A retired Lenasia businessman has claimed the City of Johannesburg is stealing his land.
Horilal Ajodha said city officials are refusing to pay him R450-million in compensation for his nine hectares in Lenasia, Johannesburg south.
Adjodha said in 2016, the city agreed it would either start making payments or remove the families living there but that hasn't happened and the matter has gone to the Public Protector.
"They never expropriated my land, they stole it, its my land, they don't want to pay, they don't want to do anything, they leave 600 people to live like this," Adjodha said.
Some homes have already been built on the land with Adjodha describing it as a battle that has gone back many years as promises were made but never honoured.
"If the city was worried, they should have implemented the relocation plan in 2016 already. They said I was going to have an empty ground here, but they never did anything, they said ok we are not going to pay but we are going to give you back your land and pay you for damages, that has never happened, till today they never paid a cent for rental for 24 years, 24 years of my life," Adjodha said.
Community leaders said there have been at least seven different people claiming to be the owners.
"The feeling of the people of this place is that they own this land because they have lived here for many years, said Zolani Fololo, a community leader.
"There is no way that these people can be moved from (this) place to another undeveloped place.
"Our councillor has told us that this is a private land, but our biggest fear is to be evicted." City officials refuse to comment and the MMC for Human Settlements was unavailable.
However, in an internal report compiled in March, officials stated that the demand for R450-million was unreasonable and again said they plan to relocate the community.
They even accused the 64-year-old of encouraging people to move onto the land.
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