Category Archives: Pearlie Joubert

M&G: David vs Goliath in Gugulethu

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http://www.mg.co.za/article/2008-11-20-david-vs-goliath-in-gugulethu

David vs Goliath in Gugulethu
PEARLIE JOUBERT – Nov 21 2008 05:00

David is squaring up to Goliath in the form of a small, petite butcher staring down developers of a R350-million mall in Gugulethu.

Construction work on this massive luxury shopping mall, called Gugulethu Square, in Gugs township is under threat because owners of a 25-year-old family business are refusing to make way for the mall.

The owners of SKhoma Butchery, Thandi Kama and her sister Nolothando Koyana, inherited their business from their father. They are refusing to move out of the building from which they operate their highly successful butchery and eatery, saying the mall will only benefit the elite and not the residents of Gugs.

Sand and dust from the construction site blows into the butchery daily as bulldozers and cranes are moving closer and closer to SKhoma Butchery.

Kama is standing her ground, though, because she believes she has a claim on the land. Her father, Stanley Koyana, had been promised that he would have first option to buy the ground on which his shop stood.

“My dad couldn’t own land because he was a black man and wasn’t allowed to buy and own city land. Since 1994 we have had an agreement that we would have first option to buy if ever the land is sold. The city sold this 34 000 square metres piece of land to Khula for R11,70 and never gave us the option to buy part of it. Now we must make way for the mall and continue to pay rent for the rest of our lives. I will fight this,” Kama said this week.

The two sisters received a lawyers’ letter this week giving them until the end of the month to “vacate the premises”.

The letter, from attorneys Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr, told the sisters they are “holding up the construction of the new shopping mall and the damage our clients are already suffering and further future damage, which will be for your account, will be astronomical”.

Kama’s lawyer said she is lawfully occupying the premises because her lease agreement has not been cancelled. Kama and her sister said they “wouldn’t be bought or threatened”.

Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr had been briefed by the landowner, Khula, and the developer, West Side Trading. The latter, which belongs to Gugs businessman Mzoli Ngcawuzele, owns a 9% share in the development estimated to be worth R31,5 million. Ironically Koyana helped Ngcawuzele when he started up his own butchery and restaurant.

Ngcawuzele instructed his lawyers to offer Kama payment for relocating her business and “upon completion, to accommodate [her] in the new Gugulethu shopping mall”. With the support of a handful of other Gugs residents, they’ve vowed to fight “the fat cats” and not take up their offer.

“We are not against development. We are not against the building of the mall even. We are against the fact that promises were made to our father regarding buying the land on which our shop is and those promises were not honoured.

“We’re also against the fact that residents of Gugs will not benefit from the mall — only the already wealthy BEE-beneficiaries will benefit,” Kama said this week.

She said it is always the same — “already wealthy black and white business people benefiting from each and every development that happens”.

The initial investment of R350-million in the new mall was made by The Ideas Fund (Old Mutual), Mzoli Properties, Khula and Group 5. Group 5 is partly owned by ANC businessman Tokyo Sexwale. Requests for information from both Group 5 and its holding business, Mvelaphanda Properties, went unanswered.

The conflict around the mall has been brewing for almost two years when “Gugs Tycoon”, as Ngcawuzele is nicknamed, evicted the tenants of the now bulldozed Eyona shopping centre. Tenants were given six months’ notice and then moved to containers further along the road. Some were moved to the old age home across the road.

Mgcawuzele, the famous owner of the even more famous “Mzoli’s” restaurant and nightclub, said that there is nothing “fishy” about this mall. “To build a mall in Gugs has been my dream for the last eight years. We have consulted with every single community structure and everybody is happy with this development except for the anti-eviction campaign and the butchery across the road.”

He said a community trust is being set up which will “give 5% of the value of the mall to the community”, adding that the paperwork explaining how this will work is not ready yet. And 10% of the mall will be offered to local business people who want to buy into the scheme, he said – but no paperwork explaining this offer is available yet either.

“Everything about this mall is transparent and honest. The mall will change the lives of Gugs residents and no politicians will benefit from it. We’re building this mall for love and not money,” Mgcawuzele said.

The mall is set to open in September next year with 70% of the retail space already given to retailers like Spar, Shoprite, Truworths, Foschini’s, the major banks and numerous other large outlets.

