Durban - Msunduzi municipality officials have been accused by some community members of illegally selling plots of land in the Azalea cemetery in Pietermaritzburg.
Last week, the municipality’s land invasion unit demolished a number of houses that were built on top of graves, while families watched as the structures of their new homes turned into rubble.
The Azalea Cemetery is one of the oldest and largest grave sites in the city. Families have been burying their loved ones there since the early 80s.
With most graves not having tombstones, it could be mistaken for an open field. It has now come to light that those who had bought sites at the grave yard had paid between R20 000 and R40 000, but did not have proof of the transactions.
Some of them claimed to have bought the property from municipal officials and other well known people in the area.
The demolition last week came as a surprise to those who had started building their houses.
Ward councillor Themba Ngubane said the issue of land invasion was being handled by the municipality but no one was aware of the plan to demolish structures.
“There are a lot of people that have been affected and a lot of the community members are not happy with the invasion because of the graves of their loved ones.
“I am currently dealing with a number of cases, there is a community member who bought a site for R30 000 and buyers do not get their money back and this leads to violence,” he said.
Fana Sithole, chairperson of the Msunduzi municipality’s human settlements committee, said those who sold the land had done so illegally and were driven by greed.
Sithole said those who bought the land were defrauded.
He said to resolve the issue the buyers needed to reveal who sold the land to them so that the municipality could take legal action.
He admitted to having met some of those accused of the illegal sale. He said a number of meetings were held with members of the community and they were told not to build on top of the graves.
“I have met about three sellers and they all know that they are now in trouble since the houses have been demolished.
“We found out that some sites were sold to more than one buyer, and in other cases the same sites were sold by different sellers to different buyers, which has caused conflict. People were greedy when selling these sites without title deeds,” he said.
Sithole said most cases were difficult to deal with as the buyers had no proof of the sale, just fraudulent letters authorising them to use the land.
“We are in a corner because there is no proof of some transactions. In some cases we know the sellers but there is no proof.
“Buyers were too comfortable until the municipality demolished the houses. I suspect that the seller of the demolished houses is long gone, because he won’t pay back the money paid for the site,” he said.
Besides homes being built on top of graves, some community members have built on adjacent municipal land. A prominent Pietermaritzburg businessman's mansion is also among the homes built illegally.
“A number of houses are at risk because they have chosen to build on this land.
“No one knows the municipality’s plans and these houses could also be demolished as more burial land is needed,” Sithole said.
Ntobeko Mkhize, municipal spokesperson said Msunduzi became aware of the land invasion in 2018 and that the Municipality engaged with the community on numerous occasions.
However their attempts did not yield any positive results as the community continued building in between graves and even on top of them.
“This became a concern even for the families of those resting at Azalea Cemetery and in 2016 the Municipality established the Anti Land Invasion Unit as the scourge of land invasion was increasing at a high speed,”she said. “The unit will continue to monitor this and other areas and will respond and act without hesitation by removing illegal structures that keep on mushrooming on Council land.
She urged community members to stop building on land not allocated to them and to be vigilant of fake agents.
“There is a land management unit that will assist with information on site available and process to process. We advise those who had bought sites to report the matter to the SAPS so that if there are illegal property agents they will be dealt with.”
SUNDAY TRIBUNE