Category Archives: Francis Hweshe

West Cape News: Mayor called to intervene in housing corruption

This article was also published in The New Age.

http://westcapenews.com/?p=4652

Mayor called to intervene in housing corruption

by Francis Hweshe

Cape Town Mayor Patricia De Lille has been requested to intervene in the alleged ongoing corruption at the Temporary Relocation Area (TRA) in Langa.

Housing activists there have alleged that community leaders in Langa are illegally selling houses set aside for people from Joe Slovo informal settlement who are being moved to make way for new housing developments in the area.

The TRA dwellings are allegedly being sold for prices in the region of R2 500.

The allegations were raised after Thandeka Ngcelwa, an epilepsy sufferer who was officially allocated a TRA house, returned home on Friday 13 July to find the lock on her door replaced and all her belongings on the street.

Housing and anti-eviction organisation Abahlali baseMjondolo alleged that community leader Zukisani Sibunzi had moved someone else into Ngcelwa’s house, an allegation Sibunzi has denied.

Today Ngcelwa had still not got her house back and is staying at her brother’s house.

Abahlali baseMjondolo on Monday sent a letter to De Lille, requesting that she visit the Langa TRA where there was a “crisis of corruption and misallocation of government built shacks”.

“Rightful residents are being evicted (such as in the case of Thandeka Ngcelwane) and political party connected individuals are being allocated multiple shacks and RDP houses in the N2 Gateway project,” the organisation claimed.

The organisation has threatened to take “alternative action” if De Lille does not respond to the letter within seven days.

Abahlali baseMjondolo activist Cindy Ketani said the operations manager of the Housing Development Agency (HDA) implementing the housing project, Bosco Khoza, on Monday sent letters to people illegally occupying TRA houses notifying them they would be evicted in seven days.

But she says she suspects the HDA of protecting corrupt community leaders who continue to misallocate houses.

She said a woman had approached her recently to confess she had bought a house for R2 500 from community leaders but had not received it and had now been given her money back.

She was also concerned that people who were rightfully occupying TRA houses received letters notifying them of impending eviction.

Khoza could not be reached for comment.

De Lille’s spokesperson Solly Malatsi said the Mayor had received Abahlali baseMjondolo’s letter and would “apply her mind” before responding.

Asked if she would go out and meet with the people, he said that he would not want to pre-empt her response. – Francis Hweshe

West Cape News: Allegations of corruption at Langa Temporary Relocation Area

This story is also in The New Age.

http://westcapenews.com/?p=4599

Allegations of corruption at Langa Temporary Relocation Area

Barely three weeks since being allocated a temporary house in Langa, Thandeka Ngcelwane, 28, returned to her shack on Saturday evening to find someone else living in it.

The lock she had put on the door had been broken and her belongings were out on the street. The woman who had taken her place claimed to be the new owner and refused to move out.

Ngcelwane, who was a victim of the 2005 fire that displaced hundreds of people living in Langa’s Joe Slovo informal settlement at the time, said she had proof from the Housing Development Agency (HDA) that the shelter in the Langa Temporary Relocation Area (TRA) had been allocated to her and she had moved in on June 29.

She said she had been allocated the one-room wood structure as her shack in Joe Slovo had to be demolished to make way for a new housing development.

Her story has drawn sympathy from the Abahlali BaseMjondolo housing lobby group as she suffers from epilepsy and has frequent seizures.

She said she had approached the Langa Police in the hope of laying a charge of housebreaking and malicious damage to property but the officer on duty refused to open a case, saying it was a matter for community leaders to resolve.

“I suffer from high blood pressure and a headache…this is really affecting me,” she said, indicating that the HDA had on Monday promised her she would get her house back.

The Langa branch of Abahlali BaseMjondolo alleges that the TRA committee head Zukisani Sibunzi was the one responsible for placing someone else in Ngcelwane’s house.

In a statement, the lobby group also claimed that Ngcelwane’s case was not isolated and that “large numbers” of occupied TRA houses were being sold by community leaders to other people for about R3000 each.

It said that some “beautiful” women were even “subsidising” payment for the houses by providing sexual favours to the leaders.

When contacted by West Cape News today, Sibunzi denied any knowledge of Ngcelwane’s case.

However, when pressed, he promised that the she would get her house back by the end of the day following a community meeting.

“I promise she will get it back,” he said, adding that if there were corrupt people in the community, evidence should be produced and legal action taken.

“I have heard about the corruption in the media, I need proof,” he said, adding that cases of house invasions were common.

The new occupant of Ngcelwane’s house was not at home today and could not be reached for comment.

Langa station commander Cnl. Vuyisile Ncata said he was not at the station on Saturday when Ngcelwane was believed to have tried to open a case.

However, he said on the face of it a case should be opened and she could approach him in order to lay a charge. – Francis Hweshe

Sowetan: Poor need city housing

http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/2010/10/13/poor-need-city-housing

Poor need city housing

HOUSING experts and civil society groups have slammed the government over the lack of low-cost housing in city centres.

The poor have to endure “sweat, beatings, arrests, lies, water cannon, live ammunition and even death” to get well-located land for housing, said Abahlali Base Mjondolo president Sbu Zikode, a panelist at a high-profile conference dubbed “Re-imagining the city: New urban order” being held in Cape Town this week.

The three-day conference, organised by the Development Action Group (DAG), brought together 40 international and local experts on urban land management and civil society organisations.

Zikode said: “It is nice to imagine a city where no one lives like a pig in the mud; where everyone is safe from fires, abuse, police raids, disconnections, evictions and political attacks.

