Category Archives: symphony way

Cape Argus: ‘We won’t go to Blikkiesdorp’

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http://www.capeargus.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5195070

‘We won’t go to Blikkiesdorp’

Symphony Way safer, say residents

FATIMA SCHROEDER and KOWTHAR SOLOMONS Staff Reporters

THE CONTROVERSIAL pavement-dwellers in Symphony Way in Delft got their marching orders from the Cape High Court, which ordered them to relocate to temporary accommodation in Blikkiesdorp.

However, the residents say that while they are willing to move, they will not move to “that dump”.The order, which affects more than 100 families, gives them until next Thursday to “engage meaningfully” with the City of Cape Town on the dates of the relocation, and to set up a timetable for the relocation process.

Should they reach an agreement, the parties were also ordered to return to court on October 19 to have it made an order of court.

However, if they do not reach an agreement the court will order that the families vacate he area in four groups, starting on October 19 and ending on November 6.

Acting Judge Jake Moloi ordered that their temporary accommodation at Blikkiesdorp should be at least 18m178, individually numbered, have walls and a roof constructed of galvanised iron sheeting, have prepaid electricity meters, be close to ablution facilities and toilets, and have taps with fresh water.

The City also had to engage the affected residents one week before each relocation, and assist with the move.

The court also interdicted the residents from returning to the property once they had been relocated.

Last night however, the residents of Section B, as the Symphony Way area is commonly known, said they would use the relocation negotiations to try and move somewhere other than to Blikkiesdorp.

Ashraf Cassiem, chairman of the Anti-Eviction Campaign, confirmed that the residents were willing to move, but wanted their own space, instead of being forced into what he called “that dump”.

“We understand that they want us to move, but we refuse to go to Blikkiesdorp. It’s filled with crime and drugs. We don’t want our children to grow up in that environment. No matter what the court said, we know we are a lot better off here,” said Cassiem.

Another resident of the area, Theo Erasmus, said that while life was not easy in Section B, it was a lot better than the alternative.

“I’m an unemployed father of three and every morning before I go out looking for work, I have to collect firewood and water for my family.

“It’s very hard to survive but my three daughters will have a better future here than in Blikkiesdorp,” he said.

The Section B families were initially removed from N2 Gateway houses in Delft last year after they had invaded unfinished units there intended for project beneficiaries.

They were supposed to move temporarily to Blikkiesdorp at that time, but set up shacks on the pavement in Symphony Way, prompting city authorities to approach the High Court to have them removed.

The case came before Judge Moloi this week, and he went to Blikkiesdorp on Tuesday.

In court yesterday, he said the temporary accommodation in Blikkiesdorp was adequate.

Counsel for the City, Rob Stelzner, tendered a written order, which Judge Moloi granted. He did not make any costs order.

Sowetan: We’d rather die than move away

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http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1075866

We’d rather die than move away
08 October 2009
Anna Majavu

Residents fight bid to relocate them

“WE are prepared to die rather than be moved to the city of Cape Town’s temporary relocation area.”

These are the words of a group of about 400 people who yesterday appeared in the Western Cape high court fighting off a city bid to move them to Blikkiesdorp.

The temporary relocation area with its rows of corrugated iron one-roomed “houses” has been nicknamed Blikkiesdorp, or “Tin Can Town” by the 5000 people who currently live there.

The 400 people living in shacks built along a pavement in Delft, Cape Town, yesterday won a nine- day reprieve from eviction in the Western Cape high court.

They were living in different backyards in Delft until Democratic Alliance councillor Frank Martin unlawfully issued them with a letter authorising them to occupy newly built N2 Gateway national government houses.

A few months later they were evicted by the government, but their backyard shacks had already been rented to other tenants.

While Martin escaped serious punishment from the council, which suspended him for a month, the 500 people were left to set up home on the nearest roadside.

Yesterday local tabloid headlines screamed “Helen Zille’s Blikkiesdorp descends into a lawless hell”.

The leader of residents of Symphony Way, Roger Wicks, told Sowetan: “We are prepared to die rather than go to Blikkiesdorp.”

Wicks backed tabloid reports that Blikkiesdorp was full of drug dealers, alcoholism, and that it lacked any form of safety since police did not patrol there. He condemned Western Cape Premier Helen Zille for “using the coloured people for our votes and making us a lot of false promises about houses”.

Blikkiesdorp resident Willy Heyn said he advised people not to move to Blikkiesdorp, which had neither electricity nor street lighting, and which was 28km from the city centre.

A visit by Sowetan to Blikkiesdorp found the area in total darkness at night, and also found several families forced to share each toilet and tap.

City of Cape Town spokesperson Kylie Hatton confirmed that Eskom would not be installing electricity there until December 21.

The city’s advocate, Rob Stelzner, asked Judge Jake Moloi to hand down an eviction order suspended for nine days. Stelzner said the city was prepared to hold negotiations with Symphony Way residents during that time.

But Judge Moloi ordered the parties to negotiate and then come back to court on October 19 to argue their case in full.

It was revealed in court that the temporary relocation area, with its 1500 structures, cost the city R30million to build.

The Times: Residents angered at housing initiative

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http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1040218

Residents angered at housing initiative
Yazeed Kamaldien Published:Jul 27, 2009

RESIDENTS of Delft in the Western Cape have told The Times that the government’s pilot housing initiative, the N2 Gateway Project, is “k*k and pathetic”.

They complained that they had been living in small one-bedroom steel units for more than a year.

The 1300 units at the Symphony Way temporary relocation area in Delft were meant to be the first step to proper housing.

Residents renamed it “Blikkiesdorp” because their homes are made only of corrugated iron.

The pilot housing project was launched in 2006 and is to be used as a benchmark for the rest of the country. But residents said service delivery at the location remained dismal.

