Solidarity: Joe Slovo Community to appear in Cape High Court tomorrow

11th December 2007

12 noon

For comment, call Mzwanele Zulu of the Joe Slovo Task Team on 076 3852369

For comment on the engineer’s report, call Shaheed Mahomed of Cape Town Anti-War on 082 2020617

LANGA, CAPE TOWN – The Joe Slovo community of 5000 people will appear in the Cape High Court tomorrow morning (Wednesday 12 th December) to present their case against the ANC government’s plans to forcibly remove them to Delft.

The residents have brought one of the biggest ever class actions against the government in the history of the country with 3500 residents previously walking to the Cape High Court to individually lodge their objections to the forced removal.

The community’s case has been given added weight by an independent engineer’s report, which we are releasing for the first time today. This report states that the fibre cement homes in Delft to which the Joe Slovo residents are being forcibly removed, are ” not fit for human habitation”. Please find the engineer’s report pasted below.

The Cape Town Anti-War Coalition fully supports the Joe Slovo Community and their demand for “housing for all, close to the city and workplaces”.

We believe the State has made a huge blunder by selling off the land that the community live on to First National Bank. This community has been living there for 17 years or more and not one of the residents is prepared to be forcibly removed in apartheid style. The residents are going to put up a strong resistance and they have already mobilised many organisations to support them, including COSATU which hosted a mass meeting to drum up support for the Joe Slovo residents in the City Hall yesterday. The spectre of a forced removal of 5000 extremely poor people by huge numbers of heavily armed police will prove to be disastrous for the country.

The Cape Town Anti-War Coalition believes that the community has legitimate reasons for wanting to stay on the land. These reasons have been ignored by the State. One of the compelling reasons is the proximity of the Epping Fresh Produce Market which most residents rely on for survival. The Cape Town Anti-War Coalition was shocked to hear from dozens and dozens of elderly residents that they have no food other than that which is given to them at the market in exchange for which they do unpaid cleaning.

Two of these are Nombini Mbeqe (67) and Majangaza Ndithini (55). Both have been living at Joe Slovo for several years, with about nine family members each in one shack each.

“We are not going to Delft because here we can walk to Epping Market. I go there at least once a week to work in exchange for fruit and vegetables. Many people are doing this whenever they have no food. We always succeed at Epping Market. That’s why we are asking government to build us RDP houses here in Joe Slovo, because in Delft we are going to starve. If I don’t get fruit and vegetables for my grandchildren who are staying with me, they are going to starve and die. There is no way I want to take my whole family to die in Delft,” said Mbeqe.

Ndithini said that “I’m part of the people who don’t want to go to Delft. I don’t like Delft. It is too far from places to look for jobs and people are starving there. My interest is to get an RDP house here in Joe Slovo. I am unemployed but I get temporary work for three days at a time, now and again and also I make use of the market always. Whenever I am hungry and there is nothing on the table for my family to eat, I make use of Epping Market. I always get something there”.

Engineer’s report follows – please note the contact number of the Engineer below….

L M G CONSULTING ENGINEERS

CIVIL ENGINEERS AND PROJECT MANAGERS

10 Mimosa Avenue , Tygerdal, Goodwood, 7460

Tel. (021) 945 4474(O) (021) 959 6680(LG)

Fax. (021) 945 1651

e-mail. goliathl@cput.ac.za

15 November 2007

Cape Peninsula University of Technology

Mechanical Engineering

Bellville Campus

ATTENTION: Mr. Shaheed Mahomed

FAX. No. (021) 959 6104

REPORT ON FIBRE CEMENT HOUSING – DELFT

I was asked by Mr. Mahomed to inspect and comment on fibre cement homes. The reason for this is to ascertain, in our opinion whether these houses are fit for human habitation. The houses in Delft were chosen to be inspected, as the proposed future temporary homes are also to be erected in this area and are based on a similar construction.

The site was visited on Tuesday 30 October 2007, with the undersigned being accompanied by Shaheed Mahomed and Walter Kohlhofer from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Bellville Campus.

The following are a list of items that causes concern.

A) The homes we inspected were constructed from fibre cement sheets for the walls with an IBR roof. Due to the profile of these materials the connection between the two left openings, which the residents plug with paper, still not achieving an airtight connection. This leads to leaks and drafts, which is not good for the health. It also looks very untidy and could be a fire hazard.

B) Another option needs to be investigated for the corners of the dwellings. This detail is not consistent. A certain dwelling had an opening around 10mm, again leaks and drafts. Maybe a properly sealed wrap around detail will work.

C) The fixity of the door and window frames needs to be installed into a framed structure. Again the profile causes openings, which some residents fill with concrete and others with paper. These chunks of concrete could fall off and injure someone. Without proper frames, how do you lock and secure your dwelling, a security issue.

D) The walls are buried into the ground. These walls should be fixed to a low brick or block wall constructed on a concrete floor slab as done on steel clad buildings mainly seen on farms and not necessary used for human habitation. The floor level of the dwelling must be at least 150mm above the ground level outside. A photograph shows the outside stoep level higher than the floor level inside.

E) During the summer months these houses reach unbearable temperatures because there is no form of cladding inside. Some residents have or are busy installing panels to assist with this problem. An equivalent of an air brick is required as no ventilation is present.

Should these matters raised above not receive attention then these dwellings in my opinion is not fit for human habitation. A resident we spoke to on site said, “We want proper houses”.

Thank you

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Leon Goliath Pr.Tech.(Eng.) MSAICE

Lecturer – Department of Civil Engineering

Section Head – Structural Engineering

Cape Peninsula University of Technology – Bellville Campus