Plato is lying – the shacks had been erected and people had moved in, with their furniture, when the City of Cape Town first illegally demolished them. Both the occupiers and a number of independent eyewitnesses are willing to attest to this under oath. Plato’s claim that the shelter’s were rudimentary is just irrelevant and his claim that they “did not constitute a home as per the constitution” is just wrong – PIE offers protection to anyone living in “any hut, shack, tent or similar structure or any other form of temporary or permanent dwelling or shelter.”

http://www.capeargus.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5003817

‘We removed people still erecting their shacks, so we didn’t need a court order’

May 28, 2009 Edition 1

Dan Plato

On May 19 a group of people unlawfully occupied a piece of land next to the N2 highway in Macassar which is owned by the Municipality of Cape Town and is being developed to provide 2 500 housing opportunities for people in the area, some of whom have been on the City of Cape Town’s housing list database for many years.

They erected rudimentary shelters which, before they could occupy them, were dismantled by the city’s Anti-Land Invasion Unit under the protection of the Metro Police and SAPS.

In justifying the land invasion and attacking the city’s response, Richard Pithouse of Rhodes University (“It’s the state that is flouting the law”, Cape Argus, May 27) accuses the city of “violent and in strict terms criminal behaviour … towards its most vulnerable citizens” and says that the SAPS and city officials involved, “… should be arrested for assault, intimidation, theft and demolition of shacks without an order of the court”.

On the contrary, the law provides no protection to people who seek to illegally invade land.

Furthermore, a court order is only required for the demolition of occupied shacks – in this case the structures which were dismantled were all still in the course of being erected and not occupied. The building materials of the unoccupied structures were moved offsite and stored so that the owners could reclaim them.

Pithouse seeks to invoke the constitution in defence of the land invasion, but fails to quote the relevant section: 26. Housing

1. Everyone has the right to have access to adequate housing.

2. The state must take reasonable legislative and other measures, within its available resources, to achieve the progressive realisation of this right.

3. No one may be evicted from their home, or have their home demolished, without an order of court made after considering all the relevant circumstances. No legislation may permit arbitrary evictions.

As indicated above, the shelters erected during the land invasion were not complete or occupied and thus do not constitute a home as per the constitution.

In his article, Pithouse does, however, correctly quote Professor Martin Legassick: “There is a backlog of some 400 000 homes, increasing by some 20 000 a year, but with a maximum of 8 000 houses a year being built.”

The financial assistance the City of Cape Town receives for housing from the state allows it to provide about 8 000 housing opportunities a year and, in compliance with the constitutional imperative cited above, 99.4 percent of this money (available resources), has been spent in the past 2008/09 state financial year.

Furthermore, in compliance with the constitutional imperative cited above of the “progressive realisation” of housing rights, the initial environmental surveys of the invaded land are being conducted, the project is on track and the first houses should become available early in 2012.

Pithouse, without providing any supporting evidence says: that “… there is no rational plan to steadily work through housing lists until everyone has a decent house”. He is welcome to examine the city’s database in this regard.

The 2 500 beneficiaries of this project will be drawn from a waiting list predicated on the principle that those who have been on the list the longest will be offered accommodation first.

It is ironic that Pithouse seeks to defend those whose illegal behaviour imperilled this housing project. To protect it, the city will seek a high court injunction against those intent on putting it at risk.

The city will not allow this land to be invaded as it will derail the project and delay access to housing for law abiding beneficiaries who have been on the city’s housing database for many years and have waited patiently during that time.

# Dan Plato is mayor of Cape Town.