Friday, 16 September 2011
Abahlali baseMjondolo of the Western Cape Press Statement

Eskom and the City of Cape Town in another Brutal Attack on the Poor

Yesterday Eskom and the City of Cape Town descended on RR Section in Khayelitsha with a heavy police presence. They removed safe insulated cables that people were running from shacks with legal electricity boxes into shacks without electricity. The people who were running the cables into their shacks were paying those with legal electricity to use their power. These negotiated connections between neighbours were not illegal. It is therefore the police, and Eskom and the City of Cape Town, who engaged in criminal actions (theft and assault) yesterday.

There has previously been a fire in this community which was caused by a candle. If the state does not provide electricity to people they have a right to negotiate with their neighbours to access electricity and keep their homes, families and community safe.

Four people were shot at during the raid yesterday and one person has been left with a broken arm. Four people were arrested and will appear at the Khayelitsha Magistrate’s court this afternoon.

The City of Cape Town says that it wants to engage shack dwellers but only if we attend their meetings on their terms and limit the conversation to a discussion on service delivery. Yet they are attacking us! They are attacking us from Khayelitsha to Mitchell’s Plain to Hangberg! People have been left maimed for life in these attacks. The City of Cape Town are not democrats. We are asking for open and free discussion and what we get is stage managed PR events on one side and police violence on the other side. They are trying to beat us into accepting our own oppression while they have business lunches with property developers.

We will not be silent about the war, the violent war, that the City of Cape is waging against the poor. They burst into our homes and communities beating and shooting and yet they call us violent. When we make our own arrangements to survive poverty, like negotiating to pay to use our neighbour’s electricity, or occupying land, they call us criminals.

Xoliswa Magazi 073 174 2425
Bulelani Somaza 078 510 4045
Mzonke Poni 073 2562 036