Evicted carwash shop owner Maurice Tena dismissed philanthropy as the driving force behind Gugulethu Square. “The local small business people in Gugs will taste none of this massive cake,” he said. “This cake, like all other major developments in the country, will benefit those driving black 4×4s already [a reference to Ngcawuzele’s large black Jeep Commando]. I was evicted from my shop to make way for this development. We have no guarantees that we will benefit. Other people – white people and the black elite – will benefit from this mall.”

Mcediso Twala from the anti-eviction campaign has been leading demonstrations against the mall for the past month because no local workers are employed on the construction site. “Mgcawuzele is a bully who has employed MK veterans and taxi bosses to threaten [those of] us who are opposed to the way this mall development is proceeding. The poor need to benefit,” he says.

Mgcawuzele denied this, saying 40 workers of the 200 workers on the site were from the area.

M&G: ‘It’s our duty not to be silent’

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http://www.mg.co.za/article/2008-08-24-its-our-duty-not-to-be-silent

News | National | Land & Housing
‘It’s our duty not to be silent’
PEARLIE JOUBERT | CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA – Aug 24 2008 06:00

After 15 years of fighting with government and the Cape Town municipality about their right to live in Langa, the Joe Slovo community finally had their day in the Constitutional Court this week.

Opposing their right to continue living in Cape Town’s Langa township — earmarked for housing development — were Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, government-appointed housing agency Thubelisha Homes, former Western Cape housing minister Richard Dyantyi and the city of Cape Town.

They argue that the squatters are obstructing the delivery of houses to the poor.

Five months ago beleaguered Cape Judge President John Hlophe ruled that the Joe Slovo squatters should be evicted to make way for Sisulu’s N2 Gateway Housing Project’s phase two and three.

This was after the project had been stalled for more than two years because of the squatters’ refusal to move to a temporary relocation area in Delft, 10km from the city.

Hlophe’s ruling, which upheld government’s Breaking New Ground housing policy, found that the Joe Slovo residents were unlawful occupants of this piece of prime Cape Town real estate and had no valid expectation of being housed there.

Central to the Joe Slovo community’s case is their insistence that they have no faith in an undertaking by the authorities that they will be allowed to return to Langa after the area has been developed.

During phase one the original residents of Joe Slovo were promised that they would be rehoused in Langa once the development was finalised. However, with that phase completed, only one resident of 705 was given the opportunity to return.

In a surprise move, the Constitutional Court gave the community permission to challenge the ruling and approach it without going through the Supreme Court of Appeal.

At Thursday’s hearing judges Kate O’Regan and Zac Yacoob questioned the shack-dwellers’ legal representatives, Geoff Budlender and Pete Hathorn, on whether their clients could legitimately expect to continue living in Joe Slovo.

The judges suggested that the squatters could not have expected to live indefinitely in the area and could reasonably expect to be evicted once development started.

Budlender and Hathorn, representing two different sections of the community, had argued that the community had a “legitimate expectation” of residence. They also argued that there had been inadequate consultation between authorities and the squatters.

“I contend for a legal approach and not a legalistic approach,” Budlender told the court.

Deputy chief justice Dikgang Moseneke intervened to suggest that the parties talk to each other and advise the court on a “just and equitable” solution.

The community law centre of the University of the Western Cape and the Centre on Housing Rights for Evictions were admitted as friends of the court, in support of the resident’s right to be properly consulted before being evicted.

After travelling to Johannesburg by train and spending the night at the Methodist Church in Braamfontein, about 200 Joe Slovo residents arrived at the Constitutional Court on Thursday in high spirits.

After the morning’s argument, the mood was more sombre however. “It’s a sad day for us because we’re not supposed to be here fighting with our own government,” said community spokesperson Manyenzeke Sopaqa.

“All my life I’ve been poor and homeless fighting for the right to be heard and consulted. We should be in Cape Town celebrating the birthday of the United Democratic Front. Now, not even this Constitutional Court gives me the comfort that the poor people’s struggle for dignity is over. The road of the poor and homeless is long — our story is a test for democracy and our Constitution and we’re still struggling.”

Joe Slovo leader Mzwanele Zulu said the squatters were angry with the government.

“I don’t know why we are here in 2008 fighting about evictions and our right to be heard and holding those in power to promises they make so lightly to the poor.

“They don’t want to develop that land for the poor — their aim is to make money and it’s our duty not to be silenced.”

