Island on map for sustainable development

A NEW Manx Government building – Thie Slieau Whallian, the St John’s headquarters of the Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture – is featured as the cover story of the December issue of Site Recorder.

The feature in the journal of the Institute of Clerks of Works and Construction Inspectorate, describes the building as ‘unique and prestigious’ and looks at a day in the life of clerk of works Albert Denham, of Port Erin business Erin Building Services Ltd, clerk of works for the construction.

‘It is a real coup for the Isle of Man,’ said Mr Denham. ‘The article mentions the building is accredited “excellent” by BREAM [BRE Environmental Assessment Method, setting out the best practice in environmental design], it is the first building in the island to get “excellent” and one of a few in the UK.

‘It’s a one-off building. It’s as sustainable as possible, it’s timber-framed and uses recycled newspaper for insulation, it has a hemp feature wall. It is quite an innovative building. It was superb to be involved.’

The magazine goes to industry members around the world, so puts the island on the map for sustainable development, he said.

The story followed an unusual route to be featured in the magazine.

‘Part of the magazine covers defects,’ he said. ‘Someone in the Isle of Man sent a photo of a little section of the St John’s building. It annoyed me because it was not finished. This is not a defect, it’s ongoing work.

‘I think somebody was being mischievous. I contacted the magazine and said this was a one-off building and we were proud of it. The editor called and said we would like to feature the building, it is nice looking. To be featured is good for the Isle of Man.’

The feature mentions Erin Building Services, which is also working on projects including Douglas Corporation public sector housing, the demolition and rebuild of three local authority properties in Port Erin, and re-roofing Isle of Man Post Sorting Office.

He said that limited time constraints on some projects didn’t always allow for the level of inspection they’d like.

He said: ‘For example, brick workers can do a lot of bad brick work and the faults can be missed purely because we are not on site. Our job is to make sure they (clients) are getting value for money, that workers are doing the job right. There is a place in Douglas that had no clerk of works, the problems are coming home to roost now. We do feel we are under used. Having us makes everybody’s life easier, we are another pair of eyes on site. People spend thousands of pounds on an extension, we make sure it is done right for a couple of extra hundred pounds, or it goes wrong and they spend thousands on lawyers’ fees.’

- IOMtoday

Signal Hill fire contained

An overnight veld fire on the slopes of Signal Hill above Cape Town has been contained, the city's Fire and Rescue Services said on Friday.

“Right now, we have some firemen and teams monitoring,” spokesman Theo Lane said.

Firefighters battled throughout Thursday to control several fires which were being fanned by strong south-easterly winds.

Several fire engines and helicopters were used to waterbomb the flames. There were no reports of injury or damage to property.

City fire chief Ian Schnetler said the first fire was reported at 10.38am on Military Road.
“We sent three fire engines to the scene and the fire was extinguished at 2.25pm.”

At 12.40pm another fire broke out near High Level Road, Sea Point. The fire was brought under control soon after 2pm. An hour later another two fires started on Signal Hill.

The SA Weather Service earlier this week issued a red fire alert for the Cape Metro.

- Sapa

Are you prepared for wind damage?

Cape Town - The South African Weather Service has forecast that the strong, gusting south-easterly winds currently being experienced will persist until the end of the week and are only expected to ease off late on Saturday, the City of Cape Town said on Wednesday.

“The City's Disaster Risk Management Centre and Fire and Rescue Service are accordingly advising the public to take precautions against wind damage and to be alert about fire safety,” spokesperson for the city's disaster risk management centre, Wilfred Solomons-Johannes, said in a statement.

“The strong, gusting south-easterly winds and high temperatures between the high 20s and 30s are forecast for the greater part of the week. These conditions are favourable for runaway fires that could easily become major blazes. It would be advisable to not even attempt to make fires during this time, especially not in open areas where the risk is very high,” said Chief Fire Officer Ian Schnetler.

The City's Disaster Risk Management Centre appealed to residents to take the following measures to prevent wind damage:

- Install straps or additional clips to your roof to secure it to the frame structure, in order to prevent roof damage.

- Be sure trees and shrubs around your home were well trimmed

- Determine how and where to secure your boat

- Maintain exterior insulation finishing system (EIFS) walls

- Protect windows and doors with covers

- Reinforce double entry doors

- Reinforce or replace damaged garage doors

- Secure metal siding and metal roofs

- Secure built-up and single-ply roofs

- Brace gable-end roof framing

- Ensure adequate insurance cover for possible storm damage

- Motorists were requested to watch out for possible broken trees and broken power lines along roadways

- Exercise extreme caution along mountain areas

“It is important to secure your property by affixing permanent wind shutters, which offer the best protection for windows, or utilising boarding,” Solomons-Johannes said.

The fire danger: RED warning for the Cape Metropole was still enforced and the general public were requested to apply fire safe practices.

Solomons-Johannes appealed to the general public to heed to the public advisory issued and to listen to the radio or watch television news for the latest weather forecast.

Any emergency and/or distress call could be reported to the 107 emergency number from a Telkom line. Cellphone users needed to dial 021-480-7700.

“The sooner you phone, the sooner help will arrive.”

- Sapa

Over 600 people affected by shack fires in W.Cape

Community leaders in Masiphumelele near Fish Hoek in the Western Cape on Wednesday said more than 600 people have been affected by shack fires.

At least 160 homes have been gutted over the past three days.

Disaster management officials are busy distributing building materials to families.

Home Affairs officials are also in the area to help those affected register for their identity documents lost in the two fires.

Community leaders are concerned that some of those affected are still on holiday in the Eastern Cape.

Residents said fires would not happen if government provided them with decent homes.

- Eyewitness News

Two of Government’s top-10 blunders for 2010

The housing corruption involving some 2,000 government officials is one of the most disgraceful public sins of 2010.

Minister of human settlements, Tokyo Sexwale, said in August this year that syndicates selling and leasing government housing were to be investigated. Numerous government officials, notably in Gauteng, North West and KwaZulu-Natal, are allegedly benefiting underhand from these deals.

The authorities' housing promises pose another fiasco. Sexwale announced in April this year that the housing backlog even exceeded the backlog in 1994: the figure has swelled from 1,5 million in 1994 to 2,1 million at present. Meanwhile the need for housing is growing daily; the number of informal settlements has already reached the 2,700-mark, of which at least 70 are inhabited by white people in shanty towns.

- Moneyweb

The other, would clearly be the lack of capacity in electricity, sewage and water bulk infrastructure not being planned for, thus affecting or rather bringing all further human settlement development to a grinding halt.

Cape Town on fire alert

Cape Town firefighters will be on high alert for the next three days, says the city's disaster management centre.

Spokesman Wilfred Solomons-Johannes said the weather service had "stepped up" its red fire danger warning for the Cape Metropole until Friday.

"Such extreme hot conditions are favourable for runaway fires and the city's disaster response teams and fire and rescue services are on heightened alert," he said.

Three days ago a fire razed 163 homes and left 700 people displaced in the Masiphumelele shack settlement at Fish Hoek.

"Strong, gusting south-easterly winds are forecast for much of the city today, which means that small fires could easily become major blazes," said the City's chief fire officer, Ian Schnetler.

- Timeslive

Blaze lays waste to hopes and dreams

Xolelwa Stofile was so excited when her boyfriend gave her a DVD player and DVDs for Christmas that she immediately set up the equipment and kept peeking at it during a family lunch.

She had planned to watch her favourite movie, Dirty Dancing, on Boxing Day, but hours before she had the chance, a fire destroyed everything she owned.

Stofile, 22, is one of about 700 Masiphumelele residents left destitute after a fire razed about 150 shacks at the weekend.

“I was sleeping when suddenly I heard people scream: ‘It’s burning. It’s burning.’ I grabbed my daughter and ran outside.

“I wanted to go back in my house and grab things, but the flames came too quickly. I got my first ever DVD player and DVDs for Christmas and that’s all gone.

“I know it means nothing. I’m more worried about my daughter and her burnt clothes. But, you know, I was just so excited. It was like magic when I saw that DVD machine.

