Thursday, January 31, 2008

Police Housing Violence

Ten security guards protecting unfinished houses at the N2 Gateway Project in Delft on the Cape Flats have been assaulted, apparently by a mob of backyard dwellers.

More than 1,000 Delft residents were returning from the Cape High Court after an application aiming to evict them from the houses, was postponed to next Wednesday.

A police officer at the scene confirmed that the security guards were assaulted after members of the group, who are illegally occupying the houses, accused them of allowing more people to move in.

There is now a strong police presence in the area.
- SABC

Cape housing project sparks violence, controversy

The ANC in the Western Cape has called on the Democratic Alliance (DA)-led coalition governing the City of Cape Town to dismiss DA city councillor, Frank Martin. Martin is accused of inciting the illegal invasion of unfinished houses under the N2 Gateway Project in Delft.

Provincial secretary Mcebisi Skwatsha says they condemn such actions, in the strongest possible terms. Skwatsha has also criticised Martin for allegedly telling the coloured community of Delft to occupy the houses on the premise that houses are only given to African people.

Skwatsha says they will refer Martin's utterances to the Human Rights' Commission. He says they are reckless, untrue and amount to hate speech.

Violent protest over housing
Meanwhile two people have been arrested at the Bossiesgif informal settlement in Plettenberg Bay for damage to property. This follows violent protests against the demolition of shacks in the area.

The protests erupted on Monday evening. Unconfirmed reports say 12 people were injured during clashes between police and the residents on Tuesday night. - SABC

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Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Another Cape fire

A fire broke out in Cape Town's Bo-Kaap on Tuesday, on a field between St Monica's Home for the Aged and Vista High School in Schotschekloof.

According to eyewitnesses, the fire was started by four vagrants, but this could not be confirmed by the fire department.

The neighbourhood filled with the smell of burning rubbish, grass and Port Jackson trees. The smoke billowed up to the high school, where pupils stood on the edge of the playground, watching as firefighters put out the blaze.

The Cape Town fire department sent eight firefighters, assisted by members of the Table Mountain National Park's fire fighting division. - Cape Times

Home stoned in race row

A legal row about the sale of a Khayelitsha house has blown up into a racial war, with Khayelitsha residents stoning the home of a new "coloured" neighbour.

After a protracted legal battle, teacher Adrian Adams was due to move into the house on Monday, but residents welcomed him with a stream of abuse, saying he belonged in Mitchells Plain and alleging that coloured people would bring tik into the area.

Ownership of the house has been disputed for some time, with the previous owner, Nozibele Stamper, refusing to vacate the premises to make way for Adams.

Then on Tuesday night the animosity erupted into violence after a crowd of residents gathered outside the D-section house in support of Stamper.

A crowd of about 400 had gathered and the house's windows had been shattered by stones.

The mob threatened two security guard Adams had hired to watch the house.

The crowd then jeered at a dozen police officers who tried to disperse them peacefully.


Housing project in ‘anarchy’

Cape Town city councillor Frank Martin of the DA was accused yesterday of stirring racial tension and plunging a national housing project into anarchy.

The accusations were made during an urgent application in the Cape High Court for the eviction of about 1,500 people who invaded partly completed units of the N2 Gateway low-cost housing project last month.

Martin allegedly told about 200 families living in backyard shelters — most of them coloured — they were entitled to move into the homes because they had been on waiting lists for years. But the national and provincial governments said the homes were allocated to people from squatter camps.

Advocate Steve Kirk-Cohen, representing the national housing department, told the court: “ [Martin’s] behaviour has brought a well-thought-out national housing plan to its knees.”

He said Martin had incited racial tension by telling his coloured “constituents” only black people were getting cheap state housing.

The application continues today. - The Times

Cape housing protest turns violent

Protesters

Violent clashes broke out between police and residents in Southern Cape last night

Violent clashes broke out between police and residents at the Bosiesgif informal settlement in Plettenberg Bay in the Southern Cape last night.

This was after the municipality demolished the newly erected shacks on Monday, when the residents ignored a warning not to erect more shacks in the area demarcated for housing development.

One person was injured while another was arrested after police fired rubber bullets at the residents. Last night, the residents turned on their fellow shack dwellers, accusing them of being spies for the municipality. They demolished shacks belonging to the alleged informers and threatened more retaliation today against them.

- SABC

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Sewage flows due to power failures

The continuing power cuts are putting public health at risk, with an estimated 4,000 litres of raw sewage having flowed into the Milnerton lagoon because a pump was shut down.

The sewage flowed into a reed bed that feeds the lagoon after the Koeberg pump which does not have a backup generator was hit by blackouts.

On Tuesday morning Eskom said the risk of load-shedding on Tuesday remained high.

On Monday night, a Code Red warning was broadcast nationwide, signalling that the national electricity supply system was "under increasing strain" and that even stoves, microwaves and kettles had to be switched off until demand eased.

On Tuesday city spokesperson Charles Cooper said the council had dealt with the sewage problem and if Eskom stuck to its schedule of 2.5-hour planned outages, the problem should not be repeated.

While there are 395 sewage pumps in the Cape Town Metropole, the city has only "15 fixed and 12-15 mobile generators" to provide back-up electricity for all the pumps in the case of power outages, the city confirmed.

As well as the Koeberg sewage pump shutdown, a pump in False Bay has also spilled raw sewage into the sea near Simon's Town, Cooper confirmed, but he described it as "a small problem".

The Koeberg pump that overflowed last week is adjacent to Koeberg Road in Theo Marais Park and pumps sewage from a vast area, including Century City, Sanddrift, Milnerton, parts of Goodwood and Tygerhof, out of a wastewater canal and into the Potsdam wastewater treatment works.

A senior city engineer said he had first noticed a problem during a power cut on Friday, when he saw untreated sewage flowing along the stormwater canal and going "straight into the lagoon".

He estimated that about 4,000 litres of raw sewage had flowed into the lagoon over the past few days and said the situation was "cause (for) alarm".

"There is so much in flow … It is a very serious matter," he said, adding that the city was trying to confine and treat the spillage.

Cooper confirmed that experts had been called in to treat the spill with bio-augmentation agents.

He said the affected pump was receiving an electrical upgrade which, along with the replacement of old equipment, would enable better generator connectivity.

The Milnerton problem could not be blamed solely on power outages, as there had also been an electronic system failure at the pump station.

Apart from the Milnerton and Simon's Town incidents, there had been no other problems because of power outages.

Electrician Christo Viljoen, who was upgrading the switchgear at the pump to make it compatible with a backup generator, said the pump had "tripped" last Wednesday.

The following morning he saw raw sewage flowing into the lagoon from the Diep River.

Environmentalist Andy Birkinshaw said the government had to be held accountable for this new development, as it was bound to protect the environment and the people.

"Raw sewage running into the lagoon is totally unacceptable. We should call on the minister of environmental affairs to take Eskom to task for devastating our environment," Birkinshaw said.

It appeared that the City of Cape Town's environmental department didn't "look after the environment".

Residents around the lagoon have raised voices of concern about the environmental hazard, along with regular users of the lagoon.

Richard Rundle, Trustee for Environment and Waterfront at Woodbridge Island a residential complex adjacent to the lagoon has reported an "infestation" of small flying insects that could be seen feasting on the sewage flowing into the lagoon.

The director of the West Coast Field Study Centre at Cape Environmental Trust, Frank Wygold, said the Lagoon and the Rietvlei nature reserve in Table View were used as an environmental training ground and raw sewage spillage was a threat to the lower end of the food chain.

"Raw sewage would kill the lower portions of the food chain and as a result would destroy the area as a training ground," he said. - Cape Argus


Cape residents gather outside court

Cape residents

A large group of backyard dwellers illegally occupied the houses in December 2007

Hundreds of people have gathered outside the Cape High Court to hear an application to evict about 1 000 backyard dwellers from incomplete houses in Delft.


The application is spearheaded by the government's housing agency, Thubelisha Homes. A large group of backyard dwellers illegally occupied the houses in December last year.

The units form part of the N2 Gateway Housing Project. 70% of the homes are earmarked for informal dwellers squatting along the N2 in the Joe Slovo informal settlement in Langa. The remaining houses are set to be allocated to backyard dwellers.

Judgment is expected later this afternoon. - SABC



Monday, January 28, 2008

One killed in Cape shack fire

A shack fire in an informal settlement on the Cape Peninsula has claimed the life of a woman.
Six hundred people have been left homeless by the blaze at Fisantkraal near Durbanville.

