03 October 2007
28 September 2007
18 September 2007
Sowetan newspaper - Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu is playing with fire.
Sowetan: Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu is playing with fire.
http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=562180
12 September 2007
Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu is playing with fire.
This is the warning from civic groups after Sisulu's threat to remove protesting homeless people from the housing waiting lists.
Speaking in parliament in Cape Town yesterday, Sisulu said: "If they choose not to cooperate with government, they will be completely removed from all housing waiting lists."
But Philani Dlamini, president of Abahlali base Mjondolo, said it was a disgrace for the minister to even contemplate such a move, "especially in the face of rampant corruption and the fact that some people have been on the waiting lists for more than 10 years".
"People do not protest because it is fun. They are homeless and they are trying to knock some sense into politicians' heads," he said.
Anti-Privatisation Forum leader, Trevor Ngwane, said Sisulu's threats were a clear indication that there were no waiting lists.
"If every community was to protest who would be on her waiting lists?" asked Ngwane.
He said more protests should be expected because the government was becoming arrogant.
"They have no plan to build houses for people, they only have a plan to build stadiums for the World Cup," he said.
During question-and-answer time, Sisulu said that the government was developing a national database with strict criteria that would give housing first to children, the elderly, the sick and women-headed households.
Her comments came in the wake of protesters from the Joe Slovo informal settlement in Cape Town setting up burning barricades on the N2, stoning vehicles and destroying houses under construction.
Sisulu said the new database was aimed at eliminating corruption in allocating houses. She said the database would be similar to that used by Home Affairs and the Independent Electoral Commission. She said some of the criteria would include age, vulnerability such as sickness and whether children were involved. She said that women-headed households would "rank highly".
"By the time the list is consolidated no one can move anyone, anywhere, any time, without the permission of the minister," said Sisulu.
The minister said that the government would only provide housing to those who could not afford to buy their own. She appealed to the "able-bodied" to approach the government for help to build their own houses.
The government's flagship N2 Gateway housing project has been dogged by controversy since its inception as residents have complained of shoddy workmanship and high bonds and rents.
http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=562180
12 September 2007
Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu is playing with fire.
This is the warning from civic groups after Sisulu's threat to remove protesting homeless people from the housing waiting lists.
Speaking in parliament in Cape Town yesterday, Sisulu said: "If they choose not to cooperate with government, they will be completely removed from all housing waiting lists."
But Philani Dlamini, president of Abahlali base Mjondolo, said it was a disgrace for the minister to even contemplate such a move, "especially in the face of rampant corruption and the fact that some people have been on the waiting lists for more than 10 years".
"People do not protest because it is fun. They are homeless and they are trying to knock some sense into politicians' heads," he said.
Anti-Privatisation Forum leader, Trevor Ngwane, said Sisulu's threats were a clear indication that there were no waiting lists.
"If every community was to protest who would be on her waiting lists?" asked Ngwane.
He said more protests should be expected because the government was becoming arrogant.
"They have no plan to build houses for people, they only have a plan to build stadiums for the World Cup," he said.
During question-and-answer time, Sisulu said that the government was developing a national database with strict criteria that would give housing first to children, the elderly, the sick and women-headed households.
Her comments came in the wake of protesters from the Joe Slovo informal settlement in Cape Town setting up burning barricades on the N2, stoning vehicles and destroying houses under construction.
Sisulu said the new database was aimed at eliminating corruption in allocating houses. She said the database would be similar to that used by Home Affairs and the Independent Electoral Commission. She said some of the criteria would include age, vulnerability such as sickness and whether children were involved. She said that women-headed households would "rank highly".
"By the time the list is consolidated no one can move anyone, anywhere, any time, without the permission of the minister," said Sisulu.
The minister said that the government would only provide housing to those who could not afford to buy their own. She appealed to the "able-bodied" to approach the government for help to build their own houses.
The government's flagship N2 Gateway housing project has been dogged by controversy since its inception as residents have complained of shoddy workmanship and high bonds and rents.
02 August 2007
Joe Slovo Shack Dwellers march on Parliament against Forced Removals
[download the 47 minute video at http://www.archive.org/details/JoeSlovoMarchAgainstForcedRemovalsInCapeTown]
3rd August 2007
Joe Slovo Shack Dwellers march on Parliament
About 1500 residents of Joe Slovo informal settlement in Langa marched on Parliament on Friday, 3rd August 2007, 10am from District Six (Keizergracht str) against their pending forced removal.