Residents of Masiphumelele salvage what they can in order to rebuild their homes after a fire gutted a large portion of the settlement on Boxing Day. Photo: Matthew Jordaan

CAPE TIMES

“But now everything is gone,” she said, standing in front of a heap of charred mattress springs and clutching her seven-month-old daughter, Abigail.

The little girl’s white jersey and pants were smeared with soot.

Stofile said it was the only clothing she had for her.

Yesterdayscores of residents, their eyes red as grit and ash blew about in gusting winds, carried long pieces of wood on their heads and walked to the burnt area.

Others pushed trolleys filled with curled, blackened pieces of corrugated iron they planned to use in rebuilding their shacks.

Children walked between charred debris and collected cups and plates which could be salvaged.

Amanda Maibe walked slowly through the debris pulling a black bag behind her.

“This is what’s left of my life. I have a four-year-old son and he’s going to suffer. He has no clothes left. No toys. No food. It’s a bad day,” she said.

Clutching a blackened hammer and leaning on a door frame he had just erected, Siyathemba Mange, 27, frowned as he said he would work non-stop until he had finished rebuilding his shack.

“Sheesh, I’m exhausted. But if I don’t do this I have no place to stay. All my clothes and food is gone. I have to start from scratch.

“This is no way to start a new year. It makes me scared,” he said.

A neighbour came and gave Mange a handful of shiny new screws she did not need.

“What a gift,” a smiling Mange said as he compared the new screws to gnarled rusty ones he had been using.

Mange and other residents believed a man who was drunk and tried to cook had caused the blaze after he had left his oven on by mistake.

They said the man had not been seen since.

The City of Cape Town’s Disaster Risk Management Centre was assisting the residents and a community hall had been opened as temporary accommodation.

Hours after the Masiphumelele incident, firefighters battled a blaze on the lower slopes of Chapman’s Peak.

The route had to be closed off because of smoke.

Firefighters, engines, and three helicopters were deployed in an effort to extinguish the fire.

- Cape Times

Home builder struggles on

Sea Kay Holdings has narrowly escaped a liquidation claim lodged against it by the National Housing Finance Corporation (NHFC), but the company’s losses have mounted under a drastic housekeeping operation.

The JSE-listed developer of homes for the low to middle income housing market, released its latest financial results at the end of last week. This was after the group announced that it had reached a settlement agreement with the NHFC which had filed for liquidation in order to recover money owed by Sea Kay.

Sea Kay rose to prominence when it entered the JSE in 2007 with the promise of dominating the largely neglected low to middle income housing market. Under the stewardship of former CEO Corne Kruger, the operation grew quickly through both organic growth and corporate activity. Revenue reached R841m at the end of the 2009 financial year.

Harsh trading conditions and severe cash flow problems badly affected the group’s fortunes as reflected in the figures for the 12 months ended June this year. Sea Kay’s revenue declined to R647m.

Sea Kay’s performance was hit by significant impairments. The group posted an operating loss of R181m compared with an operating profit of R101.3m last year.

In its latest statement of results, Sea Kay said a decision was taken by the board to impair all remaining goodwill to the value of R90.4m.

The group also took a decision to further impair trade receivables to the value of about R29m. The latter decision was taken in light of uncertainties regarding the recoverability of the trade debts.

As a result of the settlement agreement, Sea Kay reclassified certain portions of its financial liabilities. This saw the group reclassify R97.7 m from current liabilities to non-current liabilities.

Explaining these drastic measures, the group said directors embarked on a process to address the uncertainties identified by management and alluded to in the auditors’ qualified opinion.

This process includes reviewing and restructuring of receivables and payables, to ensure that the group is in a position to operate adequately. The re-engineering process will also include a fundraising exercise.

The group said a potential funder had been identified. “The most significant factor to continue as a going concern is that the directors procure funding for the ongoing operations,” said the group.

“In this regard, the settlement with the NHFC that was made an Order of Court on December 6 2010 is an important milestone for the group,” said the group.

The settlement effectively removed the liquidation applications against both Sea Kay and Sea Kay Engineering Services and re-opened the group’s ability to access normal credit lines.

The settlement involves initial payment of R44m to be made during January 2011 to the NHFC plus a guarantee of R6m that will be issued to the NHFC. Sea Kay has also committed to repay R65m to the NHFC over 60 months.

Sea Kay also pointed out negotiations with its debtors, including provincial governments of the Western Cape and Gauteng, were at a mature stage. Sea Kay said an amount of about R29.5m was likely to be paid directly from the Western Cape into the coffers of NHFC during the course of January.

The balance due to NHFC should be realised from the Gauteng Department of Housing “where adequate funds are available to achieve this,” said the group.

The turnaround of Sea Kay is taking place under a relatively new leadership.

Kruger resigned last year but remaines a shareholder. Pieter van der Schyf was made acting CEO early this year.

At the beginning of this month the group brought in Landiwe Mahlangu as non executive chairman of the board.

- The New Age

Cape man dies in shack fire

Cape Town - A man died in a shack fire in Khayelitsha on Saturday night, SABC News reported on Sunday.

Ten wood-and-iron structures were gutted in the Endlovini informal settlement of Harare, the Cape Town Fire Service said.

About 40 people had been displaced as a result of the fire and were taken in by family and friends for the night.

The cause of the blaze was unknown.

Police were investigating the incident.

- SAPA

150 shacks destroyed by fire

A total of 150 shacks were destroyed in a fire in the Masiphumelele informal settlement in Cape Town, the Disaster Risk Management Centre said on Sunday.

A Spokesperson for the centre, Wilfred Solomons-Johannes, said that three hundred people had been affected after 150 shacks were destroyed in the blaze which started at about 7am. By 10am the fire was under control.

Fifteen fire engines and a helicopter were used to battle the fire. "No fatalities have been reported," said Solomons-Johannes. "All persons have been accounted for."

A community hall has been opened for the next few days. People are being registered and also issued with building material.

- Sapa

CT Disaster Management battle shack fire

Disaster Management officials are battling a shack fire in the Masiphumelele informal settlement in Cape Town on Sunday morning.

Details surrounding the start of the fire are unknown.

Disaster Management spokesperson Wilfred Solomons-Johannes said there were no injuries thus far.

“The crews when on arrival requested additional fire engines and support to bring the fire under control. No persons have been injured thus far in the incident,” he added.

- Eyewitness News

Toilet choice now up to community

In a breakthrough in the open toilet controversy, Judge Nathan Erasmus has amended his initial interim order to allow community members to choose whether they want temporary enclosures now, or want to await a final solution in March.

The amended order means the City of Cape Town will be obligated to provide enclosed toilets only for those who opt for them.

It is a move that has been welcomed by a community leader in Makhaza, Khayelitsha, as well as by ANC Youth League member Andile Lili.

The city accused members of the community of being in contempt of court after they prevented city council workers from acting on Judge Erasmus’s initial interim order on two separate occasions.

Last month, Judge Erasmus made an order that the 65 toilets and enclosures be reinstalled as an interim measure pending a final ruling in 2011.

At the time the judge ordered that the toilets be enclosed with a corrugated-iron and timber structure, including a polyurethane door suspended on a steel bar that could be locked from the inside and the outside.

Residents, however, want the toilets to be enclosed with concrete instead, after the city initially installed open toilets.

Three residents, Ntombentsha Beja, Andile Lili and Andiswa Ncani, took the city to court to force it to replace the toilets.

But when officials from the city arrived on two separate occasions to follow through with the court order, the residents prevented them from doing so.

The toilet saga came to a head in June 2010 when the city demolished the remaining open toilets that were initially set up without any enclosures.

The destruction of the toilets led to a violent confrontation between the city and the community.

As part of his amended order, Judge Erasmus said he would also instruct police to urgently investigate the conduct of “any individual or group” in contempt of his order.

The police must also file a progress report with the court by March 7.

He also directed Lili, a community leader and ANC Youth League member, not to act in a manner that would “frustrate the implementation of the court order”.

The judge also went on to criticise Lili before addressing him directly in court.

“I can see you have some control over the community,” said Judge Erasmus.

The court had earlier viewed two DVDs of what had happened when the city arrived to reinstall the toilets.

“This is just interim relief so the people can have some measure of dignity restored. You have to do your best to act as a leader.

