Eikenhof forced removal: Red Ants and police open fire on unarmed landless people

JOHANNESBURG, 26 JANUARY - ANC Joburg Regional Councillor Oupa Radebe, Joburg Metro Council “project manager for relocations” Buti Leisela and another unnamed official looked on gleefully as police and two large middle-aged white men in plain clothes employed by the notorious Red Ants (Wozani Security) opened fire for the second time without warning on hundreds of unarmed poor and landless residents of the Eikenhof informal settlement just before sunset today.

The three men grinned from ear to ear as an army of more than 50 Red Ants charged and opened fire, together with police, at Eikenhof residents resisting an illegal forced removal which the council began last night without so much as a court order. The latest attack was the second brutally random and sustained volley of rubber bullets fired into a crowd of residents, and followed the Council’s decision to renege on an agreement reached with the community moments earlier.

Crowds of shocked residents gathered at the main entrance to Eikenhof early Sunday morning after a surprise attack by the Red Ants at 8pm Saturday night ended with 50 shacks removed and two Landless People’s Movement comrades arrested for resisting the illegal removals. A first attempt by the Red Ants to re-invade the settlement this morning was repelled by the community, but the Red Ants then moved in through a back entrance. The community quickly gathered to resist this invasion too, but were forced to scatter when police and Red Ant gunmen fired more than 100 shots into the crowd. At least five people were injured during this attack, and a third comrade arrested.