Security officer Deno Koekemoer, his unemployed wife and nine- year-old son share an outside toilet and tap with three other households. It is the same for all other residents.

“We waited for more than a year for electricity. We only got it two weeks ago. We used candles, paraffin lamps, gas stoves and made fires,” said Koekemoer.

Koekemoer said the communal toilet’s tap had been stolen by “tik [methamphetamine] addicts” and its water pipes were leaking.

“The tik addicts stole the tap three months ago and I told the municipality. It’s still not fixed.

“They have a don’t-care attitude. They tell us: ‘Just be grateful because it’s free’,” Koekemoer said

“We applied for a house and then they gave us this. There is a lot of crime here because of drugs and gangsters.”

Dalene Peters, who has lived at Symphony Way for 16 months with her husband, a construction worker, and their toddlers, said the “houses are very cold”.

“We can’t always afford electricity because when it rains my husband doesn’t have work,” she said.

Many residents have complained about overcrowding.

M&G: Small victory for homeless

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http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-06-15-small-victory-for-homeless

Cape Flats families given a reprieve from eviction, writes Glynnis Underhill

Ashraf Cassiem and 139 families who have set up home under the stars along Symphony Way in wind-swept Delft on the Cape Flats cele-brated a small victory last week after being given a reprieve in their fight against eviction.

“We’ll gladly move to houses that are safe, clean and adequate to our families’ needs,” said Cassiem, chairperson of the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign.
On Tuesday residents were granted a postponement of the eviction application by the City of Cape Town, acting for the Western Cape government.

Cassiem, who represented them, was delighted when acting Judge Jake Moloi ordered the families to file answering papers by June 30, and that the matter be heard on September 3.

“I’m happy that the court is finally listening to poor people who can’t afford legal representation,” said Cassiem.

The Symphony Way families illegally occupied newly completed homes intended for beneficiaries of the government’s N2 Gateway project in Delft.

When police evicted them in February last year, they erected makeshift shelters in Symphony Way, resisting removal to Blikkiesdorp, a crime-ridden “temporary relocation area”.

Cassiem said the battles of the Symphony Way community bore a striking similarity to moves to evict 20 000 shack-dwellers of the Joe Slovo informal settlement in Langa in Cape Town.

These residents are being evicted to make way for housing for the controversial N2 Gateway project and are uncertain whether they will be offered housing in the “flagship” development.

Five judges of the Constitutional Court unanimously ruled on Wednesday that they would allow the eviction of Joe Slovo residents but that they had to be given alternative housing.

Joe Slovo representative Mzwanele Zulu said he had mixed feelings about the judgment.

“I’m happy, but I feel an element of disappointment. There’ll have to be negotiations with our lawyers before there are relocations.”

Welcoming the Joe Slovo judgment as “groundbreaking”, the director general of human settlements, Itumeleng Kotsoane, said it made the fast-tracking of integrated human settlements and organised progress towards “the achievement of a South Africa free of slums and informal settlements” possible.

AEC: Symphony Way wins reprieve despite City’s efforts to undermine our right to a fair trial

http://antieviction.org.za/2009/06/09/symphony-way-wins-reprieve-despite-citys-efforts-to-undermine-our-right-to-a-fair-trail/#more-2621

Symphony Way wins reprieve despite City’s efforts to undermine our right to a fair trial

9 June 2009

The Symphony Way Pavement Dwellers have won their first battle in the quest for adequate decent public housing.

We have said publicly, over and over again, that: we do not want to occupy Symphony Way. We will gladly move if we are permitted to move to houses which are safe, clean, and adequate to our families’ needs.

But Blikkiesdorp is not a community with houses but a community with blikkies (tin can shacks). It is not adequate, nor is it clean or safe.

We thank the Honorable High Court for a rare instance where the courts have actually upheld the Constitution of this country in support of the poor. The Judge Jake Moloi noted that one cannot overlook Section 34 of the South African Constitution which states that:

Everyone has the right to have any dispute that can be resolved by the application of law decided in a fair public hearing before a court.

The advocate of the applicant (the City of Cape Town) tried to deny us of our constitutional right to a fair trial by attempting to prevent Symphony Way residents from introducing legal representation.

Because we are poor, we have struggled to raise money to pay the expensive fees of a lawyer and advocate. In South Africa, there is no such thing as equality because the poor cannot afford to build houses or buy land and also cannot afford to defend themselves against evictions from land and housing.

The calendar of the case to be argued is as follows:

*
The reply affidavit of the respondents is due on the 30 June, 2009
*
The replying affidavit of the applicant is due on the 16 July, 2009
*
The heads of argument for the applicants are due on 30 July, 2009
*
The heads of argument for the respondents are due on the 30 August, 2009
*
The hearing has been postponed until the 3rd of September, 2009
*
This is the final postponement.

The Case for adequate housing and against the TRAs:

In this case, the City of Cape Town is also trying to denying us of our constitutional rights laid out in Section 26 of the Constitution:

Everyone has the right to have access to adequate housing…No one may be evicted from their home, or have their home demolished, without an order of court made after considering all the relevant circumstances.

And again contradicting Section 6.3 of the 1998 PIE Act which states that:

In deciding whether it is just and equitable to grant an order for eviction, the court must have regard to…the availability to the unlawful occupier of suitable alternative accommodation.

There is nothing just and equitable about putting any human being in a TRA like Blikkiesdorp. After visiting Blikkiesdorp and considering all the relevant circumstances (such as safety and other basic needs) one will realise that the accommodation is clearly unsuitable for any human being. If you are unsure, go visit for yourself.

For more information, contact:

Kareemah at 0784920943
Jane at 0784031302
Evelyn at 0763317624
Ashraf at 0761861408