“But on the other hand, I will not tolerate any conduct by any person or group that will frustrate people’s access to their rights,” he said.

Earlier, the residents’ advocate, Thembalihle Sidaki, told Judge Erasmus that the reason that members of the community had prevented the city from reinstalling the toilets was because the city had “provoked” them.

“The city came into the community waving around the court order (as if to say) ‘ha, ha, ha’,” he said, adding that it created an “atmosphere of acrimony”.

Outside the court, Lili said he was “happy” with the amended order and that people could now choose whether they wanted to have the toilets installed or not.

Asked what reaction he expected to get from the community as a result, he said: “Everyone will feel very comfortable and happy with this.”

Costs of the amended order are to stand over. The matter resumes in March.

- Cape Times

On the other side of the mountain

Southeasters are in Cape Town's contradictory DNA. On Long Street and surrounds the wind is usually flirting with the hemlines of short-skirted blonde Euro-travellers or messing up the hair of messed-up hipsters. Another yawned accompaniment to the beautiful setting draped with beautiful ones.

Along Symphony Way, a stretch of road in Delft, to the north of the city, behind the airport and far removed from the shadow of Table Mountain, the wind is more palpable -- everything is already exposed here.

On a slow day the wind makes the ubiquitous white dust move in mini-dervish whirls on the tar. On harsher ones, it connives with the sand and the sun to ensure that the experiences of those dumped here -- the poor, those to be forgotten -- are inextricable from the lines on their faces.

Situated along this unforgiving stretch with a few bushes apparently yielding litter rather than any fruit is the Symphony Way "temporary relocation area", built by the city's Democratic Alliance-run municipality in 2007 at a cost of more than R30-million. It is also known as "Blikkiesdorp" (Tin-Can Town), Silver Town or just plain Blikkies.

It is a dumping ground for humans. Somalis and other foreigners who survived the 2008 xenophobic attacks and then outlived the expiration date on their original refugee camps are here, as are some street kids cleansed from Cape Town before the World Cup -- ironically, others have since been evicted.

Illegal occupation


There are Delft backyard dwellers who, at the instigation of then DA councillor Frank Martin (he was expelled from the party over the incident), occupied unfinished N2 Gateway project houses across the road, were evicted and then proceeded to occupy, for almost two years, the pavements in protest. They were, in November last year, ordered by the courts to move, pretty much, across the stretch to Blikkies. They're all in there. And then some.

There are more than 1 600 18m2 units -- much smaller than a shipping container -- some with as many as nine or 10 people living in them.

Thirty-two-year-old Shahieda Isaacs's four children are mopping up the remains of their mutton curry and roti when I join her and two other community members for supper in her rectangular box of a home.

The food, cooked in a tiny kitchen semi-partitioned from a larger sleeping area, is delicious. Isaacs sends her 12-year-old off to buy a litre of cool drink from the local spaza.

Spazas line Blikkiesdorp and it is apparent that here, as in informal settlements around the country, a hyper-localised economy exists. Money circulates among the poor, rather than being siphoned off by large supermarket chains -- largely because expensive and unsafe public transport and a lack of penetrative will by these chains makes them inaccessible to the poor.

It is a perversely positive result of ghettoisation in a time of economic recession.

Blikkiesdorp's children


Isaacs says it's difficult trying to raise her children -- two boys and two girls -- in such a claustrophobic space. Her ­daughters share one bunk bed, her sons the other, while she shares the main bed -- piled high with washed and neatly ironed clothes -- with her husband, Ridwaan.

There is no privacy here and Isaacs is concerned that by the time the government eventually moves the family into a house (in 2016, they say, but she isn't holding her breath) her children will be hitting puberty.

"If you think about it, it's heartbreaking, but you don't give up hope," says Isaacs.

Ridwaan is unemployed and Isaacs earns R850 a week cooking lunch for a company in Epping, of which R70 a week goes on her transport costs, which she says she tries to offset by baking koeksisters to sell every Sunday.

Isaacs says her biggest expense is clothes for her children but how has she been coping with the rising costs of pretty much everything?

"We get by like we always do. I'm lucky because my children never go to bed with an empty stomach, like other children. You just get by, but the main thing is that all my children's school fees are paid. That is the most important thing," says Isaacs.

There is a matter-of-fact determination in Blikkiesdorp -- and some ingenuity too.

At some point I stumbled across an inflatable pool near the hok (shack) of Lamees Solomons (29).

Nothing to do


Solomons and her husband, Shamiel, say the pool is for the "children in the camp. Most of these kids really battle, man, so we try to do what we can." The children in Blikkiesdorp have perennially runny noses from the dust and there is a sense of perpetual boredom about them: aside from the gravel, litter and mangy dogs, there is nothing here. And nothing to do.

Solomons says she has two informal fruit and vegetable stalls and also sells perfume. Her business is doing well, so the couple buys and prepares food for the children here twice a week.

"We're community, mos, we're family, so we must do what we can to help one another. Sometimes there are hundreds of children here for the food," says Solomons.

Earlier in the week Ashraf Cassiem, erstwhile chairperson of the Anti-Eviction Campaign (AEC), stood over a shallow hole in the pavement along Symphony Way: "Man, this is where we used to make a fire, this was where my tent was! I still lay in bed at night picturing those times," says Cassiem, beaming.

The memories of the AEC-organised occupation and barricade of Symphony Way from February 2008 until November last year by the 139 families who protested their evictions from the N2 Gateway and the lack of decent housing options sends an obvious rush through Cassiem.

He mainlines anti-establishment activism and is a hyperactive mixture of Che Guevara's revolutionary tendencies and Bugs Bunny's mischievousness; an ever-present cigarette replacing the cigar and carrot.

Cassiem's is a large grin, toothless on one side of his mouth: a restructuring courtesy, he says, of the police sticking in the boot on October 18 2000, when Cassiem, with community members of Tafelsig in Mitchell's Plain, united to stop a neighbour, Charles Lategaan, from being evicted from the house he rented from the government.

The formation of the AEC


They were met with police brutality. Six people were arrested that day and -- at a time when government's 1996 economic policy shift towards Gear (growth, employment and redistribution) was increasingly causing the poor to fall behind in their electricity, water and rental payments -- 17 families in the area were evicted.

But it was an act of community resistance that would lead to the formation, a month later, of the AEC, a radical, anarchic, self-confessedly "crazy" umbrella body for 10 community organisations in areas such as Gugulethu, Hanover Park and Mitchell's Plain.

The AEC fights against evictions, water cut-offs, poor health services and for better housing and free electricity for the poor. As Cassiem describes it, the AEC is about contradictions and "living politics" where the interests of affected communities -- rather than those of academics, NGOs and funders, as is sometimes the case with leftie social movements -- are paramount.

"The AEC is an idea. Ever changing. It is an organisation that is not an organisation. Something that listens to nobody, but listens to everybody," says Cassiem.

So, is the AEC the face of a brave new world being determined by the poor? Cassiem laughs. There is nothing new or brave about being poor or struggling for something better, he says: "It is what people do and have been doing for hundreds of years just to stay alive.

"Middle-class people may feel insecure now because of what is happening [economically around the world] but we have always been living with insecurity," he says.

According to Cassiem, the strategies and tactics the AEC uses are not especially of this time, but honed over a longer trajectory that goes back to community activism against apartheid.

With coffin-bearing marches on government officials, land occupations and events such as the Poor People's World Cup that was held in protest during Fifa's tournament, there are also actions more vital to the everyday.

Stealing basic rights


The AEC reconnects water and electricity for those who have been cut off because of arrears. It holds workshops to teach families how to spread the methods to access what is considered a basic right. It is, admittedly, becoming harder with the introduction of pre-paid electricity meters, but Cassiem says there is a way around those too -- it's more dangerous and includes having to scale electricity poles, but there is always a way around these things.

There is also very physical resistance. I am sitting in the four-roomed government home in Mitchell's Plain of Siyaam Cassiem, Ashraf's mother, with whom the 43-year-old activist lives, with his sister, Faranaaz, and her adult son.

