16 April 2012
Backyarders Solidarity Statement

Mandela Park Backyarders to join employment protest at Khayelitsha Hospital 10am tomorrow

Tomorrow, the 17th of April 2012, the Mandela Park Backyarders will be joining in solidarity with the Progressive Youth Movement and other community groups from all over Khayelitsha to protest the unfair job allocation processes at the new Khayelitsha Hospital. The protest will begin at 10am in front of the hospital.

It is appalling that the ‘grand opening’ of the facility is happening without informing or consulting residents of the community.

As there has been no consultation with the community, we, the residents of Khayelitsha, no longer consider this a genuine community development project but merely a smokescreen for the import of Tygerberg Hospital and its management and employees into Khayelitsha.

We have found that there is nothing transparent in the way the hospital has been built and how jobs have been allocated. The Khayelitsha Development Forum (KDF), with which the authorities have claimed to have consulted with, is an unaccountable and undemocratic organisation that does not represent the interests of the Khayelitsha community. The KDF, was therefore used as a way for those in charge of the hospital to get around authentic consultation and remove the community from being the drivers of the process.

All are invited to join us tomorrow.

For more information, please contact:

Khaya @ 0780241683