Misery for thousands in Cape Town

Cape Town - Hundreds of shacks were flooded and thousands of people displaced in townships as a storm hit Cape Town on Wednesday night and on Thursday morning.

With three cold fronts sweeping through the province, the city has been at the centre of the storm.

City Safety and Security director Richard Bosman said about 1 500 shacks had been flooded. The worst-hit area was Khayelitsha, where over 2 000 people were affected by the storm.

When a Cape Argus team visited the RR Section of the township’s Site B, it found many of the dirt roads were under water.

In the low-lying areas, the shacks were divided by a maze of mini rivers, which residents sloshed through in rubber boots.

Portia Franscois, 20, said on Thursday morning she was worried the water would not stop rising.

As rain pelted the township on Wednesday night, water had begun to trickle in through the gap underneath her door. By 6am, there was 10cm of water in the dwelling, turning the bed she shares with her mother and two children into an island.

She said the stormwater had made her 2-year-old child sick.

“He has a rash because the water is very dirty.”

Franscois is planning to stay with friends on the other side of the township until the floods subside.

Her neighbour Nombasa Mthusanto said her furniture had been damaged by the floods.

Relief efforts have started with the city and NGOs handing out baby and flood kits, Bosman said.

With the SA Weather Service warning heavy rainfall was set to persist today, there are fears flooding could, get worse, specially in Khayelitsha which is built on a floodplain.

Lavender Hill and Sir Lowry’s Pass were among the areas flooded today.

Bosman said about 5 000 people had been affected across the city.

However, the city said conditions were not severe enough to evacuate township residents.

This morning, there was minor flooding on roads in the southern suburbs but City Traffic Services spokesman Richard Coleman said there had been no reports of serious crashes.

Waves rose up to 6m on Wednesday and on Thursday morning, wreaking havoc at sea.

A teenage girl was admitted to hospital on Wednesday suffering from hypothermia and another with a leg injury, the National Sea Rescue Institute said.

“A 17-year-old female was transported to hospital suffering a leg injury and a 16-year-old female was transported to hospital suffering hypothermia,” spokesman Craig Lambinon said.

The girls were part of the Knysna sailing team taking part in the 2014 Lipton Cup Challenge in False Bay.

Lambinon said six boys from Bishops Diocesan College taking part in the challenge were rescued after their yacht was blown out to sea.

He said they had reported their mainsail had been damaged and wrapped around the forestay. The yacht had been towed into the harbour.

The storms are set to clear by Friday morning.

- Cape Argus

Running battles rage across Cape’s Marikana

Cape Town - Rioters ran through the smoke carrying cases of Coca-Cola after looting a wholesaler in Marikana, Philippi, on Friday morning as the area once again flared into violence while evictions were under way.

At the time of publication, running battles raged across several square kilometres as police clashed with angry residents.

Small armies of rioters, carrying rocks and makeshift shields, kept police under constant attack.

The police, who had a helicopter circling, retaliated with tear gas and thunderflashes.

At about 10.30am the crowd broke into a Cash&Carry building and raided a stack of crates of Coca-Cola, screaming: “Free drinks!”

Police riot control vehicles raced to the site as looters sought new targets.

A vehicle fleeing the violent mob at the wholesalers smashed into a metro police car.

Shortly after 11am a lone police vehicle came under heavy attack, surrounded by hundreds of residents, some searching for petrol to make bombs.

Sources said on Friday’s evictions would see more than 600 shacks demolished by teams.

It will be the largest number taken down by authorities since evictions in the area began, with an average of 100 dwellings toppled daily during previous operations.

The current round of evictions are taking place on land bordering on contested property which over the past two weeks has been a hotbed of conflict as law enforcement officers, the City of Cape Town’s Anti-Land Invasion Unit and police have battled to remove squatters from private land in the Marikana township.

Previous skirmishes have seen both residents and police injured as rubber bullets, stun grenades and rocks flew.

