9 December 2011
Abahlali baseMjondolo of the Western Cape Press Statement

AGM and Campaign Against TRAs

Tomorrow Abahlali baseMjondolo of the Western Cape will hold our third annual general meeting and, at the same time, we will launch a campaign against the TRAs. The meeting will run from 11 till 2 at the Langa TRAs in Zone 27, Langa.

TRAs, known as transit camps in Durban and decant areas in Johannesburg, are unfit for human habitation. Our movement has always rejected them as inhuman and tomorrow residents of TRAs from around Cape Town will meet to speak out about their living conditions and against the TRAs. The corruption in the Langa TRAs will be noted and it will also be noted that people are always told that these places are 'temporary' but some people have been living in them for seven years now.

Mayor Patricia de Lille has been invited to attend our meeting and to clarify the meaning of the word 'temporary' to the residents of the TRAs and to explain what plans the City has for these people. Mayor de Lille has been invited in advance but she always runs away from meaningful engagement with us. She only wants stage managed PR events. We strongly suspect that she will not take this opportunity to meet with people that have been condemned to live in TRAs in Cape Town.

Our demand is that all people living in TRAs are given decent housing as an urgent priority. The TRAs are an insult to human dignity. They are human dumping grounds and we make no apology for militant hostility to them. Everyone has a right to a decent home.

We are totally shocked that 30 people in the Langa TRAs are now being threatened with eviction once again – this time to Blikkiesdorp. People should go from shacks to houses and not from shacks to one TRA and then another TRA. This is a rich city and yet people are being kept like animals. It is a disgrace.

For more details or comment please contact:

Cindy from the Langa TRAs: 076 866 690
Mr. Qona: 076 041 0057
Mzonke Poni: 073 256 2036