There was joy and happiness among a certain section of the community after a house belonging to a poor woman was demolished by a front-end loader. The demolition is believed to be part of an ongoing war over a residential site at Vyeboom in Vuwani.

The victim and owner of  the house was away in Gauteng at the time of the incident. She is an unemployed resident in the village, but from the savings she had put away through the years, she managed to build herself and her children a modest three-room house and a separate outside room.

Margareth Masenya (38) is, however,  homeless today after her house was bulldozed in what is said to be a war over the ownership of the site where she built her house.

The incident, which was also captured on video, happened on Wednesday, a week and a half ago. The damage is estimated at about R500 000.

It is alleged that the man who claims to be the owner of the site had the previous day brought a front-end loader to destroy the house, but the driver refused. “It was only the following day that another tractor was hired and we heard sounds of breaking glass. We saw this man who claims to be the owner, his wife, who had a ZCC badge on, and another man breaking all the windows,” said Brenda Singo (30), a neighbour and a friend to Masenya.

She further indicated that the man and his accomplices restrained neighbours from rescuing things from the house. “After destroying the house, they came back and had a braai to celebrate what had happened. We are still in shock. We have never seen something like this in our area,” she said

The owner, who was in Gauteng when it happened, said she was shocked and helpless. “The house was my everything. I saved for many years to build the house, but somebody who is heartless comes and destroys it in minutes. We had problems about the site, but the matter was being adjudicated at the tribal offices. But this (action) defied all, including the local traditional leader. I do not know what to do as I was left with what I am wearing now. What I want now is my house and nothing else,” she said.

Calvin Tshidumo of the local Vyeboom civic said the whole village was still in shock. “We heard about the incident and we rushed there to stop them, but they refused, saying he had a court order, which he did not produce. We are of the view that we could not stay with him as he is a problem. We tried finding out where he came from, but we could not get answers,” said Tshidumo.

Efforts to get comment from the man drew a blank as no one seems to know him in the area.

Vuwani police spokesperson W/O Elijah Malatjie confirmed the incident and said they had opened a malicious-damage-to-property case. “The suspects are known and it is only a matter of time before they are arrested,” he said.