Numerous rounds of evictions have been unsuccessful as defiant residents rebuilt their dwellings overnight.

In the past, police have been recalled after the situation was deemed to be too dangerous.

Residents said they would continue to build on private land and that there was nothing the city could do to stop them.

Tumi Ramahlele, a resident and community leader, did not respond to calls at the time of the trouble on Friday morning.

Mayco member for safety and security JP Smith said: “The City of Cape Town’s law enforcement agencies are assisting the South African Police Service with an operation in Philippi around the removal of illegal structures from privately owned land.

“The land owners have interdicts in place against illegal occupation. The City of Cape Town will continue to uphold the rule of law and an orderly, just and equitable housing delivery system. Anyone who insists on continuing to invade this land is breaking the law and they should be prepared to face the consequences.”

Today’s evictions follow operations this week in Enkanini, where law enforcement and police were pelted with stones in the Khayelitsha township. Smith said land invasions in Philippi were “clearly politically motivated”, while this may not be the case in the other township.

- Cape Argus

South Africans 'gatvol' with politicians: Wits vice-chancellor

South Africa’s “out of control” public violence will transform into a revolution if inequality isn’t dealt with now.

This is according to Wits University vice-chancellor Professor Adam Habib, who added that the Marikana tragedy, which saw the loss of 34 miners’ lives during a violent unprotected strike exactly two years ago, was the “most dramatic manifestation” of public violence and inequality.

Habib was speaking at the Institute for Security Studies’s (ISS’s) International Conference on Crime Reduction and Criminal Justice, which started in Johannesburg on Thursday.

Habib said that while public violence was “out of control”, South Africa was not yet on the verge of a revolution, but was heading in that direction if inequality was not addressed.

“While we are not on the verge of a revolution today, if we don't confront this [there will be] serious problems down the line,” Habib said.

According to Habib, there was a “serious crisis” when it came to service delivery failures, which he attributed to “rampant and unthinking” cadre deployment.

"The declining legitimacy of the ANC shows you that there's a serious problem brewing. People are gatvol with politicians, the ANC and the DA,” Habib said.

He added that while inequality was a global phenomenon, how it "manifests itself” in South Africa was “fundamentally different" to elsewhere.

“In Germany, if a child drowns in a pit of faeces, a government falls. In South Africa, it’s business as normal; we've become so immune,” Habib said.

Habib said: "You have to have real behavioural change; we all claim we're dealing with inequality but we're not. …

"We must avoid the romanticisation [of inequality] but also reflect on it. Don't deal with the symptoms alone but also the causal factors," he said. 

Lizette Lancaster, who runs the ISS’s Crime and Justice Hub, added: “People are more likely to mobilise if they feel they have nothing to lose.”

According to Lancaster, police data revealed that violent incidences during public events, including strikes, had increased by 57% in the past two years and by 234% in the past decade.

The provincial hotspots, according to research by the Crime and Justice Hub, were Gauteng, followed by Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.

Lancaster added that a “huge catalyst” for these violent protests was a combination of media attention and a non-responsive local government, with violence being fuelled by a poor response by the state through the police.

"Many factors create an environment for communities to feel they need to protest but often it’s the state response that creates such a frustrating environment that violence erupts. Often police create the escalation into violence by using force that is not necessary," Lancaster said.

- TimesLive

Cops lock horns with Mossel Bay residents

Cape Town - Western Cape police locked horns with protesters in KwaNonqaba in Mossel Bay for the fifth day on Thursday, using stun grenades and teargas to disperse an angry crowd that hurled stones at motorists during a protest over illegal electricity connections.

Southern Cape police spokesman Captain Malcolm Pojie said sporadic incidents of stone-throwing occurred in the town’s main road, while protesters did the same on the N2 highway on Thursday.

Pojie said police successfully intervened and defused the situation.

“We are maintaining high police visibility in the area to ensure the safety of the public,” he added.

