Cape Town - Delft residents who were making their way through the city centre after a day of protesting outside the Western Cape High Court looted hawkers’ stalls.
The residents from Delft’s TRA5 had come to town to support seven community leaders against whom an urgent application had been brought in the high court. As they reached the Grand Parade many grabbed goods from hawkers’s stalls before fleeing towards Cape Town Station.
The court application had been brought by the provincial Department of Human Settlements against the leaders for disrupting construction of new houses which are intended for TRA5 residents.
The case is back in court on Thursday.
The residents were due to receive houses built using alternative building materials, but the residents said that they wanted brick houses.
Bruce Oom, spokesman for MEC for Human Settlements Bonginkosi Madikizela, said they had applied for an interdict against the seven leaders so that the building work could be continued without disruption.
The community leaders have been accused of intimidating building workers on the site and preventing them from performing their duties.
“The department has a mandate to deliver houses to those people who need them most, and at stake are the housing needs of thousands of people due to the unhappiness of a few individuals.”
But residents argued in court that there were no grounds for an interdict since the last disruption had been on March 22 and work at the site had continued uninterrupted since the beginning of last month.
Outside the court, Zwelohlanga Ndiki, one of the respondents in the case, said residents had marched to the site after they heard that their new houses were to be built with material similar to asbestos slabs.
“There was no show house to show the people what kind of house they will be getting and the residents want an assurance that these houses will not collapse after eight years.”
Oom said the project was expected to be complete by March next year, “but due to various challenges with the project, the completion date may be extended by a few months”.
He said that houses built with alternative materials were in many ways superior to conventional brick and mortar houses.
“All houses have to meet the standards of the National Home Builders Registration Council, which independently guarantees the quality of the houses for five years after construction.”
Oom said a show house had been built by the contractor at another site and the community leaders had been invited to inspect it.
“Minister Madikizela has also communicated the process to the community, as well as the benefits of the new houses, and so the department is satisfied there has been sufficient communication.”
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