About 250 shacks were razed in the fire, which started just after six yesterday evening. Nine fire engines from Cape Town fought the blaze for two hours. The cause of the fire is unknown at this stage.

Meanwhile, Cape Peninsula firefighters were kept busy with damping-down operations and monitoring hot spots in Ocean View and Scarborough, where a vegetation fire had been raging for two days. Six houses and several informal dwellings were destroyed in the blaze, which started in Scarborough and spread rapidly to Ocean View.

Two fire fighters, who sustained second and third degree burns while battling the flames, were expected to undergo surgery at Claremont hospital yesterday. - SABC

Saturday, January 26, 2008

70 people lose their homes to veld fires

Western Cape Disaster Management head, Greg Pillay, has confirmed that 70 people have been displaced after several shacks and six houses were razed by raging veldfires in the Cape Peninsula.

Two firefighters, who sustained second and third degree burns while battling the devastating fires at Scarborough, are in a stable condition at the Claremont hospital. They will be undergoing surgery tomorrow.

Firefighters will continue to monitor hot spots as strong winds continue. Pillay says 28 firefighting vehicles and three helicopters are being used. - SABC

Scarborough fires brought under control

Fires in Scarborough which started on Friday evening were under control on Saturday morning, Cape Town Fire and Rescue Services said.

"We are managing the fires, presently they have stopped spreading but we are a bit concerned about the blowing wind. We have a total of 60 firefighters and four helicopters in the air assisting with fire bombing," said Greg Pillay, head of the disaster management centre.

He said six shacks had burnt down in Oceanview and 70 people had been affected, however no injuries had been reported in the area.

The fires started in Scarborough, along Plateau Road, in the vicinity of Cape Point Nature Reserve and at Red Hill, in Simon's Town.

Six houses had been razed and five firefighters were taken to hospital.

Three were discharged after being treated for smoke inhalation on Friday night.

"Two firefighters who sustained burns were still in hospital," he said.

The South African National Defence Force and South African National Parks Board were also assisting with aerial support to get the fires under control, said Pillay.

Various roads in the southern suburbs were closed and motorists were asked to exercise caution and not drive into the affected areas. - Sapa

Firemen injured in Cape blaze

Cape Town - Fires raged in Scarborough and were spreading rapidly on Friday night as firefighters tried to get them under control, the Cape Town Fire and Rescue Services said.

Firefighters would work through the night to get them under control, said Greg Pillay, the head of the disaster risk management centre.

Six houses had been razed and five firefighters were taken to hospital.

"Three firefighters have since been discharged, having suffered from smoke inhalation .

"Two other firefighters who sustained burns will remain under observation overnight," he said.

The fire started in Scarborough, along Plateau Road, in the vicinity of Cape Point Nature Reserve and at Red Hill, Simon's Town.

73 firefighters deployed

According to the department a total of 73 firefighters and 23 firefighting units had been deployed.

The South African National Defence Force was also assisting with aerial support to get the fires under control, said Pillay.

"We used the helicopters for aerial assistance but they could not be up for more than 20 minutes.

"Currently the fire is rapidly spreading towards Misty Cliffs," he said.

Police closed off various roads and an appeal was made to motorists to exercise caution and not proceed to the affected area.

There had been no fatalities but a fire engine was badly damaged. - SAPA

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Zanemvula in disarray with 600 new houses defective

ONE of Nelson Mandela Bay‘s biggest housing developments yet, the controversial R1-billion Zanemvula settlement, is in disarray amid revelations that 600 of the homes are defective and claims that the project managers are trying to cut corners by building smaller houses.

The problems threaten to push the development into the same sort of bureaucratic quagmire as Cape Town‘s troubled N2 Gateway project – which now has the same contractor. Like the Gateway project, Zanemvula was launched on the instructions of the national government.

A technical audit conducted on the durability of houses already built by the municipality before the project was taken over by state-owned developer Thubelisha has revealed that the 600 defective houses have to be either corrected or completely destroyed before the developer builds further houses.

The project has been hit by various problems, ranging from allegations of lack of capacity by Thubelisha to tackle such a project, to allegations of political interference and the involvement of many role players in one project.

The aim is to resettle people currently living in the floodplains in and near Soweto-on-Sea, Veeplaas and Chatty.

Houses were supposed to be completed by December last year, but no foundations have yet been dug as contractors are only now being appointed.

Thubelisha, the newly appointed project managers, are being accused of now wanting to change the project specifications and the scope of the work by reducing the size of the units to speed up construction, but still getting the agreed amount.

The project involves the construction of about 1,700 units.

Thubelisha provincial manager Nicholas Tsewu yesterday declined to comment.

The municipality yesterday denied allegations by certain contractors that the project had stalled, but admitted that there were problems.

Municipal housing and land executive director Seth Maqetuka, yesterday said work and planning on the project was going on.

“Thubelisha are appointing contractors. There are issues which must be sorted out first before they can start,” he said.

Maqetuka revealed that, following a technical audit by the National Housing Building Research Centre, it was found out that some houses built by the municipality were faulty.

Maqetuka said: “The municipality is the developer, and Thubelisha the project managers. A technical audit conducted by the NHBRC on houses built by the municipality in Chatty Extensions 3 and 4 before the project was handed over to Thubelisha, found out that about 600 units are defective.

“Some are still under construction. These are additional problems which Thubelisha is inheriting. There are structural defects, and the foundations have problems. The NHBRC has recommended that some of the units be rectified and some completely demolished,” Maqetuka said.

He also expressed concern that there would be financial implications. This new problem had to be addressed before Thubelisha started building. The houses were built by six different emerging contractors appointed by the municipality.

Maqetuka said an urgent meeting between the municipality, the provincial government, Thubelisha and the NHBRC was being arranged.

The project was initiated by President Thabo Mbeki in 2003. Mbeki asked Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu to arrange for the removal of the people from such conditions.
- The Herald

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Dumping blocks Nyanga's sewarage system

Illegal dumping of rubble in the sewer system has exposed Nyanga residents to health risks because of sewerage spillage, Cape Town City said on Wednesday.

"Water and Sanitation officials were shocked to find two large rocks in the 450mm diameter pipeline.

"These massive rocks did not land up in the system by accident. We again urge residents not to deposit any builders' rubble, rocks, engine parts, sand or oils into the sewerage system," said councillor Clive Justus from the Utilities Portfolio Committee.

Blocked sewerage causes overflows which pose severe health threats to the area's residents, he said.

Justus urged residents to report any incidents of illegal dumping to Metro Police at 021 596 1999. - Sapa

Monday, January 21, 2008

Fire razes 60 shacks

A spate of fires - stoked by soaring temperatures and fanned by strong winds - saw firefighters doing battle in informal settlements, on mountains and in the veld at the weekend.

The SA Weather Service warned that conditions in the Cape Town metropole and Boland were "favourable for the development of runaway fires". The temperature on Monday is expected to climb to 33°C, while the wind is to be "fresh southerly".

In one of the "more destructive fires" on Sunday, at least 60 shacks were razed in Site C, Khayelitsha, leaving 300 people homeless.

Cape Town's Disaster Risk Management spokesperson, Wilfred Solomons-Johannes, said no one had been injured in the blaze.

He said the people who lost their homes had been given blankets, food, clothing and building materials.

Photo: Leon Lestrade, Cape Argus

"Although the cause of the fire has yet to be determined, we appeal to residents, especially those in informal settlements, to be careful when working with open flames or using candles," he said.

At Red Hill, near Simon's Town, a "huge mountain fire" that had been raging for two days was extinguished early on Sunday.

Two Working on Fire helicopters and one from the SA Defence Force had "worked nearly throughout since Friday" to bring the blaze under control, Solomons-Johannes said.

"The fire was in an area inaccessible to our ground crews. Quite a vast area has been burnt," he said.

At least 100 voluntary firefighters had also been working to quell the blaze.

Solomons-Johannes said gale-force winds of up to 65km/h had been recorded in False Bay and Table Bay at the weekend, but no reports of wind damage had been received.

The Cape Town Fire Command and Control Centre said that in about 10 hours it had gone out to extinguish at least 20 small veld and grass fires.

In Betty's Bay, firefighters remained on high alert following a huge runaway blaze a week ago. Overstrand Municipality's chief fire officer, Riaan Jacobs, said the fire had flared up again, but was quickly put out. - Cape Times

EC Housing MEC announces low-cost housing plan

EASTERN Cape Housing MEC Thoko Xasa has responded to a tongue lashing from her national counterpart, by announcing a low-cost housing delivery turnaround plan for the province.

