Special Assignment this Thursday at 21:00 on SABC3 promises shocking, must-watch television as the weekly investigative magazine show turn the spotlight on Lenasia, the suburb south of Johannesburg to show South Africa the full, harrowing story of residents standing helpless as their homes are demolished by bulldozers in front of their eyes.
While South Africa's government ironically says the houses are being demolished to help the poor because the homes were built illegally on government land, terrified residents say they've been duped by cash-for-land scammers who sold the land to them and provided what seemed like legitimate documentation.
The scams turned out to be wide-ranging syndicates that include officials from the housing department, Johannesburg Water and the City of Johannesburg.
Special Assignment takes South Africa inside the dramatic scenes affecting the entire world of people who are suddenly losing everything they have. Two hundred houses are on the government's hit list in the first phase of demolitions.
Even an urgent court application by the Human Rights Commission to temporarily halt the controversial demolitions, did nothing to stop bulldozers from demolishing further homes yesterday, shocking ordinary South Africans in a country still struggling with a desperate housing shortage.
Bulldozers once again rolled into a different section of Lenasia on Monday and continued with more demolitions leaving shocked residents with nowhere to go.
Special Assignment looks at South Africa's massive housing crisis and how it affects a section of society that doesn't qualify for RDP homes but also don't eearn enough to qualify for bonds to formally enter the property market. These working class families have now lost everything.
Special Assignment will expose how these scams even stretch into the rental market and how in one instance, a "landlord" has built 10 properties on government land and is renting it out to tenants with apparently assistance from City Power, the Johannesburg Council and even the courts.
Special Assignment's "Cash-for-land Scam" is produced by Adel van Niekerk.