Cassiem is shooting the breeze with Izaan Fredericks, a bra (brother) from the community who would prefer I didn't use his real name. Fredericks is trying to kill time and keep his mind off the craving to smoke tik (methamphetamine) -- from which, he says, he's been clean for almost two weeks.

In walks Boeta Whitey, a retired caretaker, coming from a local primary school -- where he used to work -- bitching because he was unable to get a grandchild's report card because the school fees had not been paid. From Boeta Whitey's vivid Afrikaans description of his conversation with the school secretary, it sounds as though Franz Kafka might be sweating in his grave.

The conversation shifts to Boeta Whitey and his unpaid bills. Fredericks remembers warding off the municipal workers who had come to cut off Boeta Whitey's water supply: "Sometimes you choose a knife and your most evil look, get a couple of the bigger guys around and just stand in front of the door and don't let them in," he says. Boeta Whitey laughs.

More seriously, Cassiem talks passionately about how community activism has facilitated social ­cohesion, roping in gangsters as sentinels to keep a lookout for the police when illegal connections were happening and keeping bored unemployed youths active, away from drugs and giving them some purpose -- and hope.

"There were times when we would just all get together and sleep in and in front of the house to stop them from being evicted," he says.

I join Cassiem on an errand while Fredericks mumbles something about visiting a nearby neighbour and wanders off with a promise to meet later. Later never arrives, Fredericks having never arrived at the neighbour's house.

A state of turmoil
There is a listlessness to both Cassiem and how the movement is defining and articulating itself on the ground during the time I spent with him in Cape Town.

The movement appears to be in a state of turmoil: a press release had just gone out announcing a new executive leadership and accusing Cassiem of corruption.

Cassiem denies the accusations, saying this is part of an attempt by various academics and funders to "hijack the movement".

"People want to control the AEC, but they don't understand that it is uncontrollable … This hijacking feels kak, because I know these people and have struggled with them. It feels like a knife in the back, but you're not dying," says Cassiem.

While this sideshow unfolds, Cassiem says it's "distracting from fighting the struggle; instead we're fighting among ourselves".

The AEC has also been using the law to fight against evictions, and for housing. But Cassiem believes that the "law still exists to protect evictions -- it happens eventually".

He is dismissive of Constitutional Court judgments such as in the Irene Grootboom and Joe Slovo cases -- the latter involving the AEC -- saying the "judgments coming out of the Con Court aim to show that the judges are listening to us, but that's it".

But the AEC does have a guerrilla approach to the law and how it can be manipulated. Its members rock up at local magistrates' courts, check out the court roll for eviction cases and then -- often to the surprise of those facing evictions -- present themselves as legal counsel.

Cassiem says the aim is to "frustrate and prolong evictions and to prevent default judgments because people aren't aware of their rights, not even in courts, or, worse still, [are] bullied by their lawyers into accepting an eviction".

Passing a smoke
Cassiem is reflecting on the role of the law in his mother's sitting room in Mitchell's Plain. He exhales the smoke from his cigarette, leans over and offers her an entjie (a puff).

It is a moment that I have seen shared between mother and son on several occasions, and shared between people in Blikkies, in Mitchell's Plain, in Bel Har and in Hout Bay hundreds of times. Loose cigarettes are cheaper when passed around.

That night the crescent moon hovers over Hout Bay's Hangberg informal settlement. The shacks, perched high on the hill, shudder to some big-beat dub music.

A mere two months previously, in September, the community had been in violent conflict with the municipality after the City of Cape Town tore down shacks built along a fire break and attempted to evict residents. Petrol bombs and rubber bullets were exchanged with abandon. Arrests and injuries mounted and, before calm returned, it appeared as though Gaza had been brought to Hout Bay, say residents.

Yet, on a December Thursday night, through a side door that misleadingly appeared to be the entrance to a shack, more than 300 people were crammed into a large dancehall called the Red Lion.

Rastas were flaying the air with their dreadlocks, marijuana was being cleaned in vast quantities on tabloid newspapers and bottleneck pipes were being stuffed and blazed on the dance floor.

Almost every informal settlement in Cape Town has its own "Dub Session", apparently, but Hangberg's is especially cherished because of the expansive views from the informal settlement's club over Hout Bay harbour. And the hard-as-nails beats.

Was this the brave new world?

I am reminded that there is nothing heroic, or new, about people getting on with their lives by what appears a Sonic the Hedgehog-lookalike rasta in that I-and-I Afrikaans patois laced with English so favoured in Cape Town: "I-man, just do what I-man just do," he says.

Source: Mail & Guardian Online

Teen tells of horror fire

A teenager has described how she woke up to the sound of screaming yesterday morning as a blaze ripped through a room next to hers in Mitchell's Plain, killing three younger relatives.

Bishara Ali, 16, was asleep in the front room of the Somali family’s three-bedroomed house when the fire started just before 8am.

Thirteen people - all family members - were sleeping in the house in Eastridge at the time. Safaa, 11, Abduragmaan, nine, and Hassan, five, were killed.

“My sister Anab was shouting something about turning the electricity off, and there was a mattress on fire on the floor of the sitting room,” Ali said. “I followed two of my nephews outside to call for help, and saw smoke, thick and dark, coming from the window of the middle room.”

Five children and an adult cousin, Iqra Ali, 20, were asleep in the room, which had two bunk beds.

According to Bishara Ali, the fire began in one of two mattresses on a top bunk.

“Iqra was sleeping there, and woke up when she smelt smoke.

“She carried the burning mattress into the sitting room without realising the second mattress had also caught fire.”

While family members tried to extinguish the mattress in the lounge, the fire spread through the bedroom.

Bishara Ali called their father, Mohammed, at 8.07am from her cellphone. He was opening his tuck shop across the road.

“I’m asthmatic, I couldn’t get anywhere near that smoke. I said to him: ‘I don’t know who’s alive and who’s dead, but something is wrong in that room, please come.’”

Neighbours, alerted by the screams, came running with rocks and buckets of water.

Norman Bailey, 51, a tradesman, used a slab of concrete to break burglar bars that had trapped the children inside. He pulled two children, Maryam Ali, 12, and Shurkri Al, 18, through the window, but could not save the other three.

When the fire had been extinguished, Bishara had returned to the room.

“I could see that Abduragmaan and Safaa were hugging, but they looked like ash. Hassan had crawled under the bed. The children’s father couldn’t handle it, he just ran.”

Anab, the mother of the dead children, is four months pregnant. Her other two children - Fatima and Hussain - were in another room and escaped the blaze, but were treated for smoke inhalation at Mitchell's Plain Day Hospital.

Cape Town Fire Services spokesperson Theo Layne said officials were still investigating the cause of the fire, but suspected the children had been playing with matches.

Neighbour Maria Duncan, 52, was “very proud” of the way the community came together to help the family and said they put the fire out “long” before firemen arrived.

- Cape Times

Three kids killed in Cape fire

Three children died and four adults suffered smoke inhalation when a house caught fire in Mitchell's Plain on Wednesday, Cape Town Fire Services said.

“It was one house that was burning and three children sustained fatal injuries and four adults suffered slight smoke inhalation,” Fire Services spokesman Theo Layne said.

He said the adults were treated at the scene and taken to hospital by ambulance.

The fire services received a call reporting the fire in East Street from a neighbour at 8.05am.

“The fire is out... it took them less than 20 minutes to make the area safe.”

Layne said they had not confirmed the relationship between the children and the adults and the case would be handed over to the police for further investigation.

The cause of the fire was still unknown and would be investigated.

- Sapa

Raging blaze leaves 30 CT families homeless

A 35-YEAR-OLD man burnt to death during a fire that destroyed 10 shacks in Cape Town's Samora Machel informal settlement late on Monday.

The fire is thought to have started at a local meat stall and allegedly left 30 families homeless.

Resident Busiswa Joni, 19, said the fire started at a local meat stall and quickly spread to the shack behind it.

"We tried to extinguish the blaze using water and sand but could not because of the strong wind," Joni said.

"We don't know how this fire started. The stall was not operating at the time since the owner went to Eastern Cape two months ago."

People at the scene lambasted the provincial government for the housing backlog in the area.

They said if the government had provided them with decent houses the fire would not have affected them.