Recovering from a stern warning issued late last year by Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu that "somebody's head will be cut off" if the Eastern Cape Government did not create the capacity to spend its full housing budget, Xasa said this week her department would in the new financial year, beginning April 1:

  • Build 26000 quality houses of at least 40m2 each;
  • Repair badly built houses that are falling apart;
  • Continue to upscale the tempo and quality of housing delivery;
  • Win back the R500 million her department had to hand back to national government due to a lack of capacity in spending it;
  • Build a new database of material suppliers and emerging contractors;
  • Overhaul material supply chains; and
  • Create new payment options to eliminate cash flow problems.

Xasa made the announcement at a provincial housing summit at the Regent Hotel last week, which was attended by both building material suppliers and emerging contractors.

She vowed to win back every cent of the budget forfeited to build quality low-cost houses.

Xasa said 26000 units was a low target, but her commitment was also to repair houses that were badly built and even bulldoze them if necessary.

Xasa also met with suppliers during a morning-long session last Thursday to discuss high prices, the quality of building material and a process to standardise prices.

She urged all building material suppliers to register with the provincial government in terms of the National Home Builders Registration Council (NHBRC) in a bid to pull all stakeholders together to achieve her goal of getting housing in the Eastern Cape back on track.

This would mean that every part in the supply chain material suppliers, contractors and sub contractors would now be regulated in terms of the NHBRC.

Last year Sisulu tore into the Eastern Cape Housing Department for what she called a dismal effort in building houses.

At the time she said housing in the province was in a crisis.

The R500m she took from the department was redirected to the Northern and Western Cape as the two provinces had demonstrated capacity to use their budgets effectively.

Xasa said yesterday national government would make good on the promise she received from Sisulu that her department would be reimbursed when they have built the capacity to spend their budget.

Xasa warned municipalities who were showing little success in housing delivery programmes.

We will take it back (the money and contracts to build houses at local government level) and reallocate funds. The payment of suppliers and contractors will also be overhauled in consultation with both groups.

New supply chain options for both suppliers and contractors are being finalised at the moment and will be ready for implementation with the new provincial housing building plan by April 1.

The Democratic Alliance in the province congratulated Xasa on her initiative to invite stakeholders to a planning strategy. - Daily Dispatch

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Khayelitsha fire razes 50 shacks

Khayelitsha, an partially informal township on the Cape Flats

A fire gutted 50 shacks in the area

A fire at an informal settlement at Khayelitsha in Cape Town has left about 150 people homeless.

Khayelitsha is a partially informal township on the outskirts of Cape Town on the Cape Flats and is reputed to be the third largest township in South Africa. It is home to between 500,000 and 1 million people, and runs for a number of kilometers along the N2.

Cape Town Fire says 50 shacks were gutted in the blaze that broke out at about 11pm last night. Four fire fighting units managed to douse the flames after four hours. No one was injured during the blaze. The cause of the fire is not known at this stage.

The area is notorious for shack fires that quickly spread from dwelling to dwelling because of poor infrastructure.

City warns of high fire risks
The City of Cape Town earlier warned that the risk of fire was still high despite a dramatic decrease in the number of emergency and disaster related incidents over the festive period.

The city says fire incidents were reduced by almost half, from the 806 incidents recorded during the 2006 festive period to 467 in 2007. Councillor, Dumisani Ximbi, says the city appreciates the responsible behaviour of residents over the holiday period. - SABC

Saturday, January 19, 2008

McGregor housing remains a dream

Tensions have reached boiling point in the Winelands town of McGregor as living conditions for hundreds of residents deteriorate and land earmarked years ago for housing remains untouched.
Now hundreds of informal settlers in the area have squared off against the local council over what they see as a blocked housing development.

People live in cramped conditions in a squatter camp and need to be moved, but land identified four years ago as suitable is still undeveloped.

'We want electricity here, or are we not privileged to move forward?'
A visit to the McGregor squatter camp in the quiet town near Robertson showed families living in one or two-bedroomed shacks with no electricity and very little running water.

About 115 families share 11 toilets and a few taps that provide water for cooking and cleaning.

People in the informal settlement are angry, and prepared to make their anger known.

When a Weekend Argus team walked through the settlement one resident shouted: "Are we living in apartheid again?

"We want electricity here, or are we not privileged to move forward?

"Must we keep moving back?"

According to the Breede River Municipality website and several residents, McGregor has a housing backlog of more than 450.

A housing development plan for the area indicates that just over 400 low-cost houses are to be built in the next three to five years.

The website states that backyard dwellers "live in appalling conditions" and it was "absolutely necessary to relocate these backyard dwellers to formal housing units".

The website only speaks of "28 individuals" squatting illegally, but a visit to the site saw more than 100 shacks in the camp.

At issue is a decision taken four years ago after a public participation process that land known as Steenoonde was suitable for development, but since then the local council appears to have delayed the development of the land.

Residents say Steenoonde was deemed suitable for housing in terms of installing electricity and water services, closeness to transport, shops and schools.

It also had the major advantage of being available as it was council-owned.

The council website identifies three other areas earmarked for housing but Steenoonde is not mentioned.

Emily Otto, a resident of the squatter camp, said: "This is not where the community's heart is and the council knows this.

"They know people want to live in Steenoonde.

"This is not a good life, with 10 households using one toilet, it's pathetic."

Residents say Steenoonde is now never mentioned by the local council.

One of the areas the municipality mentions as being earmarked for priority housing is Grewe Street in the Krans Nature Reserve, but residents say this land can't be built on as it is part of a nature reserve and extremely rocky.

However, the municipal manager for the Breede River Municipality, Soyilsile Mokweni, said the Krans area was not a nature reserve but municipal owned land near to existing municipal infrastructure services.

Mokweni said: "Steenoonde is remote and has no bulk services.

"Apart from the lack of bulk infrastructure services, its development will be perpetuating apartheid planning and not complying with the housing development policy of the provincial government that seeks integration of the different communities."

The municipality planned to build 300 housing units and was doing an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) in the Krans area, he added.

Residents also said they were upset because the Breede River Municipality disbanded McGregor's ward committee last month. Residents said the body used to listen to their problems and made things happen.

In a letter informing the ward committee that it had been disbanded, the Breede River Municipality said a meeting was to be held earlier this month with the public to elect a new ward committee, but it had not taken place.

Members of the disbanded ward committee and residents said they were unhappy about the dismissal.

They said they believed local councillor Gawie Fielies wanted to have "all the power".

A resident in the squatter camp, Magrieta Losch, 43, said: "We are unhappy about the ward committee being disbanded for no reason. We chose them and we don't know what is happening.

"With the council you never know what's happening and you never hear the truth. But there was trust in the ward committee."

Approached for comment, Fielies said he did not have authority to speak to the media about service development issues.

Maria Oostendorff, a member of the old ward committee, said people had been promised development and housing for years but nothing ever happened.

"People are fed up now and they don't know what to do any more. They want to move out of these houses but they don't know when, even though things were discussed and decided on years ago."

Oostendorff, other members of the disbanded ward committee and other community members, most of them who are not on the housing waiting list, have now formed the McGregor Development Forum.

Mokweni said the disbandment came after several interventions by the speaker of the Breede River Municipality had failed to resolve the in-fighting among the members of the ward committee and the ward councillor, Fielies.

He said this was in line with ward establishment policy as adopted by the council and added that the term of office for a ward committee was two years and that their term would have expired in March anyway.

"Councillor Fielies has a responsibility to uphold the decisions of the municipal council," said Mokweni.

"Thus it is far from the truth to say he has single-handedly stifled and delayed the development of housing in McGregor." - Cape Argus


Cape apartments join world's most pricey

Cape Town's apartments, especially at the top end of the market, are among the most expensive in the world, according to the Global Property Guide.

While London, New York and Moscow are the world's most expensive cities in which to buy an apartment, South Africa made it on to the list of close to 50 cities.

The guide said that in South Africa, the price of a 120m2; two-bedroom flat in Cape Town was around US$2,784 (R18,500) per square metre, about twice the price of similar properties in Johannesburg at $1,376 (R9,000) per square metre.

In what is believed to be the highest price ever paid per square metre for residential brick-and-mortar in this country, an 18m2 parking garage in Clifton has been sold for R2-million, R400,000 more than the asking price for an apartment in the same building... - Cape Argus

Friday, January 18, 2008

Hout Bay shack dwellers plan resistance to forced removal

About 75 shack dwellers and one family living in a house in a section of Hangberg in Hout Bay, Cape Town are facing eviction from their land by South African Sea Products.