Solidarity: Delft houses toxic

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http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=326470&area=/insight/insight__national/

A lethal find
Pearlie Joubert
01 December 2007 11:59

A massive row is brewing between the Joe Slovo squatter community and the government after a Cape Town professor found the presence of the lethal crocidolite asbestos in material similar to that used to build the walls of temporary houses in Delft — a suburb outside Cape Town where government wants to move this 25 000-strong community.

Crocidolite is the most lethal carcinogenic known and, if inhaled, causes mesothelioma, an aggressive and untreatable lung cancer. South Africa is believed to have the world’s highest rate of masothelioma and one of the highest rates of asbestosis.

It’s still not illegal to manufacture building materials containing asbestos. Draft legislation accepted by Cabinet at the end of 2005, but which has not been promulgated, proposed to make it illegal to mine, process, import, export, sell or even transport this potentially lethal mineral. Crocidolite or blue asbestos is regarded as the most dangerous.

Legislation banning the use of asbestos is expected to be promulgated by the end of the month or early next year, said Thendo Nethengwe, assistant director of chemical management at the department of environmental affairs.

The department of housing and the community are locked in a bitter court battle after the department obtained an urgent court order last month to evict 6 000 families from Joe Slovo to Delft so that phase two of the N2 Gateway housing project can continue. The case will be heard in the high court on December 12.

The N2 Gateway project, Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu’s flagship housing project, has been dogged by controversy since its inception. Phase two, consisting of bonded houses to be built by First National Bank, have been on hold for many months because the shack dwellers of Joe Slovo refuse to move to Delft — an area which is about 20km outside town.

On Friday last week an affidavit and report by Chris Harris, professor in the department of geological sciences at the University of Cape Town, was filed at the Cape Town High Court as part of the community’s case opposing government’s plan to move them.

Harris, who is a scientist with 20 years’ experience, was given two pieces of building materials collected from “Tsunami” — the area in Delft where Joe Slovo residents are to be removed — and asked to analyse and investigate them for the presence of asbestos.

“There were two materials — one red and relatively new, which had on it a stamp stating that it was ‘Eyethu Everite asbestos free’, and a grey sample appearing older, which was unmarked. The fibres I examined are 100% consistent with them being chrysotile and crocidolite, respectively. I am satisfied that they are, and accordingly would commonly be referred to as, asbestos,” Harris said in his report.

Harris found the fibres in the red sample were “clearly visible, abundant and are part of the material. The majority of the fibres are colourless, a minority are dark; consistent with colourless fibres being chrysotile and dark fibres being crocidolite.”

The government has been moving Joe Slovo residents into the temporary relocation areas (TRA) in Delft called “Tsunami” and “Thubelisha” for the past three years and has claimed consistently that the material used to construct the temporary houses is reinforced fibre cement and not asbestos.

This week, Prince Xhanti Sigcawu general manager of Thubelisha Homes, the company managing the construction of the N2 Gateway, said that the material used in Tsunami was provided by Everite.

“They specifically got the contract to supply us with material because it is asbestos-free — it’s fibre cement and I don’t know where those two pieces of material analysed come from,” Sigcawu said.

He was adamant the material used to build the houses in Tsunami had been approved by the South African Bureau of Standards.

“We are not manufacturers. If Everite says its building material contains no asbestos and it has the SABS approval, there’s no need to test it,” he said.

Everite Building Products, owned by the JSE-listed Group Five, has provided the building industry with material for more than 60 years and is renowned for its fibre-cement roofing, ceilings and pipes, which are asbestos free.

Everite’s spokesperson, Brian Gibson, said this week that he was “at a loss to explain where this material comes from” and indicated that Harris could have been mistaken when he found asbestos in the building material with an Everite serial number and logo.

“Since December 2002 we have manufactured absolutely no product containing asbestos. If Harris found asbestos to be present in the materials presented to him for analysis, then they were not the materials sold to the department of housing for temporary informal housing,” he said.

But Gibson did not rule out the possibility that old stock might have entered the market. “There was a period until 2003 when stocks contained white asbestos and it could have found its way into the market. I need to see the scientific proof and I would like this material to be reviewed by a recognised asbestos expert using X-ray defraction techniques — we have not manufactured asbestos products for five years,” he said.

Harris said it was unnecessary to do further tests on these pieces of material. “My professional opinion is that further tests are not necessary … I’m satisfied they’re asbestos.”