There are about 6000 residents living in shacks in Joe Slovo. They have been threatened by the N2 Gateway project with forced removal to Delft and told only that this will take place next month. There have been no negotiations with the community, who are being treated like animals by the government.
All the Joe Slovo children are at local schools in Langa, which also has clinics and employment projects.
“The vast majority of Joe Slovo residents are unemployed and only get piece work in the city centre from time to time. It will cost us R16 per day per child in taxi fare from Delft to Langa and back to send our children to school. There is no way we can afford this” said the Joe Slovo Committee. Schools in Delft are not at all equipped to handle an intake of hundreds more children.
“Besides which, we have put a lot of effort into community projects in Joe Slovo and are not at all willing or happy to be removed from a place relatively close to the city and dumped in Delft which is more than 30kms from the city centre and which does not even have a train station” added the Joe Slovo Committee.
The resistance movements and the people have long been striving for residence close to places of work. We have also been striving for adequate housing for all people. The government claim for an end to slums is opportunistic as they are shifting the residents from Joe Slovo to a slum called Delft. The only difference will be that the new slum will be further from work and the centre of the city (out of sight and out of mind). This is nothing else but a plan for social control of the working class. We refuse to be dumped at the outskirts of the city. The government claims it is there for the needs of the people. We say they must take responsibility to adequately house all those without homes and all who are living in the slums. We salute the residents of the N2 gateway for standing up against high rents and shoddy housing conditions.
We are also disgusted that Helen Zille, Mayor of Cape Town, has used the recent floods of shack areas in Cape Town to say that "people settled on low lying areas" and if they don't want to be flooded, they must submit to forced removal. This is nothing but a lie since people in Happy Valley (a place of forced removal) were also flooded.
asiyi e-Delft!
we demand adequate houses for all, close to our places of work!
for comment: Joe Slovo committee: Michael Zulu ph 0763852369; Mr Mapasa ph 0837371711
Anti-War Coalition: Gary Hartzenberg ph 0723925859
3rd August 2007
Joe Slovo Shack Dwellers march on Parliament
About 1500 residents of Joe Slovo informal settlement in Langa marched on Parliament on Friday, 3rd August 2007, 10am from District Six (Keizergracht str) against their pending forced removal.
There are about 6000 residents living in shacks in Joe Slovo. They have been threatened by the N2 Gateway project with forced removal to Delft and told only that this will take place next month. There have been no negotiations with the community, who are being treated like animals by the government.
All the Joe Slovo children are at local schools in Langa, which also has clinics and employment projects.
“The vast majority of Joe Slovo residents are unemployed and only get piece work in the city centre from time to time. It will cost us R16 per day per child in taxi fare from Delft to Langa and back to send our children to school. There is no way we can afford this” said the Joe Slovo Committee. Schools in Delft are not at all equipped to handle an intake of hundreds more children.
“Besides which, we have put a lot of effort into community projects in Joe Slovo and are not at all willing or happy to be removed from a place relatively close to the city and dumped in Delft which is more than 30kms from the city centre and which does not even have a train station” added the Joe Slovo Committee.
The resistance movements and the people have long been striving for residence close to places of work. We have also been striving for adequate housing for all people. The government claim for an end to slums is opportunistic as they are shifting the residents from Joe Slovo to a slum called Delft. The only difference will be that the new slum will be further from work and the centre of the city (out of sight and out of mind). This is nothing else but a plan for social control of the working class. We refuse to be dumped at the outskirts of the city. The government claims it is there for the needs of the people. We say they must take responsibility to adequately house all those without homes and all who are living in the slums. We salute the residents of the N2 gateway for standing up against high rents and shoddy housing conditions.
We are also disgusted that Helen Zille, Mayor of Cape Town, has used the recent floods of shack areas in Cape Town to say that "people settled on low lying areas" and if they don't want to be flooded, they must submit to forced removal. This is nothing but a lie since people in Happy Valley (a place of forced removal) were also flooded.
asiyi e-Delft!
we demand adequate houses for all, close to our places of work!
for comment: Joe Slovo committee: Michael Zulu ph 0763852369; Mr Mapasa ph 0837371711
Anti-War Coalition: Gary Hartzenberg ph 0723925859
29 July 2007
Walmer Estate family to be evicted after 80 years in one house
Press Release
Sunday 29 July 2007
2pm
Another poverty stricken Cape Town family is facing eviction after their money-hungry landlord, Ebrahim Desai, sold their house out from under them to foreigners from Europe.
