Category Archives: Mandela Park Backyarders

Open letter to Madam Mayor Patricia de Lille on the Mandela Park Land and Housing Crisis

Open letter to Madam Mayor Patricia de Lille on the Mandela Park Land and Housing Crisis
19 July 2011

Dear Madam Mayor,

While the Mandela Park Backyarders continue to receive no attention from the Western Cape Human Settlement MEC (Bonginkosi Madikizela), private property owners continue to monopolise the land that is already in short supply in Mandela Park. It appears that some officials refuse to learn from their past mistakes of ignoring the poor solely because they have gained politically in the process.

We believe the MEC for housing (Bonginkosi Madikizela) held several secret meetings with the Gugulethu backyarders recently where ANC, ward 97(Councilor Mthwalo Mkhutswana) was invited to discuss the housing development which the department intent to commence in Mandela Park.

For your own information Madam Mayor, “SEBRA” (the company that was employed as developers to unblock both projects 497 and 823 in Mandela Park) once again misused the public funds and then vanished without any accounting of their finances by the department. We wish to put before your office that a few weeks before SEBRA’s disappearance last year in October, they presented us with a letter they claimed to have been written by Mr Madikizela to Mandela Park Backyarders. One of the highlighted sentences in the letter reads as follows:

“In the next financial year (2011/12) Mandela Park Backyarders will be prioritised. This meant with the next build order the MEC is committing himself to build houses for Mandela Park Backyarders.”

The said financial year begun on the 31 July 2011 and we assume prior to any execution of any work our community be consulted as part of normal processes. However, there has been zero consultation from Madikizela or his department.

No public meetings have been held to report to the community and all we see that our land being graded and levelled by new developers other than SEBRA. It is very clear to us that the department of human settlement uses a systematic strategy to further divide communities in the name of development. In the case of Mandela Park this is done by both the ward 97 councillor Mthwalo Mkhutswana & the MEC for Human Settlement Bonginkosi Madikizela.

We wish to inform you that the Mandela Park Backyarders are the only democratically elected and recognised structure in our community. We will now call a public meeting where the housing development will be discussed in depth, and then from there we will take action to ensure promises are kept and development does not proceed without us.

We have already written numerous letters to the Provincial Department of Human Settlements. We have no intention to write and further letters to the MEC’s office since they continue to ignore us. We write to your office hoping to achieve consultation, democracy and transparency that you once spoke of prior to recent local government elections.

For more information contact:

Slu – 0714331101
Khaya – 0780241683
Ndende – 0791578844

Backyarders to hold Anti-X protest on election day

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http://mpbackyarders.org.za/2011/05/17/backyarders-to-hold-anti-x-protest-on-election-day/#more-493

Backyarders to hold Anti-X protest on election day

17 May 2011

The Mandela Park Backyarders will have a peaceful march in our own community tomorrow morning from 7am. It will be a symbolic event similar to our Anti-Vote Summit where we will be marking an “Anti-X” vote.

The march is an indication of our unhappiness regarding service delivery, the mismanagement of state resources by officials, and the inability of any political party to work with us rather than against us. Service delivery cannot happen without consulting us and involving us every step of the way. We will also be expressing our anger towards government and the police for their violent repression of peaceful protests and land occupations by the poor such as in Talfelsig over the weekend.

We take seriously the right to vote which we believe is as an individual right of each person living in South Africa. There are some people experiencing positive change in their communities and they therefore can vote if the feel they want to.

Equally, those of us who do not experience positive changes in our community because the system does not allow for a progressive people’s politics have a right to boycott the vote. Boycotting the vote is a vote against the political status quo which gives us a choice between Helen Zuma and Jacob Zille – which is really no choice at all.

Please note: Our members are warned not to undermine the right of others to cast their vote and we will respect all IEC rules and regulation to avoid unnecessary conflicts between poor people. (According to the Constitution and the Gatherings Act, we have a right to march on election day as long as we do not do so in the immediate vicinity of a polling station. We will follow the law tomorrow).

For more information:

Slu >> 0736200781
Loyiso >> 0737662078
Nomonde >> 0781862142

Backyarders hold Anti-Vote Summit in Mandela Park in challenge to politicians courting their vote

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http://mpbackyarders.org.za/2011/05/05/backyarders-hold-anti-vote-summit-in-mandela-park-in-challenge-to-politicians-courting-their-vote/

Backyarders hold Anti-Vote Summit in Mandela Park in challenge to politicians courting their vote

Venue: Andile Nhose in Mandela Park
Date: 14 May
Time: 9:00am – 12:30pm

The Mandela Park backyarders would like to invite you to an Anti-Vote Election Summit that will take place at Andile Nhose on the 14 May 2011 from 09:00am until 12:30pm.

The summit objective is to expose the housing crisis in Mandela Park that is leading to a serious attack and violation of people’s dignity. We challenge all political parties (all of whom have ignored us or attacked us) to explain why they think we should vote on the 18th of May.

– In Mandela Park, the City is still cutting our water and installing anti-poor pre-paid water meters. The City seems to have no intention to meet with the community to resolve this issue

– In Mandela Park, even though people qualify for housing subsidies from the state to settle their bills, there are still banks that ignore this and prevent us from using our subisidies. In the name of profit, they evict us instead of trying to negotiate a solution with residents.

– In Mandela Park, there still houses built in 2006 with no electricity. Phambili Nombane which is a subsidiary of Eskom refuses to electrify our houses. They are claiming that the developers did not pay for installation of electricity and therefore people should pay for themselves in order to get installation. This contradicts the housing code and is an illegal refusal of service delivery by Eskom.

