Category Archives: Francis Hweshe

Sowetan: Shack dwellers threat to Cup

http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1147414

Shack dwellers threat to Cup
01 June 2010
Francis Hweshe

ABAHLALI baseMjondolo (ABM) will set up shacks outside Cape Town’s stadium on the eve of the World Cup to show the world how they live.

ABM deputy chairperson Mthobeli Zona told Sowetan: “We know the government will send the police to beat us in front of the media … and the whole world will know about our struggles.

“We live in dirty and smelling places. We have no jobs. We live shameful lives. There are no toilets here. There is no electricity. We have to pay R20 a month or 50c a day to use other people’s toilets,” he said.

Zona said the government should have used the money they spent on the Gautrain and Bus Rapid Transit system to “relocate shack dwellers to dry areas. What we don’t want is to be moved to Temporary Relocation Areas (TRAs).

“The government should put their cats and dogs in TRAs. They make us sick,” he said.

Another resident in Khayelitsha’s QQ Section, Nobantu Goniwe, said she would join the demonstration.

Having lived in QQ Section for the past 10 years, Goniwe complained that many people got tuberculosis because of the “hard living conditions.”

She complained that when Premier Helen Zille visited the area in winter when it was flooded, she wore gumboots.

“We live here and we don’t have gumboots. I just wish we could swap places with her,” Goniwe said.

She said the World Cup was not going to bring changes to their community where unemployment and crime were rife.

Teenagers Azola Zadunge, Thembinkosi Mdumela, and Mananga Mzubongile said they were excited about the World Cup and would watch the games at the Khayelitsha fan park. They said the World Cup had not benefited any youth in their community.

City of Cape Town spokesperson Pieter Cronjé said they would not let anyone put up a shack.

“The area around the stadium is already under security. It will be regrettable if people use the World Cup to air their grievances” he said.

Cape Argus: Angry residents attack off-duty cop ‘We’d rather die than live here’

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http://www.capeargus.co.za/?fArticleId=5128396

Angry residents attack off-duty cop
‘We’d rather die than live here’

August 17, 2009 Edition 1

KOWTHAR SOLOMONS and FRANCIS HWESHE

AN OFF-duty policeman who was attacked and beaten over the head with a large rock by protesting Khayelitsha residents is in a serious but stable condition in hospital, police said this morning.

The officer, whose name police have declined to release, was attacked when he tried to drive through a barricade erected by residents of BT Section, Site C, Khayelitsha yesterday.

He is stationed in Stellenbosch, and was off-duty and not in uniform at the time.

Police used rubber bullets to disperse protesters late last week, but angry residents took to the streets again at the weekend.

Residents in BT Section started protesting on Thursday night.

Street committee spokeswoman Nosisa Mgoduka said the residents were angry with mayor Dan Plato.

She said Plato had promised to move the community to a piece of land where there were services.

“On (last) Monday he said there was no place for us.

“He said that he would look for a place for us in the next six months.

“That is what angered people. Police have also said that they are going to kill us if we keep protesting.

“We would rather be killed by police while protesting than live in this place. It’s not safe here. We want a better place,” said Mgoduka.

Yesterday the section of busy Lansdowne Road that runs through the area was barricaded with an empty shipping container and strewn with litter.

Protesters stoned passing cars and dug trenches in the road. Rocks and cardboard were used to make barricades.

Tempers flared when the off-duty officer, driving a Fiat Cento, tried to drive through part of the barricade. He lost control of the car and crashed into the pavement.

Residents surrounded the car while the policeman and his passenger, who has not been identified, tried to start it.

Angry words were exchanged, and the policeman pulled out a gun.

This made the residents back off at first, but then they raced back to confront him again.

A struggle ensued, and the police officer was knocked unconscious.

Residents started assaulting the man and his gun was taken away.

As he regained consciousness and tried to get up off the ground, one resident picked up a rock and slammed it into the policeman’s head and upper back.

He collapsed again. His companion, bleeding from the forehead after also being attacked by protesters, fled into an alleyway between nearby houses.

Police who were stationed nearby managed to get to the unconscious officer, who was taken away from the area in an ambulance.

Plato said this morning that “violence and other forms of intimidation” would not be tolerated.

He said residents of BT Section should use the city council’s “existing political structures” – such as ward councillors and ward forums – to air their concerns.

The area was quiet this morning.

* Additional reporting by Murray Williams

Cape Argus: Backyard dwellers demand change

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http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20090811114952837C885351

Backyard dwellers demand change

August 11 2009 at 01:18PM

By Francis Hweshe

Angry backyard dwellers in Khayelitsha’s Mandela Park – who burnt tyres in the streets of their neighbourhood – have given the provincial housing department a week to address their concerns or they will illegally occupy empty housing units in the area.

The residents, who protested there on Monday as police and private security guards kept a close watch, say they are at their wits’ end and want action now.

Their leader, Loyiso Mfuku, said the residents had previously written to the department about their issues, but had received no response.

And he said that if the department did not resolve their grievances soon, they would illegally occupy the 53 empty units in their community.
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The backyarders said they were “fed up” with their ANC ward councillor, Ryder Mkutswana, who they accused of failing them on service delivery.

