The City of Cape Town has defended its housing allocation policy, in response to a disabled man’s plea for housing for the vulnerable.
Last week, Green Park resident Raymond Mtati led a group of his neighbours on a 30km overnight march from the informal settlement near Driftsands to the Civic Centre.
Mtati used crutches because of his lame left leg, a result of being shot in the 1980s. It took the group about 18 hours to reach the CBD.
At the Civic Centre they received a heroes’ welcome from residents who had travelled in to picket for housing and relocation.
Mtati said the gesture showed how frustrated Green Park residents were with their living conditions, including regular winter floods.
In a petition to mayor Patricia de Lille, Mtati called on the City of Cape Town to relocate the settlement’s disabled, elderly and young children.
Tandeka Gqada, mayoral committee member for human settlements, said the city was under pressure from land and resource shortages but acknowledged the frustration of people who had been on the housing waiting list for years.
“Balancing the community’s desire to benefit from the housing project within their area, the desperation of those who have been on the list for sometimes as long as 20 years, and the needs of disabled and marginalised residents in Cape Town – all while dealing with a crippling land and resource shortage– is a tricky proposition, and may leave some residents feeling that their needs have been ignored.”
Gqada had little to say about Green Park in particular, adding that a record of Mtati at a Delft address did not indicate he was disabled. She encouraged him, and other disabled people who wanted to be prioritised on the waiting list, to provide proof of their disability to their local housing office.
Mtati dismissed Gqada’s response as “box thinking”.
“It is the usual policy talk which actually bears no fruit. We are going to compel them to account, even if we have to go to court to force the city to act on our grievances,” he said.
He added that Gqada’s reference to him as an individual indicated that she did not understand the point of his “awareness march”.
daneel.knoetze@inl.co.za
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