“The community is angered and intends to resist the forced removal because they say that some of the land belongs to the City and not to South African Sea Products, so the company does not have the right to evict them” says Chairperson of the Hangberg Solution Seekers Association (a community organisation), Michelle Yon.

She adds that most of the residents work in Hout Bay as fishermen and some work as casuals at the company itself. Yon goes on to say that they will not allow South African Sea Products to forcibly remove them without alternative accommodation being provided.

“The community tried already to buy the hostel themselves to set up a low cost housing project and were under the impression that the company would still sell it to them,” explains Yon.

The community will appear in the Cape High Court on Tuesday (29 January 2008) to oppose the eviction order. They will be assisted by the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign.

Attempts to get hold of South African Sea Products were unsuccessful. - Bush Radio NEWS

Home builders to feel the heat

If the South African Reserve Bank needs further evidence of the dampening effect of higher rates on real economic activity, recent building data has been just that, according to independent economic analysts.

"We remain convinced that the current interest-rate environment is proving to be very restrictive for the property market, hence the fact that real building activity in November 2007 was at the same levels last seen in Q2 2006," they say.

A major challenge facing provincial governments and the national Department of Housing is also the extreme escalation in building costs, they add. The average cost of building a 30-square-metre Reconstruction and Development Programme unit jumped from just more than R10 000 in 2002 to just more than R25 000 in 2006/07.

Delivery is also seen as a concern in a poor province like Mpumalanga, where at current levels of delivery the housing backlog may only be eradicated well beyond 2020.

As it stands, building activity in South Africa continued to decline in November and home builders are therefore expected to remain under pressure well into 2008.

Although non-residential building activity showed some improvement, the data still shows that home building declined by 10,7% in real terms in the three months ended November compared with the previous three months.

This means that the next two quarters will probably see very subdued levels of building activity in the residential sector, note the analysts.

While building completions fell by 14,4% for the quarter ended November, plans passed did tick slightly higher. "However, the rise of just 0,4% quarter-on-quarter in plans passed hardly signals a meaningful improvement in activity going forward for the next three to nine months," say the analysts.

"Overall, the November building stats were slightly less negative than the October figures, but any improvement on just one month's worth of data would hardly signal a reversing trend. The main point is that the property construction sector remains under pressure, and this is likely to continue well into 2008," they emphasise.

"We expect overall building activity (residential and non-residential) to decline by about 12% quarter-on-quarter in Q1 2008, led primarily by a decline in home building," they note.

With real home-building activity set to decline to 2005 levels in the next few months, the prospect of higher rates will be a major concern for developers.

Furthermore, with the full effects of the rate hikes to date not yet fully reflected in the economy, a further interest-rate hike taking repo to 11,5% would have lasting effects on housing demand into 2009.

The 2006/07 fiscal year saw significant improvements in delivery of basic housing by the Western Cape, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and Limpopo. North West province deserves special mention in this regard, increasing its housing delivery by more than 200% in 2006/07 compared with the average of the previous four years.

Provinces that have fallen behind in the delivery of housing are the Eastern Cape, Northern Cape and Mpumalanga. Annual housing delivery in Eastern Cape fell in 2005/06 and 2006/07 to just half the levels it was between 2002 and 2004.

The major building-cost increase occurred in 2005, which probably accounts for the slump in delivery in that year as the number of units completed fell by 25% from 2004, say the analysts.

As budgets were readjusted the following year, so 2006/07 delivery surged by nearly 50% from 2004 levels.

"The delivery of low-cost housing remains a key policy objective of government and it is encouraging to see many provinces making inroads into their formal housing shortages. Slack delivery in Eastern Cape is a concern, given the sheer number of impoverished South Africans in that province," conclude the analysts. -- I-Net Bridge

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Racial tensions force shop to close down

A white businesswoman who opened a fish and chips shop in the Du Noon township near Table View has had to shut down after opposition from local businesses and local residents.

Milnerton businesswoman Ilde Hugo, 30, rented space at the Du Noon taxi rank from the Du Noon Taxi Association (DTA) and ran the shop from a mobile container, but residents said the opening of the shop at the beginning of January had raised tensions because local business owners believed they would lose customers.

Tensions peaked on Wednesday last week when a crowd surrounded the container and forced the shop to close. Hugo said at least 40 people had surrounded her shop with placards on which slogans like "you must close down and go" were written.

She said she had worked in various townships for nine years and had not been threatened by the action. She said the disgruntled business owners had argued that they would not be allowed to trade in suburbs like Table View and Parklands.

She said the group who had stormed her shop did not represent the views of other Du Noon residents. "There were 40 people saying they represent the whole community, but there are thousands of people in Du Noon," she said.

At a meeting held on Monday in Du Noon to discuss the issue, a resident, who did not want to be named, said local businesses, backed by the community, were angry with the DTA because it had not consulted them about introducing a competitor at the rank.

The community member said business people had threatened retaliation by calling on rival taxi associations and Golden Arrow buses to operate in the area.

He said there were fears that if this happened there would be bloodshed in the township.

But DTA spokesperson Terrence Mhangatshoba scoffed at the concerns, which he said were driven by "jealousy and prejudice".

Mhangatshoba said the food offered by local business people at the taxi rank was "not good".
He said DTA needed different types of food at the rank and this was why they had asked Hugo to open a fish and chip shop.

"We liked her services. She came with a different thing. We were happy," he said.

Hugo said she had been told by the DTA that she could continue to operate on the premises.

She employed two permanent staff and did not sell the same products as other businesses. It was unclear if she would re-open the shop.- Cape Argus

'Fear, chaos' as blaze ravages Hermanus

Firefighters battling a massive blaze that started in the mountains above Hermanus, and was driven into the town by howling winds, were "praying for rain" on Tuesday night.

At least three houses were gutted and although no injuries were reported, an 89-year-old woman narrowly escaped from her burning home...

Kritzinger said the cause of the fire was unknown, but there were rumours that a group of squatters camping in the mountains on Monday night may have started the blaze.

"We can't be certain that's what we suspect," Kritzinger said.

He said the fire had started in the mountains, just opposite the Gateway shopping centre.

"Totally outrageous"
winds had pushed the fire from the mountain into the new harbour area of Hermanus where three thatched-roof houses were gutted, said Kritzinger.

The wind had also carried the fire through the Northcliff and Hermanus Heights areas, he said.

Kritzinger said about 250 police, law enforcement and fire brigade officers - assisted by local security companies and volunteers from the nearby Overberg Municipality - were battling the blaze and he expected their efforts to continue "through the night".

"We're hoping for rain, praying for rain," he said.

No serious injuries had been reported, although some rescue personnel had suffered smoke inhalation or got smoke in their eyes, said Kritzinger.

Firefighters battled in hot, windy conditions throughout the afternoon.

"The blaze is so hot you can feel all the dust and hot sand coming to you," said Ferove Suliman, a former firefighter who volunteered to help.

Residents out in the streets watched firefighters trying to put out small blazes and smouldering patches of grass and flora. - Cape Times

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Lack of capital holding back SA innovation

Difficulty finding venture capital is one of the main reasons local research companies battle to develop their inventions commercially, members of Parliament's science and technology portfolio committee heard on Tuesday.

Speaking at the start of public hearings on the Technology Innovation Agency Bill, science and technology director-general Phil Mjwara told MPs that South Africa had also not been "100 percent up to speed" in the way it managed intellectual property rights.

The draft legislation provides for the establishment of a Technology Innovation Agency (TIA), aimed, among other things, at creating an environment in which home-grown inventions can be commercialised locally.

"What we find in South Africa is that most research gets exploited overseas, in terms of converting the research results into technology development and production, and then we have technology transfer back from overseas into local industry.

'most research gets exploited overseas'
"We end up with this innovation chasm, which we are now trying to address," Mjwara said.

86 Countries in 2007 Showed intrest in building appropriate affordable 'green' Cannabrick homes. Countries with less of a housing crisis have already started building green.


It was envisaged that the TIA would become a player in the venture capital market, but focused on the high-risk end of the spectrum, providing "seed" capital and start-up funds.

"The motivation for the TIA is to establish a public institution that, together with private sector partners, where appropriate... will develop the country's capacity towards translating a greater proportion of local research and development into commercial products and services."

Private funders appeared to be "extremely delighted" that government was prepared to establish an agency such as the TIA, and would come on board.

According to Mjarwa's briefing document, handed out to MPs, funding for the agency will come from, among other sources, the national budget and money raised or borrowed by the TIA itself.

Responding to MPs' questions, he said there was little chance of the agency "crowding out" the private sector in the venture capital markets.

