The Law Enforcement Land Invasion Unit foiled the attempt of a group of residents to occupy the Lentegeur Sports Field on Sunday 22 October.
This was followed by the arrest of two protestors and the continued protest action with more than 100 people at the Lentegeur Subcouncil offices yesterday (23 October) and the blocking of the roads in Montrose Park earlier.
The action was initiated by G4 Development.
At around 11:00 on Sunday, Ward 76 councillor Avron Plaatjes was alerted to the attempted land grab and investigated the matter himself.
“I vehemently reject this land invasion at Lentegeur Sports Field. This field is due for upgrade and so many sporting codes from Lentegeur have been waiting for this moment.
“Nothing will derail us from our mission to rehabilitate Lentegeur Sports Field. We are on high alert for the invaders. I want to thank the community of Lentegeur for standing up to this land invasion,” says Plaatjies.
Around 70 residents, linked to G4 Development, had occupied the field, pegging out parcels of land.
Riaan Koeberg, G4 Development chair, says: “We are not going to stop. We are going bigger. We have a big housing crisis in Mitchell’s Plain. We have 150 members now, but next week we will have 20 000.”
According to the report, no structures were identified or erected during the invasion.
Around 20 plots were marked and pegged out using danger tape. This was removed by officials.
No building materials were on site and no injuries were sustained.
