Afrikaner Fouché couple and handicapped son, 18 forced to sleep rough: their home is overrun by black squatters
2013-08-17 Glaudina, North West. (north of Wolmarandsstad). Rapport Afrikaans daily 's journalist Vania van der Heever writes that 42-year-old Afrikaner smallholder Mrs Monika Fouche, (pregnant with twins); her husband Karneels 39, and their mentally-handicapped son Morné, 18, are forced to sleep rough outside their legal home bcause it has been occupied by 'about' 25 black squatters.The journalist writes that while she was interviewing the family, the mentally-handicapped Kerneels suffered an epileptic seizure: with the blacks standing around laughing at him: and not offering any help. Dad Karneels Fouché had just been making coffee on a little outside fire when Morné suffered the attack.
Monica says the smallholding is the legal property of her mother-in-law Bertha Bothma, 59, who lives in Jacobsdal. She gave permission for her son and daughter-in-law to move to the humble cottage. So while they were packing up and moving, she'd asked her employer, a black man Dier Davids, 59, to keep an eye on the smallholding. Her husband Karneels had already painted the house in July and fixed it up, and also plowed the land for farming. However on Tuesday when the Fouché family arrived to move into the cottage,
they discovered that Dier Davids had moved a large number of squatters into it. He claims he 'owns and is the boss' of the land, providing no proof for his claim that he had 'paid a large amount of money to Mrs Bertha Bothma's ex-husband. Monika burst into tears when she told the journalist how they had arrived with their goods on Tuesdayy from Wolmaransstad to move in. "We were so excited. The fresh air and open spaces would do our son a great deal of good, the cottage had been painted, the land plowed,' she said.
However the cottage has now been occupied by 'Davids' friends and family.' Several families moved into the rooms and garage, and illegal electrical links hung like cobwebs from the house to the surrounding squatter shacks. Monika says she has called Eskom to turn off the electricity. "It's just by God's good grace that the cottage hasn't burned down yet', she said.
So meanwhile the Fouché family have no place to go: they have planted their furniture outside beneath the stars: Monika and Karneels sleep on their bed while their son sleeps in a small tent. The SAPS says they can't help us move the squatters out and prefer to send the homeless family to 'a place of safety'.
"The Fouché family chose to sleep outside like animals'...
Davids is adamant that it's the Fouché family's own fault they have to sleep outdoors. "We paid for this place. The Fouché family have no right to just move into my place and have chosen to sleep outside like animals,' he said.
SAPS sergeant Kealeboga Molale confirmed that they 'cannot get involved in civil cases such as evictions.' They first need a court order before the police can intervene.
A spokesman for the 'Department of Informal Settlements', Ben Bole also said they'd 'be investigating.
Meanwhile, the Fouché family is still sleeping outdoors in the cold highveld winter.
(Rapport failed to not interview the registered owner of the land, Mrs Bertha Bothma of Jacobsdal, nor the (now missing?) ex-husband who, claimed Dier Davids, had 'sold him the land'....)
http://www.rapport.co.za/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Gee-ons-huis-terug-20130817
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