Hundreds Face Eviction and Appeal in Cape Town Today

Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign Press Release
18 Feb 2008
1pm

DELFT, CAPE TOWN – The appeal of hundreds of residents from Delft, who face eviction from the homes they occupied two months ago, is to be heard urgently at 2pm today (February 18th 2008). This decision was made at a meeting in chambers this morning.

Thubelisha Homes and the Provincial ANC government will oppose the peoples’ appeal against the eviction order.

The Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign is against the court’s earlier final eviction order. The court didn’t even mention anything about alternative accommodation. They also refused to have an arbitration with the people of Delft to come up with a compromise.

The judge and ANC government and Thubelisha Homes are treating the residents of Delft as if they have alternative accommodation. Yet not one of them has any place to go. All of those who moved into the new houses were either homeless or backyard dwellers. Many had been on the waiting list for 20 years. Many of those who considered themselves “backyarders” in fact were living in appalling conditions in the back yards of homeowners, such as those families who attached a piece of tarpaulin to the backs of bakkies and slept every night for years in this so-called “tent”.

The AEC is currently carrying out a door to door survey of the socio-economic situation in Delft and the results will be released soon.

The AEC demands that housing be provided now for those who need it, instead of hundreds of pointless stadiums that costs billions of rands.

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For comment call AEC Legal Co-ordinator Ashraf Cassiem on 076 1861408