Delft Anti-Eviction Campaign Press Release
19th of February 2009 – For Immediate Release

Symphony Way residents commemorate 1 year on the road

Today, the residents of Symphony Way will be commemorating last years evictions on the 19th of February 2008. We have now lived a full year on Symphony Way and have, in protest, blocked traffic on this major road the entire time. Residents have nowhere else to go and refused to go to Blikkiesdorp TRA which they see as a refugee camp. This may be the longest and most difficult protest undertaken by any community in the history of South Africa.

The event will be both a time of mourning and protest as well as a celebration. We are protesting the fact that we still do not have land or houses and that the government continues to lie to us and oppress us. However, we are also celebrating the wonderful friendships we have made on the road. We have built a community here.

We are a silver lining in the dark cloud that is this oppressive society we live in today. We are nurturing the culture of rebellion that saved us from Apartheid and this culture of rebellion provides with hope that change is both possible and necessary

The agenda for today’s festivities are as follows (we are starting at 4am exactly when the police first began to evict us):
4am-5am = Prayer
5am-6am = Lighting of candles
6am-8am = Actions
10am-12pm = A slide show of the evictions and life on the road
12pm-1pm = Time of discussion
1pm-3pm = A participatory children’s play about the struggle on the road
3pm-4pm = Further time of discussion with the children
4pm-5pm = A community mass meeting to discuss the way forward

No Land! No House! No Vote!

For more information, contact:
Mncedisi Plaatjies at 079 3051 066
Kareemah Linneveldt at 078 4920 943
Ashraf Cassiem at 076 1861 408