Three bulldozers waited on the street next to her house, escorted by three police Nyalas (armoured vehicles) and other police vehicles.

The woman, carrying a small child, was refusing to leave the incomplete house so police went in and dragged her out.

Her neighbour ran over and tried to stop the bulldozer. She stood in front of it, pressing her hands against it to prevent it from going forward.

The other woman cried: “Please, please, please, don’t do it”.

The house is one of 113 houses in the area which the Gauteng department of housing has said are illegally built on land intended for government houses.

“Investigations by the department’s anti-fraud and corruption unit revealed that fraudsters sold several stands (for amounts) ranging from R2 500 to R95 000, and issued buyers with fraudulent deeds of sale which bore the department’s official logo,” it said in a statement.

Thirty-seven houses were destroyed yesterday.

Spokesman Motsamai Motlhaolwa said the owners would not be compensated for their losses.

Realising she could not hold off the bulldozer, the woman moved away, taking her crying neighbour’s child from her as she was being pulled from the building.

While she was trying to comfort the woman, the bulldozer hit one of the house’s walls and it fell with a heavy thud.

Soon, the house has been completely demolished and the bulldozer moved to the next one.

Earlier, residents in Lenasia Extension 13 barricaded roads and set tyres on fire in protest against the demolition, said Warrant Officer Kay Makhubela.