Backyard dwellers unhappy with De Lille’s basic services plan
Backyard dwellers organisation, Abahlali baseMjondolo says it is dissatisfied with Cape Town Mayor, Patricia de Lille’s plans to provide basic services to backyarders while they are on a waiting list for housing.
The mayor presented the plan to backyarders at the Cape Town Civic Centre yesterday. Abahlali baseMjondolo boycotted the meeting, saying they want the mayor to have face-to-face talks with all backyarders in Khayelitsha, as originally planned.
The venue was changed due to security fears.
The City of Cape Town admitted that it cannot immediately provide housing
The organisation’s chairperson, Mzonke Poni says: “It does not matter what kind of development or what kind of services one delivers to the poor. What we are saying is people should be engaged with and when people are being engaged we are saying this engagement should be meaningful.”
The City of Cape Town admitted that it cannot immediately provide housing to meet the existing backlog and rapid urbanisation.
De Lille said those hoping to receive Reconstruction and Development Programme houses have a long wait. The city’s housing backlog stands at 450 000. With people moving to the city, that figure climbs by 16 000 every year.
A recent South African Institute for Race Relations study found that from 1996 the number of backyard dwellings had almost doubled from about 400 00 to nearly 740 000 last year.