ANC cadres in nasty fight over flat

Two Joburg ANC leaders are embroiled in a spiteful dispute over the ownership of a flat.

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Johannesburg - Two Joburg ANC leaders are embroiled in a spiteful dispute over the ownership of a flat – in what is the latest incident highlighting the ongoing problem of hijacked buildings in the city.

George Lebone, a community activist and ANC veteran, has accused Vusi Mhlongo, the ANC chairman of Ward 67, which includes Yeoville, of frustrating his attempts to occupy the flat that he (Lebone) legally owns.

Mhlongo has allegedly hijacked the flat and uses it to house homeless artists.

Lebone, 68, said he was gifted the flat in 2013 – and a title deed search conducted by The Star shows that he is the legal owner.

He told The Star that the flat was already occupied illegally when it was given to him, but that he was confident that he could convince the occupants to move out as they were fellow ANC members.

But this didn’t happen, and Lebone, who suffers from cardiac problems and related ailments, hasn’t been able to move in.

“Vusi has been sending me threatening SMSes. He has been intimidating me, (saying) he’ll deal with me. He called a me an ‘askari’ (and said) I’m conniving with the settlers and colonisers in stealing from blacks,” Lebone said.

But an angry Mhlongo dismissed these allegations as a smear campaign and accused Lebone of being used by a white community leader in an attempt to get black people removed from the area.

He also accused The Star of being part of this plot.

“The agenda of The Star is about white domination… Your agenda is to see black people taken out of town. You want to use The Star to represent thugs,” he said.

Mhlongo also claimed that the flat he is staying in isn’t the one owned by Lebone as its number doesn’t correspond with the number in the title deeds.

The Star’s investigation revealed that the block of flats has 13 units, numbered from 1 to 13. According to the title deeds, Lebone’s flat is unit 13.

But

Mhlongo claims his flat is in fact unit 12 and not 13, and that Lebone and his friends have colluded with the deeds office to manipulate the title deeds.

Diane Stuart, the former owner of Lebone’s flat, insists that the flat in which Mhlongo is now living was the one she gifted to Lebone.

“That’s the flat we bought. It doesn’t matter what the flat is numbered; that floor space is the one that George bought,” she told The Star.

Stuart says she moved out of the flat in 1995 and rented it out through an agent. A few years later, it was occupied illegally.

“When we did pay the bond off, we transferred it into George’s name. It was under the understanding that he would have to get Vusi out. He didn’t seem to think it would be an issue for him.”

Mhlongo says he’s a target because he has been the only one who has challenged Lebone and his white friend, who he claims are in fact the ones who are building hijackers.

“You are advancing an agenda of a white man who wants to turn Yeoville into his little white colony. Black people have to be victimised because they don’t have access to resources and the newspapers. I’ve never been a thug in my life.”

Mhlongo said he was housing about 20 homeless artists in the flat and that at one stage he had around 45 people staying with him.

Veteran actor and playwright Sol Rachilo, 85, is one of the people living in the flat with Mhlongo.

Lebone said he had approached police for help and they had referred him to the anti-hijacking squad, which in turn told him to approach a lawyer, “who wrote him a letter, giving him 30 days to evacuate, and since then he sent me another threatening SMS,” said Lebone. The Star has seen the letter, which Mhlongo laughed off as a fake.

 

Jolidee Matongo, the spokesman for the Gauteng ANC, said he wasn’t aware of Mhlongo’s living situation, but that the organisation did not condone the illegal occupation of properties.

gabi.falanga@inl.co.za

@Gabi_Falanga

The Star