SANCO critical of Govt’s use of Red Ants

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A regional executive committee of the South African National Civic Organisation in Mpumalanga wants the end to the use of Red Ants by government or else they will take action.

The resolution taken by the executive committee of the civic organisation in the Gert Sibande region wants an end to the violent use of force by Red Ants to kick out “innocent women and children” in both Govan Mbeki and Msukaligwa sub-regions and resolved will now respond by avenging these.

They will avenge the eviction of people by going straight to the homes of municipal officials who preside over the appointment of Red Ants and force them out of their homes too.

“While the Red Ants would be evicting our people, our people shall march to individuals’ homes to equally evict them,” it said, “So that they can also experience the pain of being evicted”.

“However, we call on communities to desist from the illegal occupation of land to avert unnecessary legal actions against them”, it said.

Earlier, regional secretary Bongani Mwale told the 013NEWS reporter that over the past two years they have witnessed a spade of hurtful evictions by Red Ants in the areas of Secunda and Ermelo and as regional structure will begin a research “on the causes and effects of informal settlement, with a particular focus in Govan Mbeki and Msukaligwa”.

He said: “The study must answer questions on the effect of this and why people opt to occupy land illegally, it is an issue of poor planning on the side of municipalities and et cetera?”.

Therefore the REC considered the research proposal tabled by him in Sunday’s executive committee meeting and mandated his office, the secretariat, “to ensure that this research is finalised within the identified timeline and we look to work with a credible research institute in order to provide a scientific and well researched resolutions to the informal settlement challenge”.

(edited by MLM)

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