The family of seven, residing at 32 Malan Street, Walmer Estate have lived in the house for 80 years. The mother of the family, Mymoena van Niekerk (74), has a heart problem and must go to Groote Schuur hospital (which is very nearby) weekly for treatment. It is unclear how she will access her constitutional right to health care if she is evicted. Her husband of 78 also stays there as does his 61 year old ill brother.
The family appealed to the magistrate on 31st May not to grant the eviction but they have now been informed that the Sheriff will be coming to the house on Tuesday 31st July 2007 to evict them.
The Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign's affiliate, the Gympie Street Residents Committee has sprung to the family's defence. Activists and communities who are sick and tired of gentrification and the forced removal of the poor from the city have vowed to go to the house to defend the family against the eviction. They are calling for support from anyone else who can assist on Tuesday.
The City of Cape Town and the Ministry of Housing must take some responsibility for the victims of gentrification. When people like the van Niekerk family are evicted, the DA and ANC authorities are very fond of saying that they can't do anything to help because it is a private matter. Yet they are the ones who should have provided housing for all poor families, especially pensioners, especially those who were willing to pay rent to live in derelict houses all the years, yet now face the devastation of eviction at the age of 78!
.../ends
For comment call Willy Heyn on 073 1443619 or Fatima from 32 Malan Street on 073 4166293
Sunday 29 July 2007
2pm
Another poverty stricken Cape Town family is facing eviction after their money-hungry landlord, Ebrahim Desai, sold their house out from under them to foreigners from Europe.
The family of seven, residing at 32 Malan Street, Walmer Estate have lived in the house for 80 years. The mother of the family, Mymoena van Niekerk (74), has a heart problem and must go to Groote Schuur hospital (which is very nearby) weekly for treatment. It is unclear how she will access her constitutional right to health care if she is evicted. Her husband of 78 also stays there as does his 61 year old ill brother.
The family appealed to the magistrate on 31st May not to grant the eviction but they have now been informed that the Sheriff will be coming to the house on Tuesday 31st July 2007 to evict them.
The Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign's affiliate, the Gympie Street Residents Committee has sprung to the family's defence. Activists and communities who are sick and tired of gentrification and the forced removal of the poor from the city have vowed to go to the house to defend the family against the eviction. They are calling for support from anyone else who can assist on Tuesday.
The City of Cape Town and the Ministry of Housing must take some responsibility for the victims of gentrification. When people like the van Niekerk family are evicted, the DA and ANC authorities are very fond of saying that they can't do anything to help because it is a private matter. Yet they are the ones who should have provided housing for all poor families, especially pensioners, especially those who were willing to pay rent to live in derelict houses all the years, yet now face the devastation of eviction at the age of 78!
.../ends
For comment call Willy Heyn on 073 1443619 or Fatima from 32 Malan Street on 073 4166293
15 July 2007
Tenants of N2 Gateway, Langa, to march on Tuesday 17 July
Sunday 15th July 2007
12 noon
LANGA, CAPE TOWN - About 500 tenants from N2 Gateway Tenants Committee in the new N2 Gateway flats in Langa are marching on Parliament on Tuesday 17th July, over high rents for their defective, new flats.
The march begins at Kaisergracht at 12noon.
The tenants will march on Parliament (Lindiwe Sisulu) supported by the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign. Residents from Hanover Park, Khayelitsha and Zille Rain Heights are expected to join the march to show their solidarity.
The residents have faced the same problems as other poor, Black residents who move into low cost housing in Cape Town, namely that within months or even weeks, major defects show up in their flats or houses. These defects include huge cracks in walls, leaking roofs to the extent that parents with children have had to send their children to live with extended family members in other suburbs. There was also a problem in September 2006 that anybody's keys could open anyone else's flats. They still did not change the locks to this day!!!
"On top of this, the flats are tiny and the rent is extremely high for a rotten potato" said Luthando Ndabambi, Chairperson of the Tenants Committee.
The committee has submitted CDs of photos to the Rental Housing Tribunal and the MEC for Housing showing the major defects but to no avail.
About 100 homes have filed grievances at the Rental Housing Tribunal but they have not assisted the residents, despite numerous requests - the Rental Housing Tribunal has not once visited the area. Instead they sent threatening letters to the co-ordinator of the residents committee telling him he is restricted from dealing with housing problems in his community. Apparently there is a high turnover of staff in the Rental Housing Tribunal office, which worsens matters. The Tribunal has also refused to send letters to residents in their home language, isiXhosa.
