The Marievale community were evicted from their homes in November 2017 last year. A military base in the area was home to around 600 people till 29 November 2017, when army personnel began evicting people without an eviction order. They were barred from entering their homes in November on the disused military base when soldiers entered their homes and forced them out. The community took them to court where an urgent interdict was granted preventing the evictions yet the soldiers still have their member’s at entrances preventing people from returning to their homes. Since then some families have erected informal settlements a few kilometers away called Happiness Village. The community are being prevented from building shacks and some of the shacks have been broken down by the South African National Defence Force - SANDF. The community was located on the border of a coal mine and is not guarded by the military who have dug a trench around the border lines of the base. Families and community leaders belonging to the Marievale Residents Associationhave allegedly repeatedly been threatened by the military since November 2017.