothing about this building.
“I can assure you that no one in my family is associated with this. We are in construction, taxis and bus industries. However, we have had incidents where people use our names to commit crimes. We are appealing to the police to find these people,” said Gcaba.
Gcaba added that there was someone who was arrested in Pinetown who pretended to be associated with his family who had scammed people.
“People know our history and think we are just a bunch of criminals, but we are not.”
City’s spokesperson, Msawakhe Mayisela, said they could not comment on the eviction as it was a private property.
Daily News