"If we look at research at the moment, there is very, very little funding in this area ... we have not seen anybody coming with venture funds in this space."

The TIA would be a public entity, reporting to Parliament through the minister, Mjarwa said.

Submission documents tabled at Tuesday's hearing highlight the "innovation chasm" referred to by Mjwara.

Referring to the field of biotechnology, the University of Pretoria's Centre for International Political Studies notes South Africa's innovation output "has all but stagnated, while that of our peer nations, such as South Korea, India and China, has sky-rocketed".

The Industrial Designers Association of SA, in its submission, said there was no design culture in South Africa, and no government structures to support industrial design.

The NGO AfricaBio also said innovation outputs in South Africa's biotech companies "have stagnated". - Sapa

Building a cannabrick home in 2008

Demonstrated outside the Department of Housing
  1. Plant a cannabis seed. Water and allow the plant to grow and produce seed. Plant and water these seeds. Your goal is to grow enough to build a house, you will need about 1 acre to build a 5 roomed home.

    Tyala imbewu ntsangu (ye-cannabis). Nkcenkceshela imbewu uze uyinike ithuba lokuba ikhule ide ikhuphe eyayo imbewu. Uyothi ke uyityale nalembewu uyinkcenkceshele njalo. Injongo yakho kukukhulisa izityalo ezothi zonele ekwakheni indlu, uyakudinga i-acre (malunga nentsimi) enye ukuze wakhe indlu enamagumbi amahlanu.

  2. Consider the many relevant points presented in the guidelines of Build your house step-by-step.

    Qwalasela yonke imigaqo oyibekelweyo kwincwadana i-Build Your House Step By Step.

    The Eastern Cape Government has developed a document titled:
    “A Basic Guide to Quality Housing Development”
    It is available here.

  3. Start planning where your house will stand. Consider everything about the environment you’ll be building in, like winter and summer sunshine, wind and rain – you don’t want to build on a floodplain, or your house will wash away. Be sure to plan all your water and waste requirements.

    Ceba indawo ozokwakha kuyo indlu yakho. Qwalasela yonke into ngomhlaba lo uzokwakha kuwo indlu yakho, izinto ezinje ngemimoya, ilanga, neemvula zehlobo nobusika, akekho umntu ofuna ukwakha indlu yakhe emgxobhozweni okanye apho iyothi ibe lilifa lezikhukhula khona. Uqiniseke ukuba unamanzi akulungeleyo ukwenza oku.

  4. Cut the grown cannabis plants down and leave in the field to rhett for a week. The morning dew and natural rotting process will loosen the fibers from the plant.

    a. Process the plant matter by cutting leaves and branches off, then hit small bundles the length of the plant over and upturned rake.
    b. The long fiber parts that remain in your hand are good for weaving rugs and making various other items your skills can accomplish.
    c. The seed can be gathered for more housing.
    d. Gather the small woody bits (the hurd) that have fallen, this waste is what will be used in the construction material.

    Sika / sarha izityalo uzibeke egadini ixesha elingangeveki ukuze zibole. Umbethe wasekuseni nezinye izinto zendalo ezibolisayo ziya kuyikhulula I-fibre ezityalweni.

    a. Yikhawulezise ngohlukanisa intonga zezityalo namagqabi, uhlale uyiharika rhoqo.
    b. Intonga ezi zinothi zincede kwezinye izinto ezifana nokwenza ingubo nezinye izinto onothi uzibonele zona ngokolwazi lwakho.
    c. Imbewu inokuqokelelwe ukwakha ezinye izindlu.
    d. Qokelela imithana ethe yaziwela njengokuba uzoyisebenzisa xa usakha indlu yakho.

  5. Wash the hurd, dry it, then wash it again. Be careful not to allow the matter to rot or decay during this process, by turning, airing and allowing the African sun to dry the hurd properly. Now combine in proportions 10:2:3:3 combine the cannabis/ntsangu/dagga Hurd(10), washed river sand 0.5mm(2), hydraulic lime(3) and water(3) to make the mulch (This process may need tweaking depending on your geographic location, humidity, rainfall etc)

    Hlamba ingqokelela yakho, uyomise, uphinde uyihlambe.Ulumkele ukuba lengqokelela ibole kwelithuba, yiguquguqule, uyivumele ibethwe ngumoya uvumele nelanga lase Afrika liyomise lengqokelela. Dibanisa ngokwalo mgaqo 10:2:3:3, dibanisa ke lemvuno yakho yomgquba wentsangu (10) kunye nesanti yasemlanjeni 0.5mm(2), ikalika (3) kunye namanzi (3) ukwenza udaka (Nale into ke iyokuthi ixhomekeke kwindawo leyo ukuyo nemvula zakhona njalo-njalo).

  6. Now build your house! Ngoku ke yakha indlu yakho!

  7. Teach others. Fundisa abanye.


You can use this “dagga-cement” for making bricks, shutter casting or the proven “pole-and-dagga” method. This last method allows for a sturdy, warm, fireproof and water proof home – built with pride and intuitive engineering, not a ‘uniform box’.

Be sure to consider all aspects of your house design and structural requirements. Although the cannabis-cement will become stronger than steel in time, it is not advised to build over 2 floors high without considering structural implications. With planning this cement can be used to build up to 4 floors high.

The cannabis-cement will dry over a period of a month (depending on the weather). At this point you will be able to add the roof. Seal your home’s walls with lime; lime external walls annually.

Decorate your house with masonry to make it unique, and paint with coloured lime as per custom.

Always PLANT A TREE in a place that will provide shade, to commemorate this accomplishment.

Council will plant trees if citizens care for them. Call (021) 689-8938 http://www.trees.org.za/

Assist your family, friends or neighbors with your experience and expertise. Share information and technique; you can uplift yourself and your community.

Delft eviction case postponed again

Cape Town, South Africa

The Cape High Court on Tuesday again postponed the Delft eviction case -- the application will now take place on January 29.

The court furthermore urged Democratic Alliance city councillor Frank Martin to engage a lawyer to represent him in proceedings for the urgent eviction of hundreds of homeless backyard dwellers who are alleged to have illegally occupied incomplete homes in Delft on the Cape Flats.

The homes, still under construction, are intended for residents at the Joe Slovo informal settlement, who are to be relocated to Delft.

Martin currently faces criminal charges in the Bellville Magistrate's Court for the alleged incitement of shack dwellers in Delft to illegally move into the homes still under construction.

This resulted in an urgent application in the Cape High Court on January 3, when Judge Deon van Zyl postponed the case to January 15.

However, due to the complexity of the issues, the judge again postponed the application to January 29.

The eviction application was launched jointly by the Western Cape provincial minister for local government and housing, state housing contractors Thubelisha Homes, Seakay Engineering Services and Trans Gariep Infra.

The application was launched against the "various unlawful occupiers of houses at Delft Symphony", the City of Cape Town and Martin himself.

The judge told Martin that his name featured in the papers before the court, which contained serious allegations (about his alleged incitement of homeless people to illegally occupy the incomplete homes).

The judge also told Martin his behaviour had exposed him to both criminal and civil sanctions.

He warned Martin: "I do not believe you had authority from the City of Cape Town to act as you did, and I must caution you not to further incite the illegal occupation of homes."

As proceedings got under way, hundreds of alleged illegal occupiers filled the street outside the court building, chanting loudly.

Present in court, seated in the front bench intended for lawyers, was Ashraf Cassiem, chairperson of the informal Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign.

Asked about his presence in court, he said he had a mandate from 1,600 households in Delft.

The judge asked him on what bases he had been mandated, and Cassiem said he had training in the application of the Prevention of Illegal Evictions Act.

Van Zyl said only lawyers, or people not legally represented, were allowed to address the court.

Van Zyl said Cassiem was free to address the court on his own behalf, but not on behalf of others. -- Sapa


Cape application over illegal occupation continues

An application to evict about 1,000 backyard dwellers from incomplete houses in Delft will resume in the Cape High Court this morning.

Government housing agency, Thubelisha Homes, brought the application, claiming that the dwellers had been occupying the houses illegally since December.

The housing units form part of the N2 Gateway Housing Project. The application was postponed last week due to delays. The dwellers were given an interim relief by the court to stay in the units until the application was finalised. - SABC

Monday, January 14, 2008

World Zero Evictions Days

WSF Global Day of Mobilisation within the framework of the Global Campaign:
Act together - housing for all!

Dear friends

We invite you to reinforce the motives and struggles of all.