Lizo Phacwane, 40, said he lost everything in the blaze.

"I was asleep and heard people shouting 'fire, fire'. I grabbed a bucket, ran to the tap and fetched water to help my neighbours extinguish the fire," he said.

The fire spread quickly and burnt down Phacwane's shack. He said he did not even have time to go into the shack to fetch his identity document and driver's licence.

A distraught Phacwane said he sent his wife and three children to Eastern Cape on Sunday and did not know what he would tell them.

Security officer Chumani Liwa's shack was partially damaged by the raging blaze. He thanked his neighbours for saving his shack and belongings.

"I was at work when the fire started, but my neighbours broke the window and saved my fridge, bed and blankets. I lost only my TV and clothes," he said.

Liwa lambasted ANC councillor Monwabisi Mbaliswana. He accused him of making false promises.

"Mbaliswana promised us houses a long time ago but each year they put stickers on our doors saying they are still counting us," said Liwa, showing Sowetan three stickers pasted on his door.

Mbaliswana defended himself. He said he was in talks with Western Cape MEC for human settlements Bonginkosi Madikizela to relocate the community.

"We are waiting for Madikizela to allocate us land. We cannot build houses in this area," he said.

As usual after a shack fire each family will receive three packets of nails, 10 poles and five sheets of corrugated iron from the city's department of informal settlements. Residents claim the material is not enough to rebuild a shack.

- Sowetan

Beneficiaries ‘cut by a 3rd’

Beneficiaries of the relief of distress grant have been slashed by more than a third in the Western Cape, provincial social development MEC Patricia de Lille said on Monday.

She said this followed verification of the 3 500 beneficiaries her department had on its books.

The review uncovered beneficiaries whose names had appeared on the provincial government payroll this year, and incorrect ID numbers.

Some beneficiaries were getting duplicate payments because their names appeared twice, or their ID numbers appear twice with different names.

“The verification process has resulted in the reduction from 3500 to 2197 genuine beneficiaries,” De Lille said.

She said she had put a hold on payments at the beginning of December, but that genuine beneficiaries would get their next payout on Monday (December 20) and on Tuesday.

A social relief of distress grant is a temporary form of support for people who are in crisis and in need of immediate help to survive.

The amount of temporary relief is less than a regular grant and is given for only up to three months.

- Sapa

One dead in CT shack fire

A person died and about 20 homes were gutted in a shack fire in Philippi, SABC reported on Monday.

The fire apparently started in Samora Machel informal settlement on Sunday night, Cape Town fire said.

The cause of the fire was not yet known.

- SAPA

Du Noon residents try to rebuild lives after deadly fire

Some Du Noon informal settlers in Cape Town on Sunday said they are haunted by a deadly fire at the weekend. One person died and 30 shacks were destroyed on Saturday morning.

It is alleged the fire was started by a man following an argument with his girlfriend.

Desperate residents told Eyewitness News they are battling with many having lost everything.

Some residents also said they are unable to go home to the Eastern Cape for the holidays as they have lost all their belongings, including their Christmas bonuses.

A 36-year-old man arrested on Sunday for the incident is to be charged with arson.

- Eyewitness News

Four die in Cape shack fires

Weekend fires claimed four lives, the latest on Sunday morning when a 21-year-old from Asanda Village in Strand burnt to death in his shack in full view of relatives.

Fire and Rescue spokesman Theo Layne said of eight shack fires between Friday and Sunday three were fatal.

High summer temperatures also contributed to 104 vegetation fires.

Strand fire victim Mpho Matima lived alone in a shack behind his relatives’ home after moving from the Eastern Cape.

Matima’s aunt, Nthabeleng Matsemela, was the first to notice the fire.

She said: “I jumped up and started shouting. I immediately took all my appliances and clothes outside. I couldn’t go to the back there (to the shack). In my heart, I knew that he was gone.”

Matsemela waited outside with relatives while neighbours put out the blaze.

“When I went to the back a couple of minutes later I saw him. He was still on fire. He was burnt beyond recognition. He was on his knees with his head between his legs. What I can’t understand is why he didn’t try to escape. It’s like he just gave up.”

Matsemela believed a cigarette caused the fire.

Matima’s sister, Mampolo, 15, said she woke up after hearing the screams of her aunt (Matsemela).

“He liked sitting alone and smoking in there. There was nothing else in that room that could’ve started it.”

Mampolo said emergency services were partly to blame for his death because they “took more than an hour to arrive”.

“He was the man of the house. He protected us. I don’t know what we are going to do without him,” she said.

Other fatalities were:

- Two people who were killed in Ninth Street, Kensington, on Friday when a fire razed eight shacks.

- One person who was killed and 30 homes were destroyed in a fire in Dunoon on Friday. Neighbours suspected a disgruntled boyfriend started the fire after an argument with his girlfriend.

There were no reports of death or injuries in the other shack and vegetation fires.

- Cape Times

West Coast residents return home after floods

Authorities on Saturday said around 250 families who were displaced during floods on the West Coast have returned to their homes.

Several towns including Lutzville in the Western Cape were flooded after heavy rains earlier this week. Around 100 millimeters of rainfall was recorded over a 24 hour period in the area.

Mopping up operations started on Friday and infrastructural damages were estimated to be in the millions.

The Department of Social Development’s Richard Macdonald said the situation appeared to be returning to normal.

“All of them are back at their homes,” he said. “We provided some hot meal for them during the day and I think there’s no need for meals anymore.”

- Eyewitness News

Fire warnings in Western Cape

One person has died and dozens of residents have been displaced during a spate of early morning fires in the Western Cape.

A fire claimed the life of one person and left six homeless after the blaze gutted their shack in Strand.

In another incident, five shacks were gutted and left six people displaced in Langa.

Disaster Management spokesperson Wilfred Solomons-Johannes said, “Disaster Management is on scene this morning assessing the affected parties with the necessary disaster relief aids. The causes of the fires in the two instances are unknown and we will investigate the occurrence of the fire.”

Meanwhile, one person was killed and several others were left homeless after a fire gutted several shacks in the Du Noon informal settlement on Saturday.

- Accidents.co.za

Fires on the rise in W.Cape

One person has died and dozens of residents have been displaced during a spate of early morning fires in the Western Cape.

A fire claimed the life of one person and left six homeless after the blaze gutted their shack in Strand.

In another incident, five shacks were gutted and left six people displaced in Langa.

Disaster Management spokesperson Wilfred Solomons-Johannes said, “Disaster Management is on scene this morning assessing the affected parties with the necessary disaster relief aids. The causes of the fires in the two instances are unknown and we will investigate the occurrence of the fire.”

Meanwhile, one person was killed and several others were left homeless after a fire gutted several shacks in the Du Noon informal settlement on Saturday

- Eyewitness News

W.Cape officials tackle damages after floods

Western Cape authorities on Saturday said they would soon begin the task of adding up the cost of the infrastructural damage in the West Coast following floods in the region.

Several towns including Lutzville were lashed by inclement weather earlier this week.

Mopping up operations are also underway and all of the nearly 250 displaced residents have returned to their homes.

Western Cape Social Development Department spokesperson Richard Macdonald said they have started the process of getting things back to normal.

“The infrastructural damage, I think the municipality is also working on that. The people can now move back to their houses. I think the damage was in terms of some of the roves and I think the people need some support,” he said.

- Eyewitness News

Grisly find as homes burn in night-time blaze

A pre-dawn fire razed 30 shacks in the Du Noon informal settlement yesterday, killing one person and leaving at least 80 others displaced.

The City’s Fire and Rescue Service spokesman Theo Layne said they had received the distress call at 1.29am and dispatched two fire engines, a water tanker and a rescue vehicle.

“While extinguishing the blaze, firefighters discovered the charred body of an unknown person, burnt beyond recognition,” Layne said.

Layne said it took firefighters about an hour to bring the blaze under control.

Milnerton police cluster spokesman Captain Cyril Dicks said police had opened an inquest docket.

“We are still investigating the cause of the fire. As yet we have not established the identity of the deceased person.”

The police also were unable to establish whether the person was male or female.

“Even the community could not assist with the identification at the scene.

“We are urging people who may be missing a relative or loved one to come forward with information,” he said.

