About 250 Mfuleni residents and police engaged in a tense five-hour stand-off as residents unsuccessfully tried to prevent squatters from Taliban informal settlement in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, being moved onto plots in the area.
On Thursday, about 200 officers from the SAPS, Metro Police and Traffic Police created a barrier between protesting Mfuleni residents and the land on which the new arrivals from Taliban were to settle, which had been demarcated with barbed wire.
Mfuleni residents had set tyres alight on the streets the previous evening.
Despite the threats, of the 1,800 families scheduled to relocate to Mfuleni, 50 families had their shacks relocated on Thursday by eight trucks supplied by the City of Cape Town.
The remaining families, who are living on Metrorail property adjacent to the railway line between Nolungile and Nonkqubela stations in Khayelitsha, were to be moved over the next four to six weeks.
Mfuleni residents said half the plots set aside for the Taliban informal settlers should be given to Mfuleni backyard dwellers.
The conflict has been in the offing for over three years when the move to Mfuleni was mooted.
When Metrorail, which owns the land on which the Taliban informal settlement mushroomed in 2001, tried to move them to the Mfuleni plots on December 6 last year, Mfuleni residents chased them away, destroying those shacks which had been set up.
But the settlers from Taliban say they are now moving to their new plots permanently.
"This time we are not going back to Khayelitsha. Whatever happens we will refuse to give in to what the Mfuleni people demand.
We are not going back to the dangers of living next to railway lines," said Taliban's executive committee member Nomonde Mphithi.
Ward councillors from both areas say they have facilitated numerous meetings between the communities to no avail.
But Mfuleni councillor Fundile Maxakatho indicated that Thursday's move was premature as there had been agreement at a previous meeting with Local Government and Housing MEC Richard Dyantyi.
"Mfuleni residents are sad and angry that they are not going to have a share in the development."
Mfuleni executive committee member Thembile George said: "We are not going to sleep while these people are still here. We want half of the plots because we are also faced with housing problems."
The city's Charles Cooper confirmed that 1,800 Khayelitsha families are being relocated to partially serviced sites in Bardale, Mfuleni.
Cooper said the relocation had been discussed with Dyantyi and the city's councillor for housing, Dan Plato, on three occasions, together with the leadership in Mfuleni and that some Mfuleni residents would also get plots. - Cape Argus
On Thursday, about 200 officers from the SAPS, Metro Police and Traffic Police created a barrier between protesting Mfuleni residents and the land on which the new arrivals from Taliban were to settle, which had been demarcated with barbed wire.
Mfuleni residents had set tyres alight on the streets the previous evening.
| 'This time we are not going back to Khayelitsha' |
The remaining families, who are living on Metrorail property adjacent to the railway line between Nolungile and Nonkqubela stations in Khayelitsha, were to be moved over the next four to six weeks.
Mfuleni residents said half the plots set aside for the Taliban informal settlers should be given to Mfuleni backyard dwellers.
The conflict has been in the offing for over three years when the move to Mfuleni was mooted.
When Metrorail, which owns the land on which the Taliban informal settlement mushroomed in 2001, tried to move them to the Mfuleni plots on December 6 last year, Mfuleni residents chased them away, destroying those shacks which had been set up.
But the settlers from Taliban say they are now moving to their new plots permanently.
"This time we are not going back to Khayelitsha. Whatever happens we will refuse to give in to what the Mfuleni people demand.
We are not going back to the dangers of living next to railway lines," said Taliban's executive committee member Nomonde Mphithi.
Ward councillors from both areas say they have facilitated numerous meetings between the communities to no avail.
But Mfuleni councillor Fundile Maxakatho indicated that Thursday's move was premature as there had been agreement at a previous meeting with Local Government and Housing MEC Richard Dyantyi.
"Mfuleni residents are sad and angry that they are not going to have a share in the development."
Mfuleni executive committee member Thembile George said: "We are not going to sleep while these people are still here. We want half of the plots because we are also faced with housing problems."
The city's Charles Cooper confirmed that 1,800 Khayelitsha families are being relocated to partially serviced sites in Bardale, Mfuleni.
Cooper said the relocation had been discussed with Dyantyi and the city's councillor for housing, Dan Plato, on three occasions, together with the leadership in Mfuleni and that some Mfuleni residents would also get plots. - Cape Argus
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