“But land and housing are the most urgent problems in our cities and there is serious difficulty in resolving issues.

“This discussion can only begin once those who do not count begin to count. We decided long ago not to accept a situation in which some people talk about the poor and even for the poor without ever speaking to the poor.”

Zikode said while the work of intellectuals, town planners, engineers, architects and related professionals was critical, they had to work with the poor in mind.

DAG chief executive Kailash Bhama said: “The last two weeks in Cape Town have been unsettling for all South Africans, rich and poor.

“We have been painfully reminded by the unrest in the settlement of Hangberg … that land and its location . is important in the delivery of low-cost housing.

“But in South Africa the majority of low-cost housing is located on the fringes of cities where land is cheaper.

“This perpetuates urban sprawl, weakens the fragile livelihoods of the poor and entrenches inequality.”

Sowetan: Shack dwellers say no to eviction

http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/2010/09/23/shack-dwellers-say-no-to-eviction

23-Sep-2010 | Francis Hweshe
Sun Sep 26 23:46:01 SAST 2010

Shack dwellers say no to eviction

ANGRY Hangberg residents in Hout Bay have accused Premier Helen Zille of declaring martial law and using brute force to try and evict them from the land.

* Cosatu rallies behind ‘squatters’

Hangberg , which is on the slopes of Sentinel mountain, looked like a war zone yesterday, with hundreds of armed police camping around the area.

Community members, mostly fishermen, said they could not go out to the sea since they feared police harassment.

They complained that children had been traumatised after witnessing law-enforcement officers bring down 17 shacks using electric chain saws.

Fifteen police officers and five residents were injured when clashes broke out on Tuesday.

A resident, John Doe, said: “It’s martial law. The police don’t want us to walk around. They were stopping buses and taxis in the morning.

“We now cannot walk freely. We don’t know what is coming next. People don’t know what to do. They are afraid to go to work.

“We have to catch fish to earn a living but now we can’t. On Tuesday we fought with police to protect our houses for six hard hours. We are still prepared to die for our land, it’s our heritage.”

Kevin Davids, a community leader, said his people refused to be removed to Blikkiesdorp, “which is like a Vietnam concentration camp”.

He said they were ready to protect their homes, after the city had applied for a court order to demolish 54 occupied shacks.

Davids accused Zille of being arrogant by trying to evict people without offering them an alternative.

“We are asking Zille to come back here with a solution and not a problem. We belong here. We are going to die here. This is our home,” he said.

Davids said in August last year they had prevented the Sentinel mountain from being auctioned to some of the richest people in the world.

“We heard that Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey wanted to buy our land and protested.

“Hellen Zille is bringing war to us. Our people are not violent, they don’t have guns. We are a peaceful community,” Davids said.

Doe, who took Sowetan deep into the community, said the heavy police presence was creating the impression that “we are inbred, barbaric and don’t have brains”.

The city said the shacks they destroyed had encroached on the firebreak area and nature reserve.

“We have been here for 20 years. They (city) want to take this place because it is prime land and offers the best view of Hout Bay harbour,” Doe said.

Meanwhile, Sapa reports that charges of public violence against 40 of the 58 Hangberg, Hout Bay, residents were withdrawn in the Wynberg magistrate’s court yesterday.

Seventeen other residents were released on warning, while one was discharged because he could not be linked to the alleged crime, Warrant Officer Tanya Lesch said.

Cosatu in the Western Cape described the arrest of the residents as a “war against poor people by the DA”.

But, DA-run City of Cape Town spokesperson Kylie Hatton insisted that all the shacks that were demolished had no people living in them.

Sowetan: Shack dwellers threaten to go on strike for a week

http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/2010/09/15/shack-dwellers-threaten-to-go-on-strike-for-a-week

Shack dwellers threaten to go on strike for a week
15-Sep-2010 | Francis Hweshe |

SHACK dwellers are planning a week-long national strike to highlight their “appalling living conditions”.

“If public workers have done it because they are underpaid, surely we also can do it”

The strike will begin in two weeks’ time if Minister of Human Settlements Tokyo Sexwale and Western Cape housing MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela do not respond to a list of grievances by housing lobby group Abahlali BaseMjondolo (ABM).

The shack dwellers told Sowetan they would hand the memorandum to Sexwale and Madikizela today.

“If they fail to respond, people will take to the streets nationwide and create chaos to expose the failures of the Ministry of Human Settlements to provide decent housing,” ABM Western Cape chairperson Mzonke Poni said.

Poni said all informal settlements across the country would take part in the protest action, which would also involve the Landless People’s Movement, Eastern Cape-based Unemployed People’s Movement and students from various universities.

Part of the week-long strike will culminate in a march on Parliament.

“In our view there is no other way to expose the failures of the government except by taking to the streets,” Poni said.

“They really need to be pushed. If public workers have done it because they are underpaid, surely we also can do it.

“We want to create chaos.

“Our living conditions are appalling. We are affected by floods in winter and fires in summers.

“I thought after the 1994 elections things would change but nothing has changed,” he said.

The housing backlog in the Western Cape is about 500,000 yet the government only builds about 18,000 houses a year, Poni said.

Madikizela’s spokesperson, Zalisile Mbali, warned that the protest must not turn violent.

He denied that the Western Cape government would never manage to build houses for everyone.

“We can only assist about 16,000 households a year with a house on a serviced site,” Mbali said.

“We must increase the families we assist to enhance their living conditions every year by increasing the provision of serviced sites.

“This we can do by upgrading informal settlements and developing serviced sites on green fields projects.”