Disaster Management spokesman Wilfred Solomons-Johannes said their teams had immediately moved into the area to provide assistance in the form of starter kits to rebuild their homes, meals and blankets.

Solomons-Johannes said by late afternoon, residents were rebuilding their homes.

In another incident on Friday, a couple were burnt to death in a shack fire in 8th Street, Kensington.

- Sunday Argus

Dozens displaced by Cape floods

Almost 250 people were displaced on the West Coast in the Western Cape due to flooding on Thursday, the provincial department of social development said.

Officials from the department were in the process of rendering support to the affected families, spokesperson Deidre Foster said in a statement.

Further assessments of the area and damage would be conducted on Friday.

Social Development MEC Patricia De Lille would be visiting the Ebenezer, Vredendal North and Lutzville communities on Friday, she said.

- Sapa

Nearly R1bn spent on fixing faulty houses: Sexwale

The government has so far spent R927-million on repairing or rebuilding sub-standard government houses in this financial year, says Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale.

The figure includes the cost of demolishing and rebuilding 1 144 houses in six provinces, half of them in Mpumalanga, Sexwale said in reply to a parliamentary question by the Democratic Alliance.

In the Eastern Cape, 220 units were bulldozed and rebuilt.

Sexwale said that province spent a total of R76.25-million fixing 1 463 faulty state houses out of a target of 2 192.

The Northern Cape spent R6.8-million on repairing 129 houses and R5.7-million on demolishing and rebuilding 69 houses.

The minister had set aside R1.3-million of human settlement's budget of roughly R16-billion for repairs to poor quality government housing.

His special adviser, Chris Vick, said this was in line with a commitment to ensure that government houses were "of an acceptable quality".

"We are optimistic that improvements to the procurement and quality control systems will reduce the need for rectification going forward," he said.

Vick added that the majority of houses being repaired were either built before the National Home Builders' Registration Council (NHBRC) was fully operational and therefore in a position to ensure proper quality control, or dated from a time when houses built under the People's Housing Process were not covered by the NHBRC's quality-control process.

- Timeslive

Feud leaves families homeless

Three District Six families, including a frail 73-year-old pensioner, were left homeless on Tuesday as a long-standing family feud reached boiling point.

“I wonder how my uncle will sleep at night knowing his brother won’t have a place to sleep tonight,” said Pontac Street resident Anwa Essop after he and his father, 73-year-old Ahmed Essop, were among the people evicted, allegedly on his uncle’s instructions, on Tuesday. The eviction was preceded by a long-running battle among Essop family members over 16 cottages left by their late father, Mohamed Omar Essop, to his eight sons.

A trust was set up to administer the property situated between Nelson, Pontac and Aspeling streets, and family member Dr Omar Mohamed was named sole trustee, according to those evicted on Tuesday. They said Mohamed, the brother of Ahmed and Anwa Essop’s uncle, instructed their eviction because he wanted to sell the land to make way for a property development.

However, they insisted he should not be allowed to sell the property as the South African Heritage Resources Agency (Sahra) had declared it a heritage site. “You cannot just break down heritage property,” they said.

Dr Mohamed said on Tuesday the decision to evict his family members was made by the court.

“After 40 years the judge has decided this is the best course of action,” he said.

Earlier, his distraught family members watched as deputy sheriff of the court Gordon Bagley and his workers removed the Essops’ furniture and clothes. Bagley said he was executing a court order made on November 12.

As he helped clear the house he and his family have called home for the past 35 years, Anwa Essop said: “I am devastated. It’s like the carpet has just been pulled from under my feet.”

Unsure where he would spend the night, Essop said he was shocked that his uncle had shown no humanity towards his own family. His daughter was traumatised but Essop said he was also concerned about his father, Ahmed Essop, who had spent a month in hospital after a heart attack because of the ongoing eviction battle.

Ahmed Essop’s wife, Gairo Essop, 72, could not hold back her tears as she relived the pain she felt when she was among 66 000 people evicted from District Six by the apartheid regime. She said her son-in-law would provide temporary shelter for her and her husband.

Their daughter-in-law, Doulla Philander, did not know where she and her husband would spend the night. “My husband and I might have to sleep outside, under the stars,” she said. Their two daughters would spend the night at their grandmother’s house, she said.

Dr Mohamed said the next phase of the court order was to find them accommodation. “After the estate is sold the proceeds will be distributed to them, equitably,” he said.

His statement received an angry response from Gairo Essop who said they wanted their homes and not money.

- Cape Times

Mediator appointed for Hangberg eviction saga

The Hout Bay Civic Association on Tuesday said mediation efforts around the Hangberg eviction saga are proceeding well.

An independent mediator has been appointed to oversee the process.

The City of Cape Town, SANParks, the Hangberg community and the civic association agreed to enter into talks, rather than follow through with court action in a bid to defuse tensions.

Violence erupted in September 2010 after city officials took down shacks built in a fire break on the slopes of the Sentinel.

The civic association’s Greg Louw said they are currently in the process of introducing proper representation for the community, but he refused to name the mediator.

- Eyewitness News

Cape hit by 400 fires in 1 week

Firefighters have fought hard to contain nearly 400 blazes in one week, in which one person died and hundreds lost their homes.

Fire and Rescue spokesman Theo Layne said fire services had responded to an average of 45 vegetation fires a day. Spikes included last Monday, when fire fighters were called out to 73 incidents. On Tuesday there were 81 and on Saturday, there were 63.

On Sunday Cape Town's emergency services dealt with 47 vegetation fires.

Layne said strong winds across the Cape in the past week had added to the number of fires.

A fire had ripped through the Jim Se Bos informal settlement in Philippi at about 10pm on Saturday. Fifty shacks were destroyed and more than 100 people left homeless.

In one of the shacks, Elton Oliphant, 40, and his partner Johanna Klein were asleep.

Neighbours said the fire had started at the shack next door to Klein, who said she had woken up, smelling smoke.

“I tried to knock the window open, but the smoke was too thick so see anything and so I ran out.”

She said Oliphant had been asleep and she could not get him to in budge. He had remained inside the inferno.

On Sunday morning police cordoned off the small section around the couple's charred bed.

Forensic specialists found a few teeth and a few shards of bone on the mattress's metal frame but an official siad he could not immediately determine whether these were human remains.

Klein, however, was convinced she had left her sleeping husband on the bed and said there was no way he could have escaped the blaze.

Community leader Mariam Flink said the couple had lived there for only about six months. She said each year the same thing happened - fires ripped through the settlement, leaving families devastated.

On Sunday morning firefighters worked for nearly four hours to contain a fire in Hout Bay. A pump house on a property in the area was damaged.

- Cape Argus

Property owners warned against squatters

Property owners whose land is illegally occupied, have to take legal action within six months or face lengthy and expensive legal battles - and perhaps have to provide alternative accommodation for the illegal occupiers.

The land invasion issues have been raised following reports that an elderly Pretoria couple had to abandon their Sweet Homes property near Mitchells Plain last week. About 900 illegal squatters occupied the land and refused to move despite the couple’s attempts to evict them over 20 years.

According to the Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land (Pie) Act, if an unlawful occupier lived on the land for less than six months at the time legal proceedings began, a court may grant an eviction order. If it is later than six months the land owner may have to provide the invaders with alternative accommodation - and if the illegal occupants refuse to move, the owner could face a costly court battle.

Unlike the Trespass Act which allowed for eviction within 48 hours, Pie’s eviction procedures were longer. The City of Cape Town used the Trespass Act as soon as a land invasion was reported while groups such as the Anti Eviction Campaign used the Pie Act to resist evictions.

Steve Hayward, head of City’s Anti-Land Invasion Unit (Aliu) said all landowners were responsible for the protection of their own properties against invasions and unlawful occupation. “By failing to take immediate action in removing squatters, the landowner faces huge legal costs in an eviction process that could take years. Besides losing the land completely, the owner could also be held liable for the municipal legal expenses if action has to be taken,” he said.

Forest Ndathane, who said he represented Sweet Homes residents, said: “There have been no previous talks or negotiations with the owners. I, as a community leader, haven’t even spoken to them before so how can they expect us to negotiate if there’s no communication. They can’t just expect us to go.”

