The leaders of a Delft church who paid R200 000 for a property on auction from the City of Cape Town say worshipping has been stumped after the land was hijacked by squatters.
The Elected in Christ Church bought the piece of land in Eindhoven on 16 October 2019 for R200 000 with the intention of building a new church and setting up a feeding scheme and a training centre with free courses for the community.
However, church secretary, Shirley de Bruin, says during Covid-19, mense moved onto the property while it was still in the City's possession.
She explains: “When we bought the land there were no shacks. When the process started, that was when the pandemic hit, which caused the process to be delayed.
“When we saw there were two shacks, we informed Law Enforcement immediately and this was before the land was even on the church's name.
“They assured us that they would remove the occupants but they never did. The transaction only went through in 2021 and by that time there were hundreds of shacks on our property.
“We are currently having church in someone else's yard in Kuils River where we had to set up a structure and we need to pay rent but we have land.
“We have reached out to the City of Cape Town, JP Smith and the Mayor in regard to this but they are saying it is a private matter but when the people came to squat the property was in the City's name.”
She says the church was given another low blow after they paid over R20K to an alleged bogus lawyer to sort out the matter.
“We were given a case number and stamped documents but when we did our own investigation we found out that the case number does not exist and that the case was never reported or at court. He just wanted our money.
First lady of Elected in Christ, Cynthia Taylor, says the church gets a municipal bill of about R300 every month while the squatters have kapped vas.
Taylor adds: “We can't put our foot on our property. We tried to speak to them and got chased away, they say it is the City's property.
“Me and my husband had to sell our house to put up the money to buy the land. We are not happy, we feel the City made their problem our problem.”
As the Daily Voice drove past the piece of land with Taylor and De Bruin, one of the occupants was heard shouting, ‘there is that woman who says this is her property.'
According to the church members the piece of land has become a hotspot for crime.
Three men were shot and killed on the property last Sunday including a 14-year-old who was shot in the leg.
City spokesperson, Luthando Tyhalibongo says their Sale Agreement with the church stipulates “that should any eviction order be required to be effected, the church would undertake to obtain such order at its own costs”.
Tyhalibongo says: “Despite having sympathy for the church's position it found itself in, the City acted within its rights and the church did not attempt to, nor elect to cancel the sale prior to the registration of transfer.”