S. African Squatters Rally Around Shack

The last of more than 2,000 squatters left a barren patch of land outside Johannesburg on Friday after authorities demolished all but one of their makeshift shacks.

A private security firm, backed by hundreds of armed police, fanned out across the former squatter camp for a second day, tearing down the dwellings.

As work crews approached the last shack, belonging to 83-year-old Puleng Elisa Lidimo, angry squatters surrounded the dwelling and vowed to save it.

A local church leader quickly intervened and persuaded authorities to leave the structure standing until today so that a retirement home could be found for Lidimo.

Lidimo’s shack had been the community’s church during the bitter standoff with the government, which refused to find another patch of land for the squatters.

“If this is what I get from my government for all the years I fought for democracy, it is pathetic,” squatter leader Lymon Sibisi told the South African Press Assn.

More than 2,000 people were enticed to the site when the Pan-Africanist Congress, an opposition party that champions the poor and landless, began “selling” the land in early June for about $3 a plot.

It was unclear what had become of the money, which PAC officials said was not for purchase of the land but to provide utilities.

Fearful that Zimbabwe-style lawlessness could spread here, the South African government obtained a court order Tuesday to evict the squatters.

Authorities arrested 110 people for trespassing last week; by the time the eviction and demolition began Thursday, most of the squatters had already left.

Political rivals have criticized the government for not helping the squatters find alternative homes or relieve their suffering in subzero temperatures.

The eviction has refocused political debate on the ability of the government seven years after general democracy to deliver basic housing and reform landownership, still heavily skewed in favor of the minority white population.