Residents claimed their rights have been violated because the city did not provide them with services. They complained of high TB rates, HIV infection, unemployment and crime. There are land invasion cases across the peninsula where private landowners struggle to evict illegal occupants. In Haji Ebrahim Crescent in Athlone, a land owner who had been living in Canada failed to take action against 40 families who took illegal occupation of his land in 1990.

In Olieboom Road, Philippi the landowner has been struggling to evict 600 families who have illegally occupied his property since 1988.

In Goliath Estate, Kraaifontein the owner of a residential property failed to evict a dozen shack dwellers over an 11-year period. He is now unable to sell the property to a developer.

- Cape Times

‘I want a brick toilet’

A number of Makhaza residents have vowed to reject the City of Cape Town’s new offer to consider an alternative enclosure to corrugated iron for their toilets.

This is their response after the city yesterday called on the residents to accept one of three options in its attempt to end the impasse.

The residents had to either accept a corrugated iron structure or suggest an alternative structure or one that would be accessible to disabled, old or sick people.

However, the cost to the city would be the same for all the structures - at R2 800.

As a Cape Times team arrived in Makhaza’s Themba Mazibuko Street yesterday afternoon, city workers were distributing documents including a letter, an application form and Judge Nathan Erasmus’s court order.

Last Monday Judge Erasmus ordered the city to reinstall toilets it had removed following a clash with Makhaza residents and to erect corrugated iron enclosures as a temporary measure pending a final ruling in March.

But some residents barred city workers from entering the area and putting up the toilets, saying they had not been consulted.

Asked yesterday if they realised they were going against a court order, the residents said all they knew was that they did not want zinc toilets.

They had until today to submit their choice to the city.

However, a number of other residents who spoke to the Cape Times vowed to fight until they received proper toilets.

Themba Mazibuko Street resident Vusumzi Qobosha said he would not accept the offer because “I don’t want a zinc toilet”.

Said Qobosha: “Even if I choose another enclosure for my toilet, I know I will still get a poor quality toilet.”

He said he would rather keep his collapsing structure covered with ceiling boards and pieces of corrugated iron.

“I want a brick toilet,” said Qobosha.

Another local, Noxolo Khonza, 27, said she would accept the alternative but would not accept anything shoddy.

Currently without a toilet, and relying on public ones in the middle of the street, she stressed she needed a proper toilet.

“The two alternatives are a bit of a relief but if (the city) does not keep its word, the residents will go back to dolo phezulu (knees up),” said Khonza.

In its new offer, the city stated all 1 316 beneficiaries of the Silvertown Upgrade Project (toilet project) would get a corrugated iron and timber structure, including a polyurethane door, which would be suspended on a steel bar and could be locked from both the inside and outside.

The space inside the toilets would not be less than 2.5 metres in height, 1.5 metres in depth and a metre wide.

A complete toilet would cost the city R2 800.

“So as to ensure that it applies its resources equitably and in an even-handed manner, this offer extends to all 1 316 beneficiaries in the project and not only to those residents who previously were unable or refused to enclose toilets … in terms of the agreement reached in November 2007”, a letter to the residents reads.

Meanwhile, Anglican Archbishop Thabo Makgoba has again offered to mediate in the impasse.

Makgoba has been to Makhaza twice with the Social Justice Coalition and has met with residents, community leaders, members of the ANC Youth League and mayor Dan Plato but his offer has not been accepted.

He hoped the city and residents could reach consensus before the festive season, “to allow for residents to enjoy this holy period with their family and community”.

- Cape Times

Girl, 7, dies in wendy house blaze

An anguished family wept in horror as flames enveloped their home yesterday, killing their seven-year-old daughter.

Alicia Petersen, a Grade 1 pupil, was asleep alone in a wendy house on her family’s Valhalla Park property while her mother, grandmother, great aunt and brother were having breakfast in the main house.

Lizelle Hoop, who is the family’s neighbour as well as Alicia’s mother Gretchen’s cousin, said she had been asleep and had been woken by screams.

“I could hear her mother call out her name and realised that the house was filled with smoke. I grabbed my baby and went outside,” said Hoop.

Neighbours rushed to the house and used hosepipes to try and extinguish the flames, but their efforts were in vain.

“Some people climbed on the roof of the wendy house and managed to break part of it open but they were pushed back by the intense flames and heat. They could see Alicia huddled in a little corner but they couldn’t get her out,” said Hoop.

The family’s pastor, Rodger Chetty, said: “Alicia’s four-year-old brother saw the smoke and fire as he was on his way to the wendy house and alerted his mother.

“The family tried to push open the window to the Wendy house but the flames were too high and they could only stand and watch,” said Chetty.

He described Alicia as “a jolly little girl”.

The fire department and police were called to the scene while neighbours continued to battle the flames.

Bishop Lavis police spokeswoman Captain Marie Louw said: “Around 9.15am flames and smoke were seen coming from the wendy house at the corner of Simons Street and Agnes Street.

“(Alicia) was asleep inside. Police are still investigating the cause of the fire, although it is believed to have been caused by an electrical fault.” By the time firefighters managed to halt the blaze, Alicia was dead.

Her family wept and hugged each other. Their house and wendy house, as well as a neighbour’s house and Wendy house, were destroyed by the fire. A third house and wendy house were damaged.

- Cape Argus

Shacks razed in fire

A RAGING shack fire burned about 100 shacks and a community crèche to the ground in Khayelitsha on Tuesday night.

This is the worst shack fire so far in Cape Town this summer and informal settlement residents fear that hundreds will have lost their homes by the end of the season.

Khayelitsha's QQ Section crèche, built by the community more than two years ago, was destroyed. The only toilet in the settlement, a dry toilet bought by the community for the crèche for R3000 - was also destroyed.

Speaking to Sowetan after the fire, resident Mthobeli Qona said he called the nearest fire brigade, in Site C, Khayelitsha, as soon as the fire started, but they said they did not have water in their tanks.

"They said we must wait for another fire brigade from further away to come. It came after an hour, when all the shacks were burnt down. Everything is gone now."

There are only five taps in the settlement of 5000 people and residents tried to stop the fire using buckets of water.

Qona hit out at the City of Cape Town, saying they had offered each family only eight wooden poles and five sheets of zinc to rebuild their shacks. "This is nothing," Qona said.

Abahlali baseMjondolo Western Cape president Mzonke Poni, who built the community crèche in 2008, described the fire as "a direct result of the contempt in which the government holds the poor".

- Sowetan

Sexwale delivers on housing pledge

HUMAN Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale has handed more than 500 houses to a Port Alfred community.

Construction of the houses started in April. Sexwale said yesterday the handover signified a new way of accelerated service delivery.

Sexwale said: "We made a promise to you, not only to deliver houses but to do so in a faster pace; this government doesn't joke, when we say something must be done it must be done.

"This project is an indication of how this government is going to do things. We are not going to allow any slow pace in the delivery of service. We are now going to increase the pace of delivery in all our projects ... our people cannot and must not wait any longer for decent shelter.

"I cannot sleep properly in my house if my people are homeless, when they can't be protected from the weather when it is rainy and windy ... suffering in their shacks."

On completion, the project will see 5,000 rental and bonded houses built, including the provision of schools, clinics and business places within the community.

But the lack of bulk services, mainly major waterworks such as desalination plant to treat sea water, a plant to clean river water or construction of a new dam, is delaying the roll-out of the remaining 4,500 homes.

- Sowetan

Humans left homeless after settlement blaze

Up To Five Hundred People Left Homeless in the QQ Fire Last Night

The fire that raged through the QQ Section shack settlement in Khayelitsha last night has destroyed up to 100 shacks leaving as many as 500 people homeless.

Most people have lost everything including ID books, work clothes, school uniforms, medication and family photographs.

The community built and run crèche has also been destroyed.

We are appealing for immediate help for the people who have been left destitute in this fire. As a movement we are struggling for justice and not charity but in a time of crisis we embrace the generosity of others.