As international networks (IAI, HIC, FAL), we have launched the Global Campaign: Act together-housing for all!, which started with the World Zero Evictions Days last October 2007 and which will continue until the Global Day of Mobilization to be held on January 26th 2008, as decided during the World Social Forum.

This Campaign is an excellent opportunity for those fighting against evictions and the promotion of housing security,against privatisation and liberalization of the sector, for the development of the public housing service, against speculation and corruption and for the right to dignified housing at fair prices.

We therefore invite you to take advantage of this extraordinary occasion in organizing / coordinating your initiatives with those of other networks in your territory during the Global Day of Mobilization of January 26th 2008.

>>> Please inform us as soon as possible about the initiatives that you have programmed by filling the card online or downloading it here.

To enable maximum international visibility, we will post your proposals at www.habitants.org, our website which receives over 180.000 hits per month.

We are convinced that this is the right way to contribute together towards another world, one which would start with housing and city rights without frontiers.

Ciao in solidarity.

Cesare Ottolini

IAI coordinator

International Alliance of Inhabitants

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Cape Town Shack fires blaze on

About 400 people on the Cape Peninsula have been left homeless following three major fires in informal settlements the past few days.

At least 100 wood-and-iron structures, as well as two houses were gutted in the blazes. In the latest of the three fires, an adult male has died in a shack fire in Philippi early this morning.

In a fire yesterday in Valhalla Park, Elsies River, an injured fire fighter was treated in hospital. On Thursday in the Wallacedene informal settlement near Milnerton, two houses were destroyed and four other homes partially damaged. - SABC

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Scores displaced after Cape Town shack fire

About 250 people have been displaced by a shack fire in Valhalla Park, Elsies River last night. Cape Town Fire authorities say 70 structures have been gutted.

There were no injuries, but a firefighter was treated for smoke inhalation. The cause of the fire is unknown.

The latest blaze follows a fire in the Wallacedene informal settlement near Milnerton the previous night, in which 40 people were left homeless.

Eight wood-and-iron structures and two houses were gutted. Four other houses were also partially damaged. No one was injured during that fire. - SABC

Friday, January 11, 2008

Homeless men booted out of treehouse /"boomhuis"

Two homeless men who have been living in a makeshift treehouse in the city centre in an attempt to escape the watchful eyes of the Central City Improvement District's (CCID) security division have been removed after their nest was discovered.

The CCID's security division discovered a structure in a tree near the fountain in Heerengracht Service Road, opposite Pier Square in the city centre towards the end of December.

Muneeb Hendricks, the CCID's security manager, said the CCID security team, while conducting a routine check on December 30, had found two homeless men living in the treehouse.


"When asked why they had chosen to build their temporary shelter in a tree, they replied that the CCID teams patrol the streets regularly and remove all illegal structures.

'Law enforcement is a blunt, stupid tool'
They were under the impression that the tree house would go undetected by the CCID," said Hendricks.

He said the security team called for back-up from the CCID social department but the homeless pair refused all offers of assistance, including alternative accommodation.

He said the social department unit had been active in the rehabilitation and the re-integration of homeless people.

"It's a long-term solution," said Hendricks.


He said the CCID, in conjunction with its law enforcement partners, including the police, private security companies, Metro Police and traffic police, planned and executed an average of 10 specialised operations per week.

Meanwhile some homeless people in the city centre told the Cape Argus that not much had changed for them and that dodging city security was part of their daily routine.

Seeking shade beneath a tree in Cape Town's Gardens on Thursday, Wayne Levendal, 31, who has been living on the streets for five years, said he slept in various parts of the city.

He said most of the homeless people he knew would find a spot to sleep at night but would make their way to Sea Point's Beach Road during the day while some would operate in Long Street at night.

He said he did not notice any changes in the number of homeless people on the streets.

"Some people find it difficult to go back home because of problems they are having.

"It's not easy to make the right choice," he said.

Emily Paulse, 45, who has lived on the streets in the city for 20 years, said she stayed in a night shelter now, and during the day she wandered around the city with her husband. "Every day is a struggle, but I have been struggling for so many years already."

Security guard Yoliswa Njeza who patrols in the Company's Garden said she often found homeless people sleeping at the gate entrances of the garden in the mornings and when they closed up at 10pm.


Two groups of children between the ages of 13 and 15 who had been wandering around town told the Cape Argus that they only came into the city during the day.

They said they travelled in groups, taking a train, mainly from Delft, but went home in the afternoons.

Mayoral committee member for safety and security JP Smith has been actively involved with the homeless and street children.


He insists upon rehabilitation for the homeless and said that law enforcement's arbitrary arrests of the homeless to have them released in the morning is not a solution to the problem.

'We need development solutions...'



"Law enforcement is a blunt, stupid tool that doesn't work. We need development solutions. The only way to help them is to force them off the streets," Smith said. - Cape Argus

City battles government red tape on land

The City of Cape Town says it is making steady progress in providing basic water, sanitation and electricity services to more than 135,600 households in 223 of the metropole's worst informal settlements.

Mzwandile Sokupa, manager of informal settlements for the City of Cape Town, said the provision of services to the "top 30" informal settlements from the list, including areas where residents had protested due to lack of services, "were almost complete".

He said council would finish the upgrades within the two-year period it set itself last May.

Sokupa said major challenges the council faced were not from residents but government red tape in the release of state-owned land.

"The major challenge has been land scarcity. We have constraints because we can't relocate people to put in place pipes, roads, firebreaks and other services," said Sokupa.

He said the city had been expecting pockets of land to be released by the Department of Public Works but this had not materialised.

Since the announcement of the housing plan, no new informal settlements have sprung up. "The city has adopted a zero-tolerance policy to land invasions and the mushrooming of informal settlements. There are pockets here and there of resistance but these pockets are very few," he said.

He admitted though that the council was unable to contain the growth of an informal settlement located between the Goodwood train station and the Grand West Casino.

Mayor Helen Zille said in a recent opinion piece published in Die Burger that most of the national government's housing budget should go towards the upgrading of informal settlements through the provision of service infrastructure.

She said the city council would continue concentrating on upgrading informal settlements by trying to get a special dispensation from the national government.

"But national and provincial government are determined to block this accreditation in order to prevent the city from removing red tape and making real progress."

She said the city council was determined to "remove this blockage in 2008".

Vusi Tshoshe, spokesperson for Housing and Local Government MEC Richard Dyantyi, fired back at Zille, saying her claims were a bluff which was "unfounded".

"The accreditation process pilot is for all metros and not designed only for Cape Town... There's not a single metro building houses," said Tshoshe.

Zille's spokesperson, Robert Macdonald, said municipalities were better equipped to deliver housing and said that the decision, in the case of Cape Town, could be politically motivated to ensure the ANC continued controlling housing delivery as a form political patronage.

Big Up Cape Times
- who brought you this story despite their own fire! in the fire season.

Forced relocation strongly opposed

26 September 2007
Dr Lindiwe Sisulu
Minister of Housing
Private Bag X654
Pretoria
0001
Tel: +27 12 421 1309
Fax: +27 12 341 8513
Email: mareldia@housing.gov.za

Dear Minister Sisulu

RE: Relocation of Joe Slovo informal settlement residents

The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) is an international human rights nongovernmental organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with offices throughout the world. COHRE has consultative status with the United Nations and Observer Status with the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. COHRE works to promote and protect the right to adequate housing for everyone, everywhere, including preventing or remedying forced evictions.

The Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) is a human rights and public interest law organisation based at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.

COHRE and CALS wish to express their deep concern over the planned relocation of approximately 6000 Joe Slovo residents to Delft due to the implementation of the second phase of the N2 Gateway housing project. While the Government is offering alternative accommodation at Delft with running water, electricity and toilets, as well as organising for buses to take children to school and other relocation needs, residents are distressed over the arrangement because Delft is on the outskirts of the city, far from their places of work, job opportunities and schools. The housing to be built on the Joe Slovo site, reportedly, will house only 1000 people and is unlikely to be affordable to the majority of Joe Slovo residents, as it is 'gap' housing, intended for those earning between 3,500 and 7,500 rand a month.

Many residents have been living at Joe Slovo for over ten years, establishing a settled community there, and object to the fact that the N2 Gateway housing being built on their homes is unaffordable and hence inaccessible to them. Residents are offering to work with Government to develop better housing and infrastructure at Joe Slovo, and are at present contesting the application for an eviction order by the Ministry of Housing, following an interim eviction order handed down by the Cape High Court.

