Rapitsi told Sowetan that he was devastated and didn't know how to move forward.
"I can't even explain how I am feeling right now ... I have nothing and no one to lean on. I've been sleeping in my car.
"I am afraid to leave my yard because people have already started looting the belongings of other people's demolished homes. I can't leave something I invested so much in," he said.
Another resident, Tshephang Modiba, said she rented a shack and saved money for five years to build her own home. She said her sister and brother-in-law also helped her with funds. Modiba, a farmworker, said she spent R55,000 building the house that has been demolished. She and her two children, aged 10 and 13, are homeless and squatting with other farmworkers.
"I don't even know where to start or where to go," the 38-year-old woman said. "My sister offered us to stay with her and her husband in Polokwane until we are back on our feet, but that is too far from work and school for my children.
"I work on an avocado farm in Tzaneen and for me to leave and go live in Polokwane with my sister doesn't make sense. I don't have anywhere to go with my daughters. What am I supposed to do?" she asked.
The battle over the land ownership where the houses were built dates back to 2022 when the municipality obtained an order to demolish houses it said were on its land.
Chief Mogale Mokgolobotho, the tribal leader at the centre of the dispute over allocation of the land to the community, has previously interdicted the municipality from demolishing the houses. He had argued that the land belongs to the Mokgolobotho tribe and the municipality had erroneously identified it as belonging to government.
On August 29, however, the Polokwane high court upheld the 2022 order, which gave the municipality permission to demolish 65 houses, 58 fenced-off stands with poles and wire, as well as 37 shacks.
Chief Mokgolobotho has approached the court following demolitions, seeking compensation for the destroyed properties.