The protests, which started on Sunday, have wreaked havoc in the coastal town as residents have taken to the streets over the disconnection of electricity in their area.

Disgruntled protesters have resorted to barricading roads, burning tyres and looting foreign-owned shops to highlight their concerns.

A municipal building next to the police station was set alight, but attempts to target the police station were foiled.

A total of 34 people have been arrested since Sunday for public violence and looting.

Pojie said they appeared in the Mossel Bay Magistrate’s Court on Thursday and were released on a warning to appear again on September 4.

Western Cape police commissioner Arno Lamoer, who visited the area on Thursday, expressed his dismay at the attacks on police and the torching of the Mossel Bay Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences office building in Adriaans Avenue on Tuesday.

“These acts deprive the community from receiving services they are entitled to, more so during this month which is proclaimed as Women’s Month.

“This unit is a specialised unit responsible for investigating cases against women and children.”

Lamoer said the damage to the building was estimated at R1 million, and police vehicles were also damaged. “These acts cannot and will not be condoned nor tolerated and we will therefore act harshly against those who deprived others who are entitled to these services.”

He said normal policing would not be affected.

warda.meyer@inl.co.za

- Cape Argus

Tears, violence amid Marikana evictions

Cape Town - He smashed his spade into the riot shield, pulling back quickly to strike again. People began shouting as police cops in full riot gear marched forward to tackle the two residents scuffling with officers on the front line.

“This is wrong,” shouted someone from behind a shack before rocks began to fly and onlookers darted for cover.

It was the fourth round of evictions in Marikana on Thursday and violent protests erupted in the Philippi township again. Just the day before protesters had attacked police, destroyed a traffic light and smashed the windscreen of a delivery truck in retaliation for the dwellings dismantled in the area.

Squatters, who illegally moved on to the land last Friday, are being evicted after the land owner obtained a court order to have them removed.

Evictions began at around 11.30am just as the sun broke through the dark clouds. Workers made their way through the township, following directions from police present and dismantling empty or newly built shacks with thick iron rods.

As they worked, residents formed a ring around the police, law enforcement officers and workers.

They shouted insults and tried to salvage bits of wood and metal as dwellings collapsed. Initially it seemed residents would not fight back, but when two men - protecting a newly built shack - began attacking officers with a spade, residents were infuriated and began throwing stones.

The projectiles missed their intended targets, bouncing lazily along the uneven and waterlogged ground.

The protest was quickly silenced with the deafening bang of two stun grenades.

Later, as police moved deeper into the township, they met more resistance. Rocks began to fly again as a man with a hammer turned threateningly on a group of riot policemen, sending them fleeing for the safety of a nyala parked on the outskirts.

But after they regrouped, police charged at residents, using stun grenades to disperse the crowd.

They arrested a number of people for throwing stones.

“I don’t understand, what are you doing? I was just sitting in my home,” said one resident as he was dragged towards a police van.

Police spokesman Captain FC van Wyk said three people were arrested on charges of public violence.

“One of the police officers was assaulted with a hammer in the face.”

The officer’s face was injured and his finger was cut.

Operations were concluded at 3pm. In the aftermath of the evictions, the township was dotted with empty plots of land where shacks once stood, mattresses lay out in the open surrounded by splintered wood.

“I don’t know what to do,” said Thandiwe Bonga, 22. She had arrived on Thursday to erect a shack only for the police to march in and confiscate her materials. It came as a shock to her grandmother, who screamed and pleaded for them to stop.

Still crying, Bonga said she was exhausted.

“I was told by the other residents that they would not let the police evict me. They said this is a place where you don’t pay rent and no one can tell you what to do… Now look at this. All my money is gone.”

She spent R3 500 on the corrugated iron and wooden frame that was meant to be her new home.

Mayoral committee member for safety and security JP Smith said 102 structures had been demolished during the evictions.