On 3 August 2007, residents of Joe Slovo marched in protest against their relocation to Delft to make way for the second phase of the project, demanding that their grievances be heard by Government or further protests would ensue. However, residents argue that there was little real attempt on behalf of the Government and its housing subsidiary, Thubelisha, to actively engage with the community and address their concerns - but rather representatives merely met with the community to inform them of their fate. The protest attended by approximately 2000 people on the N2 freeway on 10 September 2007 was a response to the lack of consultation and cooperation extended to Joe Slovo residents.

While the Government’s advances in reducing the country’s immense housing backlog and providing low-cost housing are commendable, the eviction of residents from their homes to outlying areas to make way for those who can afford such housing is counterproductive. COHRE and CALS respectfully remind the Government of South Africa that in terms of international human rights law, for evictions to be considered as lawful, they may only occur in very exceptional circumstances and all feasible alternatives must be explored in consultation with affected persons. If, and only if, such exceptional circumstances exist and there are no feasible alternatives, can evictions be deemed justified. Furthermore, evictions should not result in rendering individuals homeless or vulnerable to the violation of other human rights.

Governments must therefore, ensure that adequate alternative housing is available to affected persons. General Comment No. 4 of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, lists a number of considerations, "which must be taken into account in determining whether particular forms of shelter can be considered to constitute ‘adequate housing’." These include:

a) Legal security of tenure
b) Availability of services, materials, facilities and infrastructure
c) Affordability
d) Habitability
e) Accessibility
f) Location
g) Cultural adequacy

In particular, General Comment No. 4, section 8(f) explains: "Adequate housing must be in a location which allows access to employment options, health-care services, schools, child-care centres and other social facilities."

Furthermore, the Government of South Africa is legally bound to respect, protect and fulfill the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Indeed, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in 2002 found that the African Charter guaranteed the right to adequate housing including the prohibition on forced eviction (see SERAC and CESR v. Nigeria, ACHRP 2002).

COHRE and CALS urgently request the Ministry of Housing to reconsider the continued plans for the eviction of communities in Joe Slovo and further urges the Ministry to “explore all feasible alternatives” to the planned evictions. If no feasible alternative is available, following indepth consultations with the affected communities, COHRE and CALS strongly urge that the Ministry abide by international human rights standards, and in particular the legal requirement that affected persons receive adequate alternative housing.

We look forward to your response and to an ongoing dialogue with your office on the rights of its people to adequate housing. Thank you very much for your time and consideration in dealing with these very important issues.

Sincerely,
Jean du Plessis Professor Cathi Albertyn
Deputy Director Director
Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions Centre for Applied Legal Studies
Tel: +41 22 734 1028 Tel: +27 11 717 8600
Email: evictions@cohre.org Email: albertync@law.wits.ac.za

cc. Richard Dyantyi
Western Cape Housing and Local Government MEC
Private Bag X9076
Cape Town
8000
Tel: + 27 21 483 4466
Email: shmajiet@pgwc.gov.za
cc. Prince Xhanthi Sigcawu
General Manager, Thubelisha
129 Bree Street
Cape Town
8001
Tel: + 27 21 487 9200
Email: jerimiat@thubelisha.co.za


Thubelisha plays the racism card

Cape Town mayor Helen Zille should condemn the "naked racism" underpinning the invasion of newly-built homes at Delft, Thubelisha Homes said on Thursday.

"[She] has said nothing about the naked racism that has underpinned the invasion; the ugly fact that coloured people were encouraged to grab resources ahead of African people," Thubelisha regional manager Xhanti Sigcawu said in a statement.

Thubelisha is the state-owned company running the N2 Gateway housing project, of which the Delft houses form part.

They were occupied last month by local residents, including backyard dwellers, who defeated a bid to evict them.

They said they did not see why the homes should go to residents of the Joe Slovo informal settlement, when some of them had been on council waiting lists for decades.

Thubelisha is expected to bring a fresh eviction application in the Cape High Court on Tuesday.

Sigcawu said Zille had made no public pronouncement on the arrest of Democratic Alliance councillor Frank Martin for allegedly inciting the invasion.

He said she was aware that the Delft homes were allocated on a 70:30 basis to residents of informal settlements along the N2, such as Joe Slovo, and backyard dwellers from the Delft area.

He noted that Zille said in a newspaper article this week that the country's flawed housing policy was at the root of the Gateway problems.

In fact, it was a project from which all spheres of government were learning valuable lessons "to be used in housing the nation of tomorrow within the spirit of cooperative governance".

He appealed to Zille to release well-located land in the city, on which Thubelisha was ready to build sustainable human settlements.

"The lack of land being made available is one of the biggest hindrances we have encountered on the project," he said. - Sapa

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign Press Statement on Delft

CAPE TOWN - The High Court case involving the over 1000 Delft homeless and backyard residents who occupied the "Breaking New Ground" houses in Delft a few weeks back, has been postponed from tomorrow (11 January) to next Tuesday 15th January 2008.

The ANC MEC for Housing, Richard Dyantyi, Thubelisha Homes, Seakay Construction plus two other companies today served an urgent application to evict the residents from the houses. They were supposed to have served the application last Friday, according to a court order.

The residents who occupied the houses have all been on the housing Waiting List for up to 20 years and have been promised houses at each and every election by all the political parties but these parties have never delivered on their promises.

Ashraf Cassiem, Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign Legal Co-ordinator, is representing the residents because they do not have money for an Advocate.

According to Cassiem, "Again the companies and the government have disregarded the court order which said that last Friday they were supposed to serve the application. The court order also stipulated that we should have had a chance to respond by yesterday and the matter should be heard tomorrow but the companies and government failed to comply".

Cassiem says that this is the second time the Housing Department, Thubelisha Homes and the other three companies have acted unlawfully. "The last time they used an unlawful 2006 order to evict residents and the court did not even chastise them but only set the order aside. They should be punished according to section 8 of the Prevention of Illegal Evictions Act which makes it a criminal offence to use unlawful orders to evict people. Now we want to know what the court is going to do about them taking their own liberties and why they are untouchable. However we are also happy that people are going to get the chance to say why they should not be evicted."

The Anti-Eviction Campaign and Delft community are having a mass meeting at 7pm tonight to discuss the latest development and we will be ready by Tuesday 15th January to oppose the application" said Cassiem.

For comment call: Ashraf Cassiem on 076 1861408; Pamela Beukes on 079 3709614; Mncedisi Twala on 078 5808646; or Mzonke Poni on 073 2562036 - all of the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign

Monday, January 7, 2008

Presidentail Mansions

The ‘proud Zulu man’ who would be president is a financial clown who lived on hand-outs

Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni must be quaking in his boots.

The governor has been trying to get all of us to live within our means — to spend money we have instead of chasing adulation by getting deeper and deeper into debt.

Then along comes Jacob Zuma, a man who cannot seem to grasp the basics of household financial management … a man who would, if sense prevailed, be prevented from getting married and having children.

Zuma is, quite frankly, ignorant and a danger to himself. He is irredeemably irresponsible.

It is extraordinary that we sit today mulling over the real possibility that such an ignoramus will rule over an economy as sophisticated as ours.

Zuma married Nompumelelo Ntuli, his fourth wife, on Saturday. I have my views on polygamy but simple economics suggest that Zuma should not be having more children or taking more wives.

He cannot feed the ones he has, or house them or educate them.

At the conclusion of his rape trial in 2006, Judge Willem van der Merwe told Zuma: “Had Rudyard Kipling known of this case at the time he wrote his poem If, he might have added the following: ‘And, if you can control your body and your sexual urges, then you are a man, my son’.”

Zuma has not listened much, it seems, given that he has fathered several children since that day.

Children he simply cannot afford, given his history.

Zuma is a political liability to the ANC and the country because he has fathered so many children and taken so many wives that he cannot afford.

As a result, he has found himself in deep financial difficulties, indebted to many people.

The Sunday Times yesterday broke the story about Zuma’s debt to just one man, the convicted fraudster Schabir Shaik.

It makes for extraordinary, and depressing, reading.

Zuma, who likes to claim that he is “a proud Zulu man”, was in reality a kept man. Shaik paid for the education of Zuma’s children, their travel, their cars, their homes — virtually everything.

Extraordinarily, the Sunday Times also reveals that Zuma’s new wife is living in a R5-million mansion “given” to him by another businessman! Does the man learn nothing? Has he neither pride nor shame, living on hand-outs from other men?

The Sunday Times’ report reads in part: “[Shaik] funneled a total of R4072499 to Zuma … in 783 separate payments between October 25 1995 and July 1 2005.

