Abahlali baseMjondolo will boycott tomorrow’s meeting called by the City of Cape Town Mayor Patricia De Lille and we will protest against this meeting as this will not be a meeting of equal partnership/engagement.

We believe that this meeting will be dominated and controlled by the city of Cape Town not by backyarders.

And Backyarders from Delft, Mitchells Plain, Mandela Park, Gugulethu, Nyanga and Khayelitsha will join ABM WC protest outside Mew Way hall tomorrow at 13:30.

We are going to meet outside ABM WC office at 13:00 then March through Lansdowne road to Mew Way.

And we are going to hand over our memorandum to Patricia De Lille to call on her to organize an open meeting where every backyarder and shack dweller will be able to participate.

For comment please call Mzonke Poni @ 073 2562 036

Abahlali baseMjondolo of the Western Cape Press statement

1. We note that tomorrow at 14:00 at Mew Way, Khayelitsha the City of Cape Town Mayor Patricia De Lille will be meeting with representatives of backyarders to find solutions to address challenges facing backyarder communities.

2. Abahlali baseMjondolo welcomes the move by the mayor to engage with backyarders in terms of finding solutions in problems faced by the backyarders but we oppose to the strategy which is being implemented by the city of cape town in doing so (i.e inviting 3 people per organization)

3. To invite three people per organization of backyarders that undermines the right of ordinary people to speak for themselves in finding solutions into problems that they face on a daily basis

4. And as organization we note that there are people who claim to represent the interest of backyarders while they are not living at the backyards and this again undermines the right of backyarders to speak for themselves.

5. And we also note that organized backyard organizations were not consulted in organizing the meeting and some organizations were also sidelined in this meeting.

6.Abahlali baseMjondolo has been calling on the mayor of cape town Patricia De Lille to address shackdwellers direct in finding solutions regard problems facing shack dwellers and the mayor has been refusing

7. We call on the Mayor to do away with the system of representative democracy in finding solutions regard problems facing the poor as this system excludes ordinary voices from the ground.

8. We call on the mayor to adhere to the principles of participatory democracy or direct democracy by organizing open meeting where everybody will matter, where every body will count, where everybody will be equal; where everybody need to be respected, where everybody will be able speak without any fear.

For comment please call Mzonke Poni @ 073 2562 036