It is rumoured that this fire was started by a self-organised electricity connection. Our movement has been organising around the questions of electricity and fire in Durban for many years. Our position is that:

1. The major cause of shack fires is the fact that shack settlements are not electrified and therefore, as a matter of urgency, all shack settlements must be electrified.

2. When the state fails to electrify shack settlements or simply refuses to electrify them at all then people have a right to electrify their own shacks. However it is essential to draw a clear distinction between badly made and dangerous connections installed in an ad hoc manner and well organised, well made and safe connections. A well organised community structure can electrify a settlement safely.

We [InternAfrica agrees] do not accept that shack fires are natural disasters. Shack fires are the result of the social abandonment of the poor. We will continue to politicise shack fires and we will continue to fight for our full social inclusion in this society. That means that while we fight for land and housing we are also demanding the immediate electrification of all shack settlements as a matter of extreme urgency. Where the state fails to respond the shack fire crisis adequately – and an adequate response must include immediate electrification – we will encourage all communities to organise their own connections in a collective, disciplined and safe manner.

Neither the struggle for justice nor the self organised responses to surviving injustice can move forward without proper organisation. We are encouraging all communities to democratise their settlements and to elect accountable and recallable leadership outside of party structures so that the collective, bottom up and responsible self management of settlements and the struggle for the full right to the city for all can be taken forward.

For updates and comment from QQ section please contact:

Mr. Qona 076 041 0057
Mbongeni 076 981 6945
Mzonke 073 256 2036

--
Uyishayile!

Dozens of shacks destroyed by fire

An estimated 150 shacks have burnt down in the Q section of Khayelitsha on the Cape Flats on Tuesday, the Cape Town Disaster Risk Management Centre said.

"About 600 people have been displaced after the fire at Q section on Lansdowne Road," centre spokesperson Wilfred Solomons-Johannes told reporters.

"Around 15 fire engines from across the city were called to attend to the fire and it has been brought under control. We estimate we'll be here another hour and a half," he said at around 11pm.

The fire apparently started at around 7pm on Tuesday but the cause was not yet known. No deaths or injuries had been reported.

Solomons-Johannes said displaced shack-dwellers had been moved to Site B community hall in Khayelitsha and were being assisted with clothes, hot meals and blankets.

He said building materials would be brought in on Wednesday so that people could start rebuilding their homes.

"We will first register and verify the beneficiaries," he said.

- Sapa

Terrible Shack Fire Currently Raging in QQ Section, Khayelitsha

Abahlali baseMjondolo of the Western Cape Emergency Press Statement 07/12/2010

A terrible fire is currently raging in the QQ Section settlement in Khayelitsha. More than twenty homes and the community-built creche have already been destroyed. The fire is still raging and still destroying countless lives.

Shack fires are not natural disasters. They are a direct result of the contempt in which the government holds the poor in this country. Shack fires are political.We will never accept that it is normal for the poor to burn.

Those so-called social justice organisations that are calling for a politics of patience in which the poor do not directly and immediately confront our oppression take no account of THE FACT that our every day lives are an emergency. We live in crisis every day. We live in life threatening conditions every day. This is what drives us to the streets. We will continue to go to the streets until our humanity is recognised and we are treated with dignity. It is not our protests that are a threat to our society. Is the way that we are forced to live that is a threat to society. It is the oppression of the poor that is a threat to society.

We refuse to be patient. We refuse to accept that it is normal for human beings to have to live like this.

For on the scene updates and comment from QQ section please contact:

Mr. Qona 076 041 0057
Mbongeni 076 981 6945

No Sh*t Sherlock As Cape Shelves Makhaza Toilet Plans

The City of Cape Town has decided to shelve plans to install dozens of toilets at the Makhaza settlement in Khayelitsha according to a report by the SABC.

Makhaza was the centre of a massive public relations nightmare when the so called open toilet scandal broke out earlier in the year.

The City then responded by tearing the toilets down.

City of Cape Town Housing spokesperson Herman Steyn said the city will only engage via the courts.

Residents this morning barricaded streets in protest at not being consulted by the City in the matter.

This after the Western Cape High Court had ordered that all uncovered toilets in the settlement be covered with corrugated iron as an interim measure pending a final decision next year.

Spokesperson for the city Kylie Hatton said that the city is engaging with residents who have covered their own toilets regarding offering assistance with materials.

- NewsTime

Fire leaves Nyanga families homeless

MORE than 20 Cape Town families were left homeless on Sunday night, after a fire swept through the Lusaka informal settlement in Nyanga.

Nobody was injured but the 22 families, who share 11 shacks in the area, lost all their possessions. A shipping container was also burnt to the ground.

The cause of the fire is still a mystery. But victims said it started in a locked shack and they suspected a gas stove caused the fire.

Saddened fire victims said they didn't know what to do without their belongings.

"I received a call at 7pm while I was at work informing me that my shack had burnt down. I lost everything, including my baby's clothes.

"I am left with only the clothes I am wearing now," said Nosipho Vutuza, the mother of a 4-year-child.

Monde Madladla was asleep when the fire started.

"I saw smoke coming from my shack. I jumped up and ran out with a TV stand, chair and bed.

"All my other belongings got burnt because the fire engulfed my house very quickly," Madladla said

Shoemaker Amandla Mnyaka, owner of the shipping container, said he was anxious about his customers' shoes.

"I don't know how I am going to pay them back, but I will tell them what happened. I lost everything. My machines were burnt and I will have to buy another container," he said.

South African National Civic Organisation area committee member Lulamile Ngcane said the residents had asked ANC ward councillor Gladstone Ntamo for help.

But when contacted, Ntamo said he knew nothing about the fire.

"I am in a caucus meeting in Cape Town now and I have not received a report."

The city's public awareness manager , Charlotte Powell, said the housing department had provided the victims with starter kits to rebuild their dwellings.

She said the Mustadafin Foundation had taken hot meals, blankets, food parcels and clothing to victims.

- Sowetan

Conflicts of interests plague housing

Hundreds of senior managers in the national and provincial housing departments have potential conflicts of interest between their private interests and official duties, a Public Service Commission (PSC) report has found.

The Consolidated Monitoring and Evaluation Report on the Departments of Housing, published on Monday, finds some 576 senior managers out of the sample of 2628 did not disclose some of their directorships/partnerships in private companies and close corporations.

"The PSC recommends that executive authorities should ensure that transgressing HODs (heads of department) and other members of the SMS (senior management service) are charged with misconduct for failing to disclose their financial interests in terms of the Disciplinary Code and Procedures, as contained in the SMS handbook for not complying with the Financial Disclosure Framework," the report reads.

According to the report only 122 out of 150 heads of department submitted their financial disclosure forms as at 5 February 2010, while 48 of the HODs did not disclose some of their directorships and/or partnerships in private companies/close corporations.

"The PSC finds that the financial interests of 50 or 33 percent, of the HODs, present a potential conflict of interests to their departments."

According to the report senior managers in the housing departments also received gifts worth hundreds of thousands of rands in the past year.

Out of a sample of 2628, some 101 senior managers received gifts collectively valued at R740,000.

"This indicates that the issue of the provision of gifts to public servants is real and should thus be subjected to appropriate controls," states the report, in which the performance of all 10 departments of housing are assessed.

The average performance for the housing sector for the 2009/2010 evaluation cycle was just adequate, with a score of 53 percent.

The best performer for the sector was the Western Cape, which attained an "excellent performance" of 86 percent, followed by the national department, with a "good performance" at 76 percent.

The Eastern Cape, which achieved 36 percent, and the North West, 32 percent, received the lowest scores in the survey.

"This is an indication of key weaknesses in management and poor co-ordination and implementation of systems and procedures within these departments," according to the report.

The low-scoring departments -- those with below 50 percent -- were, with the exception of the Free State, also recipients of disclaimers or qualified audit opinions from the Auditor-General for the 2008/2009 financial year.

"The PSC recommends that the Public Finance Management Act should be amended to provide for the regulation of private companies linked to public officials and doing business with government," the report reads.

"The PSC is of the opinion that the management of conflicts of interest could further be strengthened by conducting lifestyle audits. This implies that if an executive authority is of the opinion that there has been incomplete disclosure of financial interests by a senior manager, he/she may embark on a lifestyle audit."

- Timeslive