Gugulethu community submitted grievances to municipality – vow protests if not heard!
The Gugulethu Anti-Eviction Campaign held a protest today which converged on Fezeka Municipality Offices in Gugulethu. Poor and unemployed residents came from all over Gugulethu, KTC, Crossroads and Nyanga to have their voices heard.
No House! No Dignity! No Vote!
Why we wont vote on the 18th of May
Join us at KwaMlamli’s as we host a show, exhibition, and discussion on the grassroots politics of the No Vote position. We say we are sick and tired of choosing between Helen Zuma and Jacob Zille!
Venue >> KwaMlamli’s #15 NY146 in Gugulethu
Time >> 14h00 for 15h00
Date >> 14th of May
Directions >> Contact Zipho 0822541814 or Mncedisi 0785808646
RSVP >> on Facebook
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Featuring >> Underground hip-hop by Soundz of the South
Featuring >> Political art by the Gugulective
Featuring >> The authors of the book No Land! No House! No Vote! Voices from Symphony Way
Featuring >> Activists from the Gugulethu Anti-Eviction Campaign
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Entrance is Free. Books, food and drinks available for purchase.
http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/western-cape/no-hope-of-saving-them-1.878374
‘No hope of saving them’
November 28 2010 at 12:47pm
By THANDANANI MHLANGA
A Gugulethu mother is in hospital in a state of shock after learning that her husband, their three children and her brother-in-law died in a shack fire that destroyed 10 homes.
Mzoxolo Hlalayedwa, 34, his three children, Asoze Pomtala, 10, Onako, 8, and Esinako, 5, and his brother Siyabulela Saliti, 19, died in a fire that destroyed their shack in the Barcelona informal settlement on Friday night.
Neighbours say the fire started in the family’s shack.
Fire and Rescue spokesman Theo Layne said 10 shacks were destroyed in the blaze.
Four fire engines, three water tankers and a rescue vehicle were at the scene just after 1am and the fire took over an hour to extinguish.
Gugulethu mother Ncakiswa Pomtala was in the Eastern Cape at the time, having stayed behind after a family funeral. On receiving the news of her husband and children’s deaths yesterday, she went into shock and had to be admitted to hospital. She was unable to speak, said relatives.
Hlalayedwa’s sister, Nomathamsanqa Hlalayedwa, said she arrived at the shack to find it engulfed in flames.
“It was so hot. There was no hope of saving them.”
By the time the fire had been extinguished “the shack was finished”, she said.
Nomathamsanqa watched helplessly as her family’s bodies were removed from the burnt-out shack.
The fire follows at least three others in city’s informal settlements last week.
Residents of an informal settlement in lower Woodstock lost almost all their possessions in a blaze that broke out in the early hours of Thursday.
An elderly man was burnt to death and over 80 shacks were destroyed after the inferno left residents destitute.
On Tuesday morning one person burnt to death after a fire started among shacks in Masiphumelele and spread to surrounding formal houses. Forty-eight people were believed to have lost their homes.
That same day a man burned to death after his home, also in Barcelona, Gugulethu, caught alight, trapping him inside.
Last month the City of Cape Town’s Disaster Risk Management expressed concern over the increase in the death rate in informal settlement fires.
This was said after a mother and her 18-month-old baby boy burnt to death in a shack fire that left at least 40 people destitute in Phola Park informal settlement in Philippi.
Eight shacks were gutted and in each case the households lost all their possessions.
Spokesman Wilfred Solomons-Johannes said by last month at least 60 people had lost their lives in shack fires across the metropole this year.
He said this number could be higher as there were no statistics for the number of people who had died in hospital from shack fires.
In September six members of the Mzoboshe family, including four children under the age of five, died when their Khayelitsha shack was gutted by flames. The incident was one of many tragedies caused by a spate of fires which had taken 11 lives in just four days.
Two Steenberg children, a three-year-old and a 14-month-old baby, were killed when their Wendy house caught fire as they slept.
Despite the efforts of their father, Clint Atwood, the children could not be saved and were later found in the remains of the family home, burnt beyond recognition.
Hours after the Khayelitsha fire, a 15-month-old toddler died of smoke inhalation from a fire that broke out in a two-bedroom Belhar home.
The previous day a young boy had died in a shack fire in the Doornbach informal settlement near Milnerton.
thandanani.mhlanga@inl.co.za – Weekend Argus
Gugulethu Backyarders Press Release
29 September 2010
Four evictions yesterday in Gugulethu with promises of more to come
The Gugulethu community experienced four major evictions yesterday and, according to the presiding Sheriff of the Court, there are many more evictions to come.