During their protest on Monday, the backyard dwellers charged that Mkutswana and SA National Civics Organisation leaders in the area were “parcelling out” or selling unoccupied RDP houses to their “friends, relatives and girlfriends”.

“The registration process for the houses is shady. They (leaders) are giving their friends and girlfriends first preference when filling out forms for the houses,” one protester alleged.

Another said: “We want a fresh councillor. We are fed up with Mkutswana. He is not concerned about us. There is no development in our area.

“We are sick and tired of fraud and corruption.”

Yet another, showing off alleged receipts, complained of having bought an RDP house for R1 500 from a then community leader in 2006, which, he said, he had never received.

“I want my money back,” he complained, alleging that the seller was now working in the provincial housing department.

The residents also expressed unhappiness over “outsiders from Gugulethu and Site C” getting “first preference” in the allocation of housing units in Mandela Park, “while we are getting nothing”.

“Our children should occupy these houses,” said a mother of three, a backyarder there for about 20 years.

The residents dispersed only after government official Mbongi Gubuza, from the housing department, addressed them briefly.

He said Housing MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela was scheduled to address them next Sunday.

Meanwhile, Mkutswana denied any wrongdoing, saying that those who alleged that he was corrupt should “bring the proof”.

He was “hands on” in his constituency, he said, and the “issue of backyarders is at the top of my list”. He said he would ensure that local backyarders were catered for when the empty units were handed to their new occupants.

Mkutswana alleged that there was “someone” behind the protest, accusing the residents of “toyi-toying because they see these things on TV”.

o This article was originally published on page 4 of Cape Argus on August 11, 2009

Cape Argus: Khayelitsha residents to be briefed on solutions for service delivery

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The City’s entirely technocratic, authoritarian and inadequate response to the AbM protests is online here.

http://www.capeargus.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5111801

Khayelitsha residents to be briefed on solutions for service delivery

August 04, 2009 Edition 1

Francis Hweshe

THE CITY is to meet Khayelitsha residents next week to tell them what efforts have been made to address their concerns since the service delivery protests there two weeks ago.

Their complaints ranged from the need for relocation and better housing to electricity and water provision.

The protests were followed by a march to deliver a collective memorandum of demands by the Macassar Village backyard dwellers, led by housing lobby group Abahlali baseMjondolo.

They gave Mayor Dan Plato until yesterday to respond.

The city said yesterday it would not be able to address “all the concerns and demands reflected in the memorandum”.

The affected neighbourhood was one of 223 informal settlements across the Peninsula that needed to be managed in a “transparent, equitable and fair manner”.

It also said there was a shortage of land available for housing or relocation, and advised communities to approach councillors, subcouncils and ward forums when they had grievances.

The city said the QQ section, ranked number 21 on the master plan and scene of fierce protests recently, was “illegally located under high voltage overhead electricity power lines along Lansdowne Road”.

With 1 364 dwellings, “decentralisation is required”.

Between July and Decem-ber, the city would be dealing with issues in the informal settlements ranked 91 to 120.

Khayelitsha’s Sections VV and WA were not registered and not ranked. Section VV had 50 dwellings and no standpipe or toilets. Ten flush toilets were needed for the area. Section WA had 61 dwellings, no toilets and one standpipe – 12 flush toilets, two gulleys and two standpipes were needed.

Cape Argus: ‘Meet our service delivery demands, Plato’

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http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=124&art_id=vn20090721115218488C196931

‘Meet our service delivery demands, Plato’

July 21 2009 at 01:33PM

By Francis Hweshe

Disgruntled informal settlement residents have given mayor Dan Plato two weeks to respond to their service delivery demands.

The residents, drawn from various communities in Khayelitsha and Macassar Village, on Monday marched from Keizersgracht Street to the City of Cape Town to demand, among other things, relocation to higher ground, as well as better housing and serviced land.

The march follows several service delivery protests which have flared across the Western Cape since April’s general elections.

In song and dance, the protesters denounced the government and major political parties for ignoring their plight.

Council official Andile Mhlanga accepted memoranda on Plato’s behalf as the mayor was said to be busy.

Some protesters spoke about the squalor they live in.

“We live in flooding squatter camps. We struggle to survive. We have no toilets,” said Mzwanele Biko, 25, of TT section in Khayelitsha.

He said he had migrated from the Eastern Cape 10 years ago hoping to “improve my life… But nothing has happened, I have no job.”

Another TT section resident, Zandile Maliwa, 45, a father of four, said: “Rubbish is not collected. The whole community share two water taps.”

Vuyani Ntontela, 42, who lives in UT section in Khayelitsha, said there were no tar roads which made it difficult for emergency vehicles to gain access to the area.

“We also use the bucket system. We want the flush system,” said Ntontela.

Housing activist Mzonke Poni, who led the march, said residents did not want to be violent when demanding services, “but it it’s the only language that the government understands better”.

He called on Plato to convene a meeting with the affected communities to address their concerns.

Academic Martin Legassick, who was there to support the residents, said more protests over service delivery should be staged and that the city should explain how it planned to use available public land.