AbM Western Cape – Demands Presented to Dan Plato on 21 July 2009

Click here for more pictures of the march by Sydelle Willow Smith, here for pictures from Independent Online, here for the report in the Cape Argus and here for the report in the Cape Times.

Update: Click here to read the Cape Town Municipality's response to the AbM Memorandum.

List of community demands
ABAHLALI BASEMJONDOLO OF THE WESTERN CAPE.

As people who are residing within the informal settlement we would like to bring the list of our demands to your attention for your immediate response. We are concerned with the conditions at which our people are living under off and with the city’s lack of proper intervention.We therefore demand that the city to look at conditions of each area and come up with relevant planning for each an every area. And to come up with a city wide housing planning for all people who are living at informal settlement and backyards. Further more we would like the city of cape town and its anti land invasion unit to adopt a different attitude than the one that they are carrying when it comes to the public land which is unused.

We demand response from your office within 14 days of receiving this memorandum and we want you to convey a meeting with all the relevant city officials and affected communities to further discuss these issue
ABM-WC contact details
abmwesterncape@abahlali.org
073 2562 036

QA
1. Residents of QA demand land.
2. Drains must be cleaned regularly
3. Street in between
4. Municipal waste collection
5. Clean Water
6. Adequate Toilets

VV,
VV informal settlement is more than 21 years old, and residents still does not have municipal essential services.
We therefore demands: Proper toilets, clean water, waste collection and we want to know what are cities future plans for VV informal settlement in terms of houses.
K. Mathiwane 072 512 4025

T.T.
We want the city to recognize the number of years that we have been staying here at Tt section, therefore we demand that this area be upgraded where it is, we don’t want to be housed elsewhere and we are saying to the city of Cate Town in the meant time people of tt must be provided by basic services.
Bulelani Cornelius Mfaco
078 350 3887-079 1104940

Demands for Q.Q SECTION

1. The city must stop fooling our people
2. We want to be relocated as the city promised us with relocation to Bardel Farm
3. We need time frames for relocation

MACASSAR VILLAGE evictees

As people of Macassar village we note with great concern that.
1. The city’s demolition of our structures that we have built to shelter our selves was illegal and the city acted in a manner in which was shocking to it’s residents.
2. The city’s stealing of our building material was out of the question, as a result of that, people at Macassar are homeless due to the city’s criminal act.
3. And we are saying Dan Plato must stop undermining people of Macassar village,
4. We therefore demand: our building material (that was stolen by the law enforcement) back as soon as possible
5. That the city must look for alternative accommodation nearby not to the dumping site, Delft TRA.
Andiswa Kolanisi 073 699 1839
Theliwe Macekiswana 083 248 1658
Nomsa Molongana 078 6872 292

MEMORANDUM FROM U.T SECTION EGADINI
1. There is a density of houses in such a way that when there is a fire, fire fighters has no access to do their job so we need streets in order to do that you must remove some residents and allocate them to a serviced land. Another reason we want street is that according to our culture when someone passed away we must take the coffin inside the house before we bury the corpse which is impossible in our area.
2. We need water taps that are strong enough to last long because the one that we have are common when they are broken we fix ourselves nobody is helping us, only four taps is serving four hundred households.
3. We need a tall lamp at the middle of the area so that the whole place can be brighter for our security from the criminals.
4. We also need a proper sanitation because when there are heavy rains the place is full of water.
5. We are the people of U.T Section Egadini we want to know that where do we go from here , Yes we do have light we want to know about the houses.

B. Gumata 072 6738486
M. Mpondo 082 5440 100
V. Ntontela 071 1136 764

W.A
WA informal settlement was established 1986 and the area is a home to 61 families, and does not have even a single toilet and we all depend at 1 water tap and the area is very dense
We therefore demand that if the city cant provide us with essential services because of the area in which we are situated at, then the city must provide us with alternative piece of land with all the basic services within Khayelitsha or nearby Khayelitsha
PHAMBILI NGABAHLALI BEMBACU, PHAMBILI. PHANTSI NGABANTU ABANGAFUNI KUSINIKA MHLABA, PHANTSI.
Ivy Mbotshelwa 083 8960 537
Luntu Mene 078064 7113

RR SECTION
ATTENTION
As RR we are saying people of this city must not only be recognized when it comes to the elections and neglected after them. Political parties must stop using the poor for their own benefits.
OUR DEMANDS:
1. Our houses are flooded because the area in which they are situated at is at flood prone area
2. We don’t have electricity
3. We are saying no to city’s chemical toilets, we demand proper toilet
4. We want to be relocated
Bobhala Thembelani
Secretary