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Cape Town – Investigative magazine show Special Assignment promises shocking, must-watch television on Thursday at 21:00 on SABC3 as the show turns 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.
Scenes of bulldozers flattening houses as terrified residents try to protect their homes have shocked the world.
While South Africa's government 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.
Special Assignment takes South Africa inside the dramatic scenes 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.
Bulldozers continue to flatten houses
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 on Monday, shocking ordinary South Africans in a country still struggling with a desperate housing shortage.
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 doesn't earn enough to qualify for bonds to formally enter the property market.
Special Assignment plans to 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 alleged assistance from City Power, the Johannesburg Council and even the courts.
Special Assignment's "Cash-for-land Scam" is produced by Adel van Niekerk.
Scenes of bulldozers flattening houses as terrified residents try to protect their homes have shocked the world.
While South Africa's government 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.
Special Assignment takes South Africa inside the dramatic scenes 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.
Bulldozers continue to flatten houses
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 on Monday, shocking ordinary South Africans in a country still struggling with a desperate housing shortage.
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 doesn't earn enough to qualify for bonds to formally enter the property market.
Special Assignment plans to 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 alleged assistance from City Power, the Johannesburg Council and even the courts.
Special Assignment's "Cash-for-land Scam" is produced by Adel van Niekerk.