The two pieces of material were collected from Tsunami by Shaheed Mohamed, a lecturer in mechanical engineering in the faculty of engineering at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Mzwanele Zulu, a student at the university and spokesperson for the Joe Slovo residents committee’s task team fighting the removal, and a qualified civil engineer.

Mohamed, who filed an affidavit as part of the community’s court papers, said he had personally picked up two pieces of material in Tsunami.

“Alongside a TRA ‘house’, I saw two pieces of material, one red and one grey … Both red and grey pieces corresponded with material used in the construction of the walls. I examined the walls and am able to confirm that the patterns on both the red and the grey pieces of material correspond with the material used to build the wall.”

Mohamed said Everite confirmed that the serial number on the material belonged to the firm. “The Everite official even told us that the material is not old, but probably a piece manufactured in 2007.”

Richard Spoor, a human rights lawyer who, on behalf of former asbestos mine workers and their families, took on Gencor, the former investment holding company, and won R460-million in compensation a few years ago, said this week: “Crocidolite is death.

Everite’s Gibson made an affidavit on Thursday claiming that Everite had spent more than R100-million developing material that is asbestos free. He denies that there is any asbestos in the material and says that Harris is mistaken.

“The materials supplied to the department of housing is known as ‘autoclaved big six’ … it contains a combination of both cellulose and man-made organic synthetic fibres. They can, if analysed by a person insufficiently au fait with our product, be confused with asbestiform fibres.”

‘No asbestos in material’
The head of Electron Microscopy at the National Institute for Occupational Health, Jim Phillips, analysed the same two pieces of building material that Harris did and has found that the “red fibre-cement material does not contain asbestos”.

Phillips was asked by the state’s legal team to analyse the material using polarising light microscopy and confirmed Gibson’s findings. He said that the material was “suggestive of a man-made organic fibre”, and not of asbestos.

M&G: ‘We don’t want to live in Delft’

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http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=321174&area=/insight/insight__national/

When Cape Judge President John Hlophe ordered a nine-week postponement to the state’s attempt to evict about 25 000 Joe Slovo residents from their shacks in Langa, the 2 000 people outside court broke into wild celebratory song.

The 6 000 households of Joe Slovo have been opposing government’s attempts to remove them from this piece of land bordering the N2 highway for close to three years now. Every week people are allowed to stay in Joe Slovo is seen as another victory against the state’s attempt to remove them forcibly to the outskirts of Cape Town.

The housing ministry wants residents removed to make way for its controversial flagship housing project, the N2 Gateway. Phases two and three of this project have been on hold for many months because the shack dwellers of Joe Slovo refuse to be moved to Delft – an area about 20km outside the city.

Government has been moving sections of Joe Slovo residents into temporary relocation areas (TRAs) in Delft called “Tsunami” and “Thubelisha” for the past three years.

Residents in Tsunami say the place got its name because “it’s a disaster waiting to happen”.

The TRAs are made up of 24m2 houses closely packed together. A Reconstruction and Development Programme house is generally 30m2.

Communal standpipes and communal ablution blocks stand between the houses, which are prefabricated and made of corrugated fibre-reinforced cement. There are no individual plots for each box house, which has one room.

Residents are loath to move to Delft because their social and economic networks will be severely disrupted.

Many residents who have willingly moved to Delft earlier have lost their jobs because they cannot afford transport or simply cannot get transport from Delft into Cape Town. There is no railway line linking Delft to town.

The Development Action Group (DAG) has found that 63% of people who were moved from Joe Slovo to Delft were either fired or retrenched from their jobs because they were often late or simply did not arrive for work because of lack of transport. Only 40% of the people in Joe Slovo are employed, earning an average of R1 300 per month.

Delft has no electricity. Because there is no power, people spend large amounts of money on paraffin. Policemen in Delft say the lack of power here makes Delft “ungovernable” at night.

“Parts of Delft are pitch dark at night and it’s virtually impossible to do conventional and adequate policing here – the criminals use this and robberies and rape are massive problems in Delft,” a local policeman says.

This policeman, who does not want to be named, says the police are finding “women hurting their babies” in Delft.

“The experts say it’s because people are desperate and depressed. Last month a women strangled her newborn child; three months ago a women burnt her four-month-old child,” he says.

Like most people sleeping in makeshift or non-permanent houses, residents of the TRAs do not feel safe because the walls of their homes can be broken with stones.

