Category Archives: delft

The Times: Residents angered at housing initiative

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http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1040218

Residents angered at housing initiative
Yazeed Kamaldien Published:Jul 27, 2009

RESIDENTS of Delft in the Western Cape have told The Times that the government’s pilot housing initiative, the N2 Gateway Project, is “k*k and pathetic”.

They complained that they had been living in small one-bedroom steel units for more than a year.

The 1300 units at the Symphony Way temporary relocation area in Delft were meant to be the first step to proper housing.

Residents renamed it “Blikkiesdorp” because their homes are made only of corrugated iron.

The pilot housing project was launched in 2006 and is to be used as a benchmark for the rest of the country. But residents said service delivery at the location remained dismal.

Security officer Deno Koekemoer, his unemployed wife and nine- year-old son share an outside toilet and tap with three other households. It is the same for all other residents.

“We waited for more than a year for electricity. We only got it two weeks ago. We used candles, paraffin lamps, gas stoves and made fires,” said Koekemoer.

Koekemoer said the communal toilet’s tap had been stolen by “tik [methamphetamine] addicts” and its water pipes were leaking.

“The tik addicts stole the tap three months ago and I told the municipality. It’s still not fixed.

“They have a don’t-care attitude. They tell us: ‘Just be grateful because it’s free’,” Koekemoer said

“We applied for a house and then they gave us this. There is a lot of crime here because of drugs and gangsters.”

Dalene Peters, who has lived at Symphony Way for 16 months with her husband, a construction worker, and their toddlers, said the “houses are very cold”.

“We can’t always afford electricity because when it rains my husband doesn’t have work,” she said.

Many residents have complained about overcrowding.

M&G: Listen to the shack-dwellers

http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-06-24-listen-to-the-shackdwellers

Tens of thousands of shack-dwellers in South Africa are doomed to be evicted to transit camps.

by Kerry Chance, Marie Huchzermeyer and Mark Hunter

Last week the Constitutional Court gave the green light for the eviction of 20 000 people from Cape Town’s Joe Slovo settlement to make way for the N2 Gateway Project. Most residents are to be relocated to the Delft temporary relocation area (TRA).

In 2005, 2 400 families from Langa, Cape Town, were relocated to a camp called Tsunami. In Johannesburg, 6 400 families in Protea South, Soweto, fought a plan to move them to a decant camp in 2007. In Durban, 52 families in Siyanda, KwaMashu, were evicted in December last year and moved to a transit camp to make way for a new freeway. Continue reading →

AEC: Second Eviction Application for the Delft Symphony Way Residents

Delft Anti-Eviction Campaign Press Release
19 March, 2009

We, the Delft Symphony Residents received an application of eviction from the City of Cape Town. We must appear in the High Court on the 20th of March of 2009 at 10h00. On the 9th of March of 2009 we went to advocates in town, Cliffe, Dekke, Hofmeyr, Number 11, Buitengracht Street, Cape Town, and to the Cape High Court to hand in our notice of intention to defend. We are disgusted that we are about to be evicted for the second time and political parties are trying to use us for their own good. The state and parastatals are playing games with our children’s future and our dignity as South African citizens.

Down with the government and the party system. To hell with Helen Zille and her stooges. Because of this mayor we are being evicted for the second time. We will fight to the end and we will stick to our only hope, which is “No Land, No House, No Vote.” We will fight to the end. We are indigenous South African people. Our children and we have a right to a home.

We will meet tomorrow morning, March 20, 2009, at 8h30 at the Gardens in downtown Cape Town and then proceed from there to the Cape Town High Court.

We will show that we are people tomorrow morning. We are bringing our children and we are fighting for their future.

Contact: Ashraf Cassiem 0761861408

Cape Argus: Squatters ‘ready to die or fight’ for land

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http://www.capeargus.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4872285

Squatters ‘ready to die or fight’ for land
5 03 2009
March 04, 2009 Edition 1
NOMANGESI MBIZA
Source: Cape Argus

The Symphony Way pavement squatters have received court eviction orders to vacate the area, but say they are “ready and prepared to die or fight” for their right to proper housing.

About 20 police vehicles entered the little pavement community on Monday to deliver the notices.

Kylie Hatton from the City confirmed that the notices were served and that residents had 21 days to vacate. She said alternative accommodation had been offered to them in Blikkiesdorp, about half a kilometre down the street.

“Some people have already accepted the alternative accommodation and we will assist anyone who would like to accept the accommodation,” she said.

The 127 families, totalling about 300 people, decided to squat on the road in Delft next to the RDP houses they invaded a year ago in protest at the lack of housing.

Last week they marked a year of living on the pavement with a series of events.

The families have received court papers ordering them to appear in the Cape High court on March 20. But they have vowed to die on the pavement rather than move to the Temporal Relocation Area (TRA) provided by the government.

“We are ready and prepared to die for our land and rights,” said resident Lilian Jansen. The residents labelled the TRA a playground for criminals and rapists.

“I know someone who lost everything in the Blikkiesdorp (Tin Can Town)… they took everything. I don’t know why they want us to live there,” said Mathilda Groepe.

“They bring the entire Western Cape police force to deliver court orders… for what, we are not criminals, and they even put on their bullet-proof vests when they got here, like they were entering a battlefield.”

The Anti-Eviction Campaign’s Ashraf Cassiem said: “The TRA is not a reasonable alternative accommodation… we cannot and will not be moved anywhere that will disadvantage ourselves.”

Joe Slovo Residents to overnight in Symphony Way, in solidarity with Delft Pavement Dwellers

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Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign
Press Alert – For Immediate Release

Thursday, 28 July 2008

Joe Slovo Residents to overnight in Symphony Way, in solidarity with Delft Pavement Dwellers

Date: Saturday, 30 August 2008
Time: 16h00
Location: Symphony Way, Delft

Delft – Following their trip to Johannesburg and attendance at the SA Constitutional Court hearing last week, residents of the Joe Slovo informal settlement in Langa, Cape Town will be visiting the evicted residents of the N2 Gateway Houses along Symphony Way in Delft this Saturday. In addition to sharing the lessons of their struggle against forced relocation to the city’s Temporary Relocation Areasin Delft, Joe Slovo residents will also spend the night in the shacks along Symphony Way as a demonstration of solidarity.

This effort to build greater solidarity between the struggles of Joe Slovo and Symphony Way comes out of suggestions made by residents of both communities during their 28-hour train ride to Johannesburg. It was during this long journey that residents of Joe Slovo expressed their gratitude for the support of Symphony Way residents at their past actions and court appearances, including the last week’s Concourt hearings. Nearly thirty residents of Symphony Way chose to mark the six month anniversary of their eviction from the N2 Gateway Project Homes in Delft by joining Joe Slovo residents in traveling to Johannesburg and staying at the Central Methodist Church.

In an effort to find out more about the plight of Delft evictees, nearly three dozen Joe Slovo residents volunteered to spend the night on the pavement in Symphony Way. Some even vowed to set up shacks alongside those in Symphony if forced to relocate against their will to TRAs in Delft.

Residents of Symphony Way have also committed to overnight in Joe Slovo in a weeks time.

During the course of this trip, residents of both communities saw for themselves that the lack of decent, affordable, public housing impacts the poor, regardless of what language they speak or their “racial group”. Moreover, the need to be an active participate, rather than simply a spectator, in housing programs like the N2 Gateway Project is true for all, whether you live in an informal settlement or someone’s backyard.

For more information:

Ashraf Cassiem 076 186 1408
Mzwanele Zulu 076 385 2369

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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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