***Press Alert***
AEC Communities join residents of the Joe Slovo settlement at SA Constitutional Court 21 August
Threatened with mass eviction, the residents of the Joe Slovo settlement in Langa, Cape Town will be gathering outside of the South African Constitutional Court in Braamfontein, Johannesburg on 21 August at 9am. They are appealing the judgement of High Court Judge Hlophe that would forcibly remove them to Delft, a township on the outskirts of Cape Town, to makeway for the completion of the N2 Gateway Housing Project.
As a national housing project, the N2 Gateway is supposed to provide the residents of informal settlements along the N2, some of the most visible informal settlements in Cape Town, with formal housing. Yet the project’s plans were developed with little community input and when they were announced, provoked strong reaction as they could not accomodate most of the 20,000 residents of Joe Slovo.
When the ministry of housing and their principal agent, Thubelisha Homes, were unwilling to change the project to accommodate all of the residents of Joe Slovo, residents responded by blocking the N2 highway in September 2007. In response, Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu sought their removal from this strip of land at the south and east of the Langa township.
Residents challenged the eviction order in court, only to have High Court Judge Hlophe find them illegal occupants of land they have lived on since the early 1990s and determined that they had no reasonable expectation that most of them should be accommodated in the homes to be constructed.
To attend this court case, the residents of Joe Slovo have traveled by train with Delft backyarders who been living on the pavement on Symphony Way for the past six months, opposite the N2 Gateway houses they were evicted from after illegally occupying them in December 2007. They are also joined by the ratepayers of Joe Slovo phase 1 flats, who are currently on a rent boycott to call attention to their high rents and poorly constructed apartments.
The Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign supports these communities impacted by South African government’s failed top-down planning process, epitomized in the N2 Gateway project. In support of the demands of the Joe Slovo residents to have quality and affordable houses built for them where they currently live, the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign and Abahlali baseMjondolo have also brought representatives from various communities, including Khayelitsha, Delft, Wes Bank, and Mitchell’s Plain. They are also supported by the Landless Peoples Movement.
For more information, contact:
Ashraf Cassiem, Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign 076 186 1408
Mzwanele Zulu, Joe Slovo Task Team – 076 385 2369
S’bu Zikode, Abahlali baseMjondolo – 083 547 0474
Maureen Mnisi, Landless Peoples Movement – 082 337 4514
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Issued by: Joe Slovo TaskTeam
No evictions from Joe Slovo shack settlement, Langa, Cape Town!
Asiyi eDelft!
We, the residents of Joe Slovo shack settlement in Langa, Cape Town, are going to the Constitutional Court to contest the order obtained by Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu in the Cape High Court in March to evict us and send us to the outskirts of Cape Town in Delft! She wants to house better-off people along the N2 highway to make it pretty for tourists to the 2010 World Cup!
In Delft we would pay more for transport and have less chance of jobs. We won’t go to Delft! Asiyi eDelft! We want houses built for us in Joe Slovo!
We are going to the Constitutional Court because it is supposed to protect the rights of the poor.
We are supported and joined by residents of Joe Slovo phase 1, known officially as N2 Gateway phase 1, whose flats were built on land taken from the Joe Slovo settlement. They are on rent boycott because their rents are too high and their flats are badly constructed. We support their demands.
We are supported and joined by backyarders from Delft who want houses in Delft, and therefore occupied the N2 Gateway houses built there. They were evicted, and now live on the pavement next to the houses. We support their demand for housing in Delft.
We are supported by the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign, which includes communities in Mitchell’s Plain, Gugulethu, Athlone, Hanover Park, Ocean View, Khayelitsha, Atlantis and elsewhere in the province. People from these areas are also coming with us to Jo’burg.
We are supported by Abahlali baseMjondolo, representing more than 30 shack settlements in Kwa-Zulu Natal, as well as Abahlali baseMjondolo (Western Cape) which represents numerous shack settlements in Khayelitsha.
Millions of people around South Africa have problems with housing and service delivery. We support all these struggles!
Support us! Join us at the Constitutional Court where we will be demonstrating from 9am on Thursday 21 August!
For more information contact Mzwanele Zulu 0763852369
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For more, please visit the website of the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign at:
www.antieviction.org.za
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