Mukondeleli has built a four-roomed house where she lives with her family of four."We are not against the development of a tarred road but we need the municipality to get a site and build our houses as happened during the construction of the Nandoni Dam," Mukondeleli said yesterday. Acting head of the Manini area, Mpho Mmbi, said her late husband, the headman Enos Mmbi, and the Thulamela municipality had agreed on the tarred road.
But Mmbi said they were taken by surprise when the municipality decided to open the new road in the village instead of using the area agreed on with the late headman before his death in October 2009. "We need a tarred road and development in our area, but if the municipality is forcing eviction, it must compensate affected families," Mmbi said. Municipality spokesperson Nndwamato Tshiila said nothing would stop them from demolishing houses on the earmarked road.
"No compensation has been allocated for those families because that place was proclaimed as a municipal place in 1982. As the municipality we can give them new stands and agree how they are going to pay for those stands," Tshiila said. Limpopo Road Agency spokesperson Maropeng Manyathela said the agency has not building the tarred road at Manini near Thohoyandou Stadium. It was a Thulamela municipality project. Cope member of the provincial legislature, Tshilidzi Ravhuanzwo, said people had the right to be compensated when they are relocated from their original homes.