“Shaik’s companies gave money to Zuma’s ex-wives, paid his rent, supplied his children with pocket money and forked out for his many debts.

“They even paid R10 to cover the cost of a wash-and-vacuum for his car.

“Within days of Zuma being fired as deputy president of South Africa, the last payment was made to him — R393.80 to Absa on July 1 2005 for insurance on a Toyota Tazz — and he was also given R400000 to pay off a debt.”

For goodness’ sake, the man can’t even manage the small change in his pocket.

The Sunday Times reveals that while Zuma was earning about R870000 a year, Shaik was giving him R10 in cash to pay for a car wash. The mind boggles.

You might think all this is personal stuff, but consider what kind of an example this is for our children and our people.

Is it okay to live as a sponger for essentially the rest of one’s adult life? To breed without a care about where the next meal is coming from for the children?

Was Zuma even aware of the implications of the deputy president of a country being so heavily indebted to an individual such as Shaik?

There is a basic lesson here. If you want to drive a 4x4, you must work for it.

The idea of application, of hard work, does not seem to have entered Zuma’s mind. From the numerous payments made by Shaik, it is clear Zuma wanted the high life without the hard work that comes with the territory.

This is just one aspect of the Zuma character that hobbles him. There are many others: his lack of education despite his new and old defenders claiming he has “native intelligence” (President Thabo Mbeki is also said to possess this racist nonsense, and look what a disaster he has been), his unsavoury friends, and his dangerous fondness for appealing to populism and tribalism.

Many people have asked what a Zuma presidency would be like. The answer is not hard to find: it will be characterised by sloth, irresponsibility, lack of ambition, appeals to non-existent “African” values, and the ascendancy of criminals and those who want to feather their nests.

A Zuma presidency would be an unmitigated disaster.

Zuma’s greatest achievement is helping South Africa get rid of the nascent dictatorship of Mbeki. The ANC now needs to help itself and dump Zuma.

Quickly!

- The Times

Saturday, January 5, 2008

New battle for District 6

Disillusioned District Six land owners have launched an urgent application in the Land Claims Court to halt all development in the historic area pending a forensic audit of the District Six Trust.

The Trust has been acting on behalf of claimants throughout the drawn-out land restitution process, but not all of them accept its bona fides.

The applicants are also seeking an interdict preventing the City of Cape Town, the Land Claims Commission and the Trust from implementing a restitution and redevelopment agreement the Tripartite Agreement in November 2000.

But the Trust says the lawsuit is "misguided" and describes its timing as "malicious".

"We are ready to go forward after we have been delayed for 13 years," the Trust's Nas Ally said yesterday, adding that he did not know "what the court action (was) all about".

"The Trust followed procedures; everybody can be satisfied," he said.

More than a decade after the first democratic elections, most of the District Six land owners have yet to receive fair compensation for the land from which they were ousted during the apartheid era, and many have died waiting to be returned to the area.

While the lack of progress over the years has been blamed on various factors with frequent conflicts between stakeholders the issue came to a head last year after the Cape Argus reported that private developments worth millions of rand were under way in the area.

These were taking place while a moratorium on private development in District Six was understood to be in place. At the same time, dispossessed land owners complained they were offered "a measly" R40 000 for their valuable land.

The District Six Advocacy Committee, a group representing land owners who say they have been left out of the restitution process, said no one could explain the circumstances around the initial sale of a portion of restitution land to a private buyer in 1990. The property was sold last year to a developer for R9-million.

The committee is also questioning why the Trust could not account for the 1990 sale.

In August, the committee demanded a thorough investigation into the restitution process as well as the Trust, which it claimed was "illegal" and "invalid" as it (the Trust) did not have a mandate to represent claimants.

Last month, the committee made good on its August threats of legal action, filing a notice of motion with the Land Claims Court in Randburg.

Two of its members are the applicants in this case, which is set to be heard on Monday.

In court papers, the applicants contend that the Trust accepted the R40 000 compensation for a standard erf without being mandated to do so, and has never convened an annual general meeting or submitted its books for auditing.

"The property owners were at all material times left in the dark as far as the restitution process of District Six was concerned, notwithstanding several attempts to set up meetings with the Trust," they say.

"(The Trust) has acted recklessly and has at all material times remained unaccountable."

The applicants are Mogamat Majiet and Hannah Manley, representing the Advocacy Committee, and the respondents are the 17 trustees of the Trust, the Western Cape Land Claims Commissioner, the Director-General of Land Affairs, the City of Cape Town and the Master of the High Court.

Commenting on the legal action, the city's director of housing, Hans Smit, said a number of issues in the motion were similar to concerns raised by the city in the past.

He said the city, which has received senior counsel's opinion regarding District Six, wrote to the Chief Land Claims Commissioner in December, requesting an interview "as early as possible" for this month.

The proposed agenda for the discussion will include the legal opinion report, the revised Trust Deed document, and the way forward for District Six.

Smit said the city wanted to formulate an implementation plan to ensure beneficiaries were properly consulted and represented.

Ally said yesterday the Trust would hold its first AGM this month. "The only thing left to do is to get buy-in from claimants." - Cape Argus

Friday, January 4, 2008

Dwellers chant outside court

Cape Town - Hundreds of homeless backyard dwellers, expecting the Cape High Court to stop their evictions from incomplete homes in Delft on the Cape Flats, chanted noisily outside the court building on Thursday.

As they sang and danced, journalists packed into the building's spacious Court No 1, to hear Judge Deon van Zyl's judgment in the case.

Thursday had been set as the "return date", after the judge had on December 27 granted a temporary interdict to stop their evictions at the hands of developers Thubelisha Homes (TH).

But confusion reigned - the expected court proceedings did not take place, and the journalists waited for hours in the court room before it was finally cleared and locked.

A "return date" in interdict proceedings is the date on which the person interdicted - in this case Thubelisha Homes - goes to court to present his reasons why the interdict should be set aside.

It transpired that the eviction order used by TH to evict the alleged illegal occupants of the Delft Homes was granted by the Bellville Magistrate's Court in July, 2006, in an unrelated matter - and was not intended for the current evictions.

Ashraf Cassiem, chairperson of the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign, told reporters he had been informed that Judge van Zyl had dealt with the matter in chambers, and not in open court.

He said the judge had ordered TH to launch its own eviction application, which is scheduled for hearing in the Cape High Court on January 11.

The incomplete houses in Delft form part of the N2 Gateway project, intended for residents who are to be relocated from the Joe Slovo informal settlement.

However, the Joe Slovo residents themselves do not want to move, and recently launched their own proceedings to stop their relocation.

Judgment in the Joe Slovo relocation case was reserved late last year, and has still to be delivered. - SAPA

Cape judge changes his mind on eviction of backyard dwellers

CAPE TOWN — The Western Cape provincial housing department is set to become embroiled in the legal process to evict more than 100 backyard dwellers from the Delft area of Cape Town, part of the national government’s flagship N2 Gateway project.

Cape High Court Judge Deon van Zyl yesterday decided not to move on a ruling he made on Christmas Eve to evict the dwellers, an order against them sought by state-owned Thubelisha Homes.

The return date for the hearing was set for yesterday.

Van Zyl was expected to rule on whether the occupation by the backyard dwellers was illegal and whether they should be evicted .

His stance on the matter means that Thubelisha Homes and the provincial housing department will now have to bring a new application next Friday . It also means that the occupiers of the Delft homes will not be moved, at least for a week.

Thubelisha had applied for the eviction of the backyard dwellers based on an eviction order obtained by the city council while it was still under the control of the African National Congress in October 2006.

At that stage there was a memorandum of understanding between the three tiers of government to set in place the project, with all three tiers of government co-operating.

However, since responsibility for the project was removed from the Democratic Alliance -led multiparty government by Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, the legal wrangling over the project has intensified.

Thubelisha took on a leading role to obtain the evictions while the city had taken a back seat on the issue.

Ashraf Cassiem, chairman of the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign, said the 2006 eviction order granted to the city by the Bellville Magistrate’s Court and which formed the basis of Thubelisha Homes’ initial application, was invalid because it was based on different circumstances.

It was aimed at evicting “other people” and not the backyard dwellers and therefore was “illegal”. Cassiem said he was informed telephonically by Van Zyl yesterday that Thubelisha would be bringing a new application by 2pm today .

His association would have to provide answering papers to the court by Wednesday and the matter will be heard next Friday.

It is understood that the provincial housing department of MEC Richard Dyantyi will also be involved in the application and the province will be represented by advocate Michael Donen, who is also an acting judge. - Business Day - News Worth Knowing