Mashaba Calls for Urgent Intervention of the SAPS in Lenasia and Surrounds

22 July 2019

Today the City of Johannesburg has requested the urgent intervention of the SAPS in Lenasia and surrounding areas.

Following the steep escalation of land occupation in the area over the past week, the situation is getting out of control. Residents within the area are reporting armed groups of land occupiers firing on the homes of residents in the affected areas, with the sounds of gun shots being heard throughout last night.

The situation is such that the JMPD, with its comparatively limited Public Order Policing resources, cannot handle the situation alone and require the full and most decisive intervention of the SAPS.

Tensions in the area are escalating to the point where it is only a matter of time until someone is seriously hurt or killed.

I have personally spoken to the Office of the Provincial Commissioner, General Mawela, and have given the assurance of the full support of the City and the JMPD, while conveying the imperative that the SAPS take control of the situation with urgency.

I am fully sympathetic to the plight of those who have endured the legacy of landlessness and homelessness in our City. However, illegal land occupation and threatening the safety of other people and their property cannot be acceptable.

Those engaging in these forms of criminal activity must expect to face the fullest might of the law.

Issued by Luyanda Mfeka, Director: Mayoral Communications, Office of the Executive Mayor, 22 July 2019