The flats have since been dubbed "Gateway to Hell".
Communities have also vowed to support the remaining six thousand residents of Joe Slovo informal settlement in Langa, who face forced removal next month. About 1000 other Joe Slovo residents were forcibly removed to make way for the now defective N2 Gateway flats. They were dumped in Delft against their wishes where they faced a hostile community and a desperate life since most residents are unemployed and Delft is in the middle of nowhere, without a train station.
The remaining six thousand Joe Slove residents have also been informed that they will be forcibly moved to Delft next month. They have not been given any information about how their children will be transported to and from their schools in Langa. They have only been told that they are going to be put in temporary asbestos houses.
It is clear that the ANC-DA partnership simply intends to move shackdwellers away from tourists view on the N2 highway and dump them in remote places where they will be out of the public eye. The fact that there is much infrastructure in Langa that people rely on (schools, clinics, buses, trains, employment projects) and the fact that many women in Langa work in domestic work in town (which is very nearby) is of no concern to the DA-ANC Gateway partnership. It costs R20 per day to travel from Delft to town and back whereas it costs only R90 per month for a monthly train ticket from Langa to town and back.
.../ends
For comment call Luthando Ndabambi, Chairperson of N2 Gateway Committee on 083 3318839 or Gary Hartzenberg from Anti-Eviction Campaign on 072 3925859
12 noon
LANGA, CAPE TOWN - About 500 tenants from N2 Gateway Tenants Committee in the new N2 Gateway flats in Langa are marching on Parliament on Tuesday 17th July, over high rents for their defective, new flats.
The march begins at Kaisergracht at 12noon.
The tenants will march on Parliament (Lindiwe Sisulu) supported by the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign. Residents from Hanover Park, Khayelitsha and Zille Rain Heights are expected to join the march to show their solidarity.
The residents have faced the same problems as other poor, Black residents who move into low cost housing in Cape Town, namely that within months or even weeks, major defects show up in their flats or houses. These defects include huge cracks in walls, leaking roofs to the extent that parents with children have had to send their children to live with extended family members in other suburbs. There was also a problem in September 2006 that anybody's keys could open anyone else's flats. They still did not change the locks to this day!!!
"On top of this, the flats are tiny and the rent is extremely high for a rotten potato" said Luthando Ndabambi, Chairperson of the Tenants Committee.
The committee has submitted CDs of photos to the Rental Housing Tribunal and the MEC for Housing showing the major defects but to no avail.
About 100 homes have filed grievances at the Rental Housing Tribunal but they have not assisted the residents, despite numerous requests - the Rental Housing Tribunal has not once visited the area. Instead they sent threatening letters to the co-ordinator of the residents committee telling him he is restricted from dealing with housing problems in his community. Apparently there is a high turnover of staff in the Rental Housing Tribunal office, which worsens matters. The Tribunal has also refused to send letters to residents in their home language, isiXhosa.
The flats have since been dubbed "Gateway to Hell".
Communities have also vowed to support the remaining six thousand residents of Joe Slovo informal settlement in Langa, who face forced removal next month. About 1000 other Joe Slovo residents were forcibly removed to make way for the now defective N2 Gateway flats. They were dumped in Delft against their wishes where they faced a hostile community and a desperate life since most residents are unemployed and Delft is in the middle of nowhere, without a train station.
The remaining six thousand Joe Slove residents have also been informed that they will be forcibly moved to Delft next month. They have not been given any information about how their children will be transported to and from their schools in Langa. They have only been told that they are going to be put in temporary asbestos houses.
It is clear that the ANC-DA partnership simply intends to move shackdwellers away from tourists view on the N2 highway and dump them in remote places where they will be out of the public eye. The fact that there is much infrastructure in Langa that people rely on (schools, clinics, buses, trains, employment projects) and the fact that many women in Langa work in domestic work in town (which is very nearby) is of no concern to the DA-ANC Gateway partnership. It costs R20 per day to travel from Delft to town and back whereas it costs only R90 per month for a monthly train ticket from Langa to town and back.
.../ends
For comment call Luthando Ndabambi, Chairperson of N2 Gateway Committee on 083 3318839 or Gary Hartzenberg from Anti-Eviction Campaign on 072 3925859
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