AS MOPPING-UP operations continued in Western Cape yesterday after heavy rains displaced about 10,000 people, residents of Cape Town’s Kosovo township protested about the lack of housing.
Flooding in Cape Town (slide-show)Rows of burning rubbish lined two streets in the township as a heavy police contingent watched residents chanting ‘‘We are not afraid. Give us houses”.
Nelly Skosana told The Times that she was forced to bail out 20cm of water in her shack after Sunday’s storms in Cape Town.
She demanded that President Jacob Zuma visit her shack.
“I want Zuma to come here. Why does he not fulfil his promises? Don’t they [government officials] think about how we stay? Are they skelms?” she asked .
“They just want us to vote for them and then they treat us like rubbish. We need houses. I have two children and they are sick.”
Patisa Bani said the people of Kosovo did not want “juice and bread” from Cape Town’s disaster management service.
“We need houses. We decided to make this fire because they don’t listen to our voices. This is a call. They will listen when it is burning,” said Bani.
Superintendent Andre Traut, spokesman for the Western Cape police, said the protest was not violent and no one was arrested.
Charlotte Powell, spokeswoman for the city’s disaster management service, said protests also broke out at the Du Noon informal settlement yesterday.
“[Protests] are not new. People tell us they don’t want food or hot meals. They want a house ,” she said.
Powell said the situation has improved for most of the 9350 people affected by the flooding of 20 settlements.
She said s ome people were housed at community halls because their shacks were still flooded.
She said the city’s housing department had provided flood kits that “include plastic sheeting and nails so people can fix their shacks”.
- The Times
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