Press Articles on Delft Evictions

http://www.thestar.co.za/?fSectionId=&fArticleId=vn20071221113050809C810648

Hundreds lay claim to Delft houses
21 December 2007, 17:18

By Natasha Prince and Mandla Mnyakama

Hundreds of Cape Town’s backyard dwellers, who say they have been waiting for promised housing for several years, are refusing to move from unfinished houses in the N2 Gateway project in Delft, which they are occupying illegally.

This week, groups of residents from Delft, Belhar, Elsies River and Bonteheuwel started moving into houses reserved for Joe Slovo residents who lost their informal homes in a Langa fire two years ago.

Frank Martin, a ward councillor for another section of Delft, was arrested on Thursday after a confrontation between police and those occupying the houses in New Symphony Way.

The new arrivals, who have been moving in since Wednesday, said that although the houses lacked doors, windows, running water or electricity, they were “good enough” for them.

They have already hung curtains on paneless windows and some have written their names and slogans such as “Los af” (Leave alone) on the outside walls.

Several people arrived ferrying their belongings on horse carts and brought bricks, ceilingboards, roof tiles, curtains or other material with which to secure the houses.

The angry new arrivals said they were frustrated with waiting for homes and upset that some people were receiving housing privileges which others were not.

“What we want is a 50/50 not a 70/30 deal in the allocation of the houses here,” said Nompumelelo Sigam.

All the people here, he said, had suffered as much as Joe Slovo shack fire victims. “At least they (fire victims) have got temporary houses, so they should also wait like anyone else,” said Sigam.

Meanwhile police spokesperson Inspector Bernadine Steyn confirmed Martin’s arrest at his Black Heath home on Thursday.

She said he was due to appear in the Bellville Magistrates’ Court on Friday on charges of violating a court order, fraud and enticing riotous behaviour.

Councillor Dirk Smit said on Thursday that Martin could also face disciplinary action if he was found to have contravened the councillors’ code of conduct.

This follows allegations by a housing company that wrote to the city saying he was encouraging people to illegally occupy the Delft houses.

Prince Xanthi Sigcau of Thubelisha, who deals with the N2 Gateway houses, said the contractors, Ibuyile, were responsible for the houses until they were handed over to Thubelisha. He said the contractors had taken the matter to police.

Vusi Tshose, spokesperson for Housing MEC Richard Dyanti, said the department was working with the City of Cape Town to ensure houses were given to the people to whom they had been allocated.

* This article was originally published on page 3 of The Cape Argus on December 21, 2007

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=124&art_id=vn20071221113050809C810648
Delft residents head to Cape court
24 December 2007

Several hundred people who have occupied homes at Delft on the Cape Flats are on their way to the Cape High Court in a bid to block their impending eviction, a spokesperson said.

Mzonke Poni, a co-ordinator of the Anti-Eviction Campaign, said the occupiers had been unable to secure an interdict at the Bellville Magistrate’s Court on Monday morning.

He said the evictions were based on a court order granted to Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu and developer Thubelisha Homes at the Bellville court in October last year.

However there was now no record of the order on the court files.

For this reason, he said, Monday’s magistrate had said he was unable to grant an interdict.

Speaking just after 1pm, Poni said he and the hundreds of residents who had demonstrated outside the court were now on their way by train to the High Court, where they would make another attempt to get an urgent interdict.

“We are going there as I’m talking,” he said.

Poni said the campaign was assisting more than 450 families, backyard dwellers from elsewhere in Delft, and Belhar, who moved into the incomplete homes last week.

The homes are meant to house the overflow from the N2 Gateway project, in which the Joe Slovo shantytown is being replaced by brick housing.

The High Court has reserved judgement on a bid by the Joe Slovo residents themselves to block their own looming forced removal to Delft. – Sapa

http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2243251,00.html

Delft evictions halted
24/12/2007 19:45 – (SA)

Cape Town – Hundreds of Cape Flats families will be spending Christmas in the Delft houses they have occupied, after the Cape High Court on Monday ordered a temporary halt to their eviction.

The order was made in chambers by Judge Deon Van Zyl at 17:00 as many of the families, with small children, waited anxiously outside the court.

Police and a private security company earlier in the day recommenced evicting families from the houses, which are earmarked for residents of the Joe Slovo informal settlement who cannot be accommodated there when the settlement is upgraded.

The application for an urgent interdict was brought on behalf of the families by the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign.

It was sought on the grounds that the evictions were being carried out illegally on the basis of an eviction order granted to the City of Cape Town on October last year, against other people.

Emerging from the court at 17:15 campaign chairperson Ashraf Cassiem was greeted with shouts of joy when he announced they had won a respite.

No more evictions till January 3

He said state-owned developer Thubelisha Homes, which is upgrading Joe Slovo as part of the N2 Gateway project, had asked Van Zyl for a fresh eviction order, but the Judge had refused it.

“The order is this,” he said. “As of today (Monday) 17:00, which is the time we agreed, there will be no evictions until we get back in court on the third of January, where the court will make a final decision.”

He said the order covered everyone who had signed a confirmatory affidavit for the court hearing.

Ward councillor for the Delft area Frank Martin said that people in backyard rooms, overcrowded homes or shacks in the Delft and Belhar areas had been on council waiting lists for an average 25 years.

“We’re sitting with elderly people, ages that range from 60 up to 83 years of age,” he said.

“All these years they’ve never been accommodated, they’ve never received a subsidy from government.”

In contrast, he said, there were “kids” of 18 years from Joe Slovo, without any dependants, who had been allocated new homes at Delft.

Many of the Joe Slovo residents had never appeared on a waiting list.

Martin was arrested last week for allegedly encouraging people to move into the new homes.

One of the occupants, a woman who did not want to be identified for fear of reprisals from the authorities, said her neighbours had called to tell her the police were evicting people.

“The police are removing our furniture, they’re tramping our doors open by force, removing all the people’s stuff outside the houses,” she said.

“They’re taking the stuff and go dump it somewhere else [sic]… they’ve got no right to tramp doors open and remove stuff without permission.”

The SA Police Service and the city metro police, plus a security firm, have been evicting people since last week.

Cassiem said about 700 families were represented in the application.

The High Court earlier this month reserved judgment on a bid by the Joe Slovo residents themselves to block their own looming forced removal to Delft.