As of yesterday evening, three out of the four evictions have been reversed by community members with the support of anti-eviction activists. But the events are a wake up call to us – we need to unite and be on alert if we are going to be able to prevent further evictions in our neighbourhoods.
List of four evictions:
1. The Mgidlana Family – The Mgidlana household residing in NY28 #94 is a very large family that includes little children up to elder pensioners. Yesterday, the 27th of September, the Sheriff of the Court showed up with the police and evicted residents using a Notice of Ejectment. However, this eviction which came without notice or warning failed to follow the necessary legal procedures laid out in the PIE Act. The eviction is therefore illegal, not to mention immoral. With the support of friends, neighbours and community activists, the Mgidlana Family has now been returned to their home.
2. The Dube Family – Yesterday, Lindelwa Dube and her household which resides in NY128 #8, were removed by police and the Sheriff. They were evicted around the same time as the Mgidlana Family. The family says that they never received any prior notice or any eviction papers from the Sheriff. This makes the eviction an illegal and potentially criminal act. The Dube family has now been returned to their home by the community.
3. The Tungata Family – The Tungata household was also evicted yesterday from their family home in NY130 #8. Vuyiswa Tungata says that they were not given any formal notice by the Sheriff either in advance or on the day of the eviction. This makes the eviction an illegal and potentially criminal act. The family, however, is now back in their home because of the actions of the community and anti-eviction activists.
4. Skhoma Butchery – On the same day, the seemingly busy Sheriff evicted embattled Skhoma Butchery from their trading location in the NY6 small business trading centre. Skhoma moved to their current location after being evicted by local business tycoon Mzoli Ngcawuzele to make way for the new Gugulethu Square Mall. This was dubbed a fight of ‘David and Goliath’ proportions. Through a court settlement, Skhoma was eventually given trading space in NY6 with rent to be paid for by Mzoli Properties until a suitable alternative was found. However, Tuesday’s eviction came without warning, without notice and even without as much as a court order from the Sheriff. As of this morning, Skhoma’s equipment is still outside the premises thought their meat is still on-site in the fridge. Small businesses in the area fear that Skhoma is the first of many more small businesses slated for eviction in order to make way for an expansion of the Gugulethu Square Mall.
When we spoke to the Sheriff of the Court who was present to carry out the evictions, he boasted to us that he was going to step up evictions in Gugulethu in the coming weeks. Vulnerable Gugulethu residents are mobilising to stop any further evictions in their community.
We as the poor will not let wealthy banks and businessmen prey on us. We will stand up for our rights!
For more information contact:
Sindile Mgidlana at 0731672330 (NY28 #94)
Lindelwa Dube at 0733640100 (NY128 #8)
Thandi Koyana at 0799362625 (Skhoma Butchery)
Mncedisi Twalo at 0785808646 (Gugulethu Backyarders)
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20100810044446150C680652
Residents in fiery protest
By Michelle Jones
For the second night in a row, residents of an informal settlement in Gugulethu blocked off a road near the N2, strewing rubbish across its surface and burning tyres in protest at delays in moving them.
Thick black smoke rose into the night sky as bright fires lit up the area around the Europe informal settlement.
Several people were injured when police fired rubber bullets at protesters.
Disgruntled community members had staged a similar protest on Sunday, during which they used portable toilets and refuse to block the on-ramp leading to the N2 near Borcherd’s Quarry Road.
Xolisa Mangaliso, a resident, said that for years people had been promised a move to another area, but were continuing to wait for this.
“This place is not suited for human habitation,” he said.
“The (portable) toilets they have provided for us pose more of a health risk.”
Residents were expected to meet their ward councillor, Gladstone Ntamo, yesterday to air their grievances.
Ntamo could not be reached last night to confirm whether this meeting had taken place.
He had told the Cape Times before that residents were frustrated about the delay in moving them.
He said residents had met Human Settlements MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela in February and demanded that they be moved.
Madikizela had promised residents they would be moved when a suitable, developed area was found, Ntamo said.
“The people now think that the minister is just giving a lot of promises. They are tired of promises.”
Ntamo said the area was a “rubbish tip” and had been declared unsafe for habitation by city health and environment officials.
* This article was originally published on page 1 of Cape Times on August 10, 2010