Open Letter: ‘Langa housing projects a mess of corruption and mismanagement’

'Langa housing projects a mess of corruption and mismanagement'

To MEC for Human Settlements, Bonginkosi Madikiza
To Operations Manager of the N2 Gateway project for HDA, Bosco Khoza
To Cape Town Mayor, Patricia de Lille

Attached you will find a letter from the provincial executive of Abahlali baseMjondolo detailing some of our concerns and grievances. The situation in Langa is a ticking time-bomb. We hope that you will come meet with us as soon as possible to address them rather than pass the buck to someone else.

Forward with the struggle of the poor, forward!

Thembelani Maqwazima (AbM General Secretary) @ 0712604119

Cindy Ketani (AbM, Langa TRA) @ 0760866690
Mtobeli Qona (AbM, QQ Section) @ 0713518483

Langa housing projects a mess of corruption and mismanagement
An open letter to N2 Gateway boss Bosco Khoza, MEC Madikizela and Mayor de Lille

12 August 2012

To MEC for Human Settlements, Bonginkosi Madikiza
To Operations Manager of the N2 Gateway project for HDA, Bosco Khoza
To Cape Town Mayor, Patricia de Lille

This letter has been written by the provincial executive of Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement, South Africa. As poor people living in informal settlements throughout Cape Town, we have many severe grievances regarding our living conditions, lack of consultation in service delivery and corruption taking place in our poor communities.

We are grateful that the Mayor responded to our previous letter. As requested by the Mayor, we are directing this letter to the Housing Development Agency and to the provincial Department of Human Settlements. However, the Mayor's presence is, nonetheless, still required as many of the issues are in the Mayor's hands to resolve. This will be explained below.

As leaders of Abahlali baseMjondolo Western Cape, a social movement representing shackdwellers, we have followed all the required government channels trying to have these grievances resolved – from sanitation, to toilets, to housing allocation, to lack of electricity, to evictions. However, we have never had our issues adequately engaged with and very rarely have even received even a response from government officials.

Hence, our movement has decided to take the initiative to write to the head of the N2 Gateway housing project, Mr Bosco Khoza of the HDA, the MEC for Human Settlements, Mr Bonginkosi Madikizela, and the the Mayor of the City of Cape Town, Patricia de Lille.

Once again, we request that all three officials personally come down to our communities and address us directly.

In Langa Temporary Relocation Area (Intersite), as we have previously informed you, there is a crisis of corruption and misallocation of government built shacks. Rightful residents are being evicted (such as in the documented case of Thandeka Ngcelwane who till this day remains homeless) and political party connected individuals are being allocated multiple shacks and RDP homes in the N2 Gateway project. This issue is not limited to the Langa Intersite. The residents of Joe Slovo informal settlement are also not happy about the allocation process. Intersite and Joe Slovo residents were promised that they would be allocated housing by the 8th of August 2012, but that has still not been achieved and, instead, unknown persons are being allocated houses.

We therefore request that the HDA and Department of Human Settlements immediately place a moratorium on all housing and TRA allocations until the relevant officials account to the residents of Langa who are affected by the N2 Gateway project.

Furthermore, there is an enormous problem within the leadership of the Intersite. The steering committee of the Intersite has already lost favour amongst residents of the relocation area and has now recently been chased away by residents of Joe Slovo who are also unsatisfied with the housing allocation process.

We also request that the Mayor meet with us and answer questions about the future of the informal settlement in Langa adjacent to the Intersite and Vanguard Drive (dubbed Kosovo) which does not fall under the N2 Gateway project. What is the plan with this community in which our members complain about the horrible conditions and non-existent service delivery? It is the responsibility of the City to consult with this settlement and provide services such as sanitation, toilets, etc.

Furthermore, the Mayor is requested to meet with Abahlali baseMjondolo regarding general issues of lack of services and lack of consultation. Informal settlements in which Abahlali have members which are negatively affected by the City's failures to provide services include but are not limited to: QQ Section, TR Section, UT Section, VT Section, VE Section, and Kosovo (Langa).

It is the responsibility of Human Settlements and the HDA to immediately address these issues we have raised about the N2 Gateway. It is the responsibility of the Mayor to address the issues of other shackdwellers in Langa and the service delivery issues of Abahlali baseMjonodolo settlements as a whole.

We expect your visit within the coming month. We expect you to respond within seven days with a timely date in which we can meet.

If you do not attend to our grievances personally, we will decide collectively on what alternative action we should take to have our voices heard and our grievances address.

Yours in the struggle of the poor,

Thembelani Maqwazima (AbM General Secretary) @ 0712604119
Cindy Ketani (AbM, Langa TRA) @ 0760866690
Mtobeli Qona (AbM, QQ Section) @ 0713518483