We will have testimonies of victims of the above circumstances telling their painful suffering at the hands of our government and how this has affected their lives. We will then discuss why these circumstances have led the people of Mandela Park not to vote in upcoming local government elections.

We invite all government officials, bank officials, and media to come and attend. We challenge all politicians and political parties to explain why they have been ignoring our communities for 15 years and only coming to us during election-time.

Fore more information contact:

Loyiso: 0737662078
Slu:0736200781
Nomonde:0781862142

The Police are back for more housing demolishions in Mandela Park

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http://mpbackyarders.org.za/2011/04/11/452/#more-452

The Police are back for more housing demolishions in Mandela Park

Backyarders Press Statement

On Friday 07 – 2011, at 7.30pm the Anti Land Invasion Unit arrived in Mandela Park threatening to demolish houses that people built themselves. They were confronted by devastated backyarders who demanded to know who instructed them. yjr ALI (Anti Land Invasion Unit), to conduct the operation. Mr. Willem from the Anti Land Invasion told a group of backyarders that Mrs. Kelly (Director General for Human Settlement) sent them to intimidate and demolish our houses. Backyarders demanded Mrs. Kelly cell number and Willem gave it to them. They called Mrs. Kelly on the scene and she denied saying she only instructed them to patrol.

As Backyarders we dismiss Mrs. Kelly’s instruction as rubbish because on the 07 march 2011 we have written a letter to the DHS that was intended to address the housing crisis in Mandela Park and we are still waiting for the DHS to respond but instead we get uninvited sheriffs threatening our very poor community members. Clearly God knows if Mrs. Kelly was playing dim about not knowing what is going on in Mandela Park .

As usual both the DA & DHS in the Western Cape was on its traditional campaign of human violations. These sheriffs came without any court order, they told us verbally that Mrs. Kelly sent them to Mandela Park. As backyarders we managed to block them and chased them out of our community. They threatened to return on Monday.

For the record we also contacted Mr. Stuart Pringle of Sub-council 10 about this conduct and he was not aware of the City decision to demolish people houses.

Our housing demolishing has come at the time when Backyarders are busy preparing a protest to the offices of the Western Cape Department of Human Settlement that will start on the Wednesday this week. We demand that the MEC for Western Cape Human Settlement respond to our demands and the demands of Abahlali baseMjondolo that he will not illegally demolish poor people’s houses again.

The campaign is part of the greater campaign organized by Abahlali Basemjondolo and other 15 communities in and around Western Cape to force the MEC to come out in public to admit his failure to deliver or resign as MEC for Human Settlement.

For more information

Khaya – 0780241683

Slu – 0736200781

Theft at Mandela Park Backyarders office and creche while death threats against backyarder members continue

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http://mpbackyarders.org.za/2011/03/09/theft-at-mandela-park-backyarders-office-and-creche-while-death-threats-against-backyarder-members-continue/

Theft at Mandela Park Backyarders office and crèche while death threats against backyarder members continue

Backyarders Press Release
8 March 2011

At about 4.30am on Saturday morning 4 thieves were arrested by city police while pulling 3 wheely bins full of groceries, cooking pots and office equipment including 2 computers and a printer.

They had broken into 2 offices in our Andile Nhose Community Hall. One was the Backyarder’s office and the other was an affiliate soup kitchen project for the elderly. They also went to break into children’s classrooms at our community crèche where food and children’s belongings were stolen.

A theft and breaking and entering case was opened at Harare police station against the thieves.

We remind you that this is the same police station where a recent attempt murder case was opened against DA member and later changed into common assault due to interference by MEC for housing (Bonginkosi Madikizela).

Pattern of intimidation and death threats against members

There are a number of unprecedented incidents directed to our member’s eve-since the Backyarders lodged the attempted murder case against DA branch chairperson Mr. Mxolisi Molly. Loyiso, a member of the Backyarders, has had his house repeatedly raided by 3 unknown individuals who have left ‘serious warnings’ to his spouse. Busi, another member, faced threats at gunpoint while attending a funeral. The two men warned her saying she talked too much in our meetings. They went on to say it was not her place to tell Backyarders of what Mr. Mxolisi Molly is capable of doing.

On top of all that, we now have had our office and our children’s project broken into. We seriously don’t know what will happen next as the police at Harare Police Station will not take our demands seriously. One detective told us that this is due to influence and interference from senior government officials.

A corrupt state against the poor

These are serious precedents which imply a corrupt state and where the rule of law protects only the rich and politically connected while it criminalises the poor who challenge this or that political party

We thank the city police for the courageous work to capture the thieves on time. It is rare that we, as poor people, receive good service from government so we must thank them when we are helped. We also thank our courageous members who managed to call the city police and who assisted in the capturing of theses thieves.

In the light of the ever increasing elements of politicised criminality in Mandela Park, it must be understood that the underlying factor behind the violence against our members is the lack of real development such as houses and youth facilities that can encourage young people to get involved in positive campaigns. The Backyarders understand these development challenges very well and will do all it takes to uplift our community without the help of the government where necessary.

As Backyarders we cannot divorce the break-ins from these recent death threats that are directed to our members. There is anger and jealousy amongst government officials and politicians since we can do that they cannot do.

Because they don’t have the support of the residents of Mandela Park, they resort to violence and intimidation. Because they don’t have the votes of the residents of Mandela Park, they resort to buying poor people’s support. Since they know they are wrong and unjust, they criminalise us as poor people.

We will never back-down no matter what tactic they apply against us. The tactics of our movement is driven by our circumstances of being poor and oppressed and not greed and power-hungry obsessions.

Umanyano Lwabahlali!

For more information, contact:

Khaya – 078 024 1683
Slulami – 073 620 0781