“I don’t feel safe here because it’s so dark at night and the crime here is terrible. Thugs break your walls and come in through the door and rape the women – it has happened to women I know,” says Zoleka Mnani, who voluntarily moved to Delft but wants to return to Joe Slovo.

“We don’t want to live here – there are no schools, no electricity and the only people making a good living here are the shebeen owners because here in this dump everybody drinks,” she says.

Mnani lost her job as a contract cleaner in Langa when she moved because she could not afford the taxi fare to town.

Mbantu Mazikile came to Delft from Joe Slovo because he was promised that he would be able to return once the N2 Gateway is finished.

“The ANC councillor promised that they will build us permanent houses in Langa. My family and I left with only our clothes and bedding and with the promise that we can return to Langa once they’ve built houses,” Mazikile says.

The same councillor (ANC Langa councillor Xolile Qope) says people should not worry too much about the lack of electricity because they will only stay in Delft temporarily – it’s already been two years. “Every time a new truckload of people is dropped here, my promise loses a bit of its value. It’s very painful,” he says.

Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu and the project managers of the project, Thubelisha Homes, went to the Supreme Court two weeks ago seeking an eviction order to remove the remaining Joe Slovo residents.

For pictures of Delft go to Labour Net.

M&G: Victory for Joe Slovo residents

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http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=320524&area=/insight/insight__national/

Courtroom number one in the Cape Town High Court is proof that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

On Wednesday, an entire Bench in court was taken up by senior government and housing officials all anxious to secure eviction orders so they can start the relocation of about 5 000 homeless Joe Slovo residents — “relocation” is the preferred term used by the political authorities these days for “forced removals”.

Outside court 1 500 residents of Joe Slovo informal settlement in Langa sat in the road patiently waiting to hear their fate. When local leaders announced the judge’s ruling of an eight-day stay of execution the ululations and cheers could be heard for blocks.

In court, Director General for Housing Itumeleng Kotsoane, Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu’s special adviser Saths Moodley, Prince Xhanti Sigcawu, the general manager of the state-owned developer and project manager of the N2 Gateway housing project Thubelisha Homes, and various senior Thubelisha Homes officials were in attendance, with their two senior advocates.

Policemen allowed a small group of Joe Slovo residents inside the court and when community representatives said they had no legal representation, presiding Cape Judge President John Hlophe allowed community spokesperson Mzwanele Zulu to address the court.

Generally, only advocates can appear before a supreme court judge.

Hlophe suggested that the community contact the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) and later that afternoon top Cape Town housing lawyer Steve Kahanovitz from the LRC was consulted by the community.

On Tuesday, it took the court and employees from Nongogo and Nuku Attorneys, the firm representing the government, more than five hours to stamp each resident’s objection form and a copy of it at tables set up on the pavement outside the court.

The housing minister’s legal team and Thubelisha Homes were seeking an order under eviction legislation that will allow them to clear the ground for more housing in the N2 Gateway project.

This followed what is described as one of the biggest class action cases brought in South Africa, when more than 3 500 Joe Slovo residents walked to the Cape High Court on Tuesday and individually lodged their objections to being removed by the housing ministry.

The N2 Gateway project is government’s biggest and most ambitious housing project yet and has been mired in controversy from the outset.

Apart from a budget overrun of more than R135-million, its biggest challenge is coming from residents of Joe Slovo, who were promised houses when large sections of this informal settlement were destroyed in two big fires three years ago. It is now clear that houses will not be built to accommodate Joe Slovo residents, but those who can afford the bond houses planned by First National Bank in Joe Slovo can apply.

Phases two and three of this massive 22 000-unit development were halted a few months ago because these 5 000 residents have refused to move.

Community leaders of the Joe Slovo task team were upbeat, hailing as a “victory for the poor” Hlophe’s decision to allow them one week to consult a legal representative.

“The court’s decision filled us with hope. This was a victory for us. The government wants to force us with court orders, bulldozers and guns to move. And we’ve stopped the housing minister for now. After 14 years here, I don’t want to move unless they tell us we can come back after they’ve developed the land,” said community leader Manyenzeke Sopaqa.

Thubelisha’s Sigcawu said he “hated” the proceedings this week but had no choice but to go to court to obtain an eviction order. “These are our brothers and sisters. We want to build houses for the poor and in order to eradicate shacks, we can’t allow people to do as they want and stay where they want. I hate this situation — we want to relocate them, we don’t want to forcibly remove them,” Sigcawu said.