South Africa police fire rubber bullets at residents in housing stand-off

EKURHULENI - South African police fired rubber bullets at residents who tried to block the eviction of scores of houses near Johannesburg Tuesday by throwing stones and torching a municipal building, officials said.

After police gained access to the housing complex in Ekurhuleni, about 10 kilometres (six miles) east of central Johannesburg, a squad of men moved in and hauled furniture and personal belongings out of the homes.

Shocked residents accused the government of failing them amid South Africa's housing crisis, saying they believed the homes were part of a scheme to provide houses for black South Africans disadvantaged by the previous racist apartheid system.

Two people were arrested for setting alight the nearby offices of the municipal home affairs department, police said, adding they were acting on a June court order to evict people from the complex, which was reportedly home to 450 families.

"Unfortunately, the people got wind of the eviction and closed the road. Innocent people and the police were thrown with stones and we had to retaliate to ensure that we disperse them," Major General Fred Kekana, the deputy provincial police commissioner told AFP.
"Somebody allegedly threw a petrol bomb at the Department of Home Affairs. Two arrests have been made so far," he said.

Some residents insisted they had not been issued an eviction order and had been paying rent for years.

"Our government is failing us. They are chasing us yet we have titles for these houses," 37-year-old resident Akhona Mbadi, a mother of four children, told AFP.

After taking power following the end of white minority rule in 1994, the African National Congress-led government adopted a Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) to provide subsidised housing and other services to black South Africans disadvantaged by apartheid.

By 2017 nearly 14 percent of South African households lived in RDP or government-subsidised homes, according to government figures.

However, homelessness has risen dramatically from 13,000 in 1996 to more than 55,700 in 2022, according to government statistics.

Most homeless people are in Johannesburg's Gauteng province, the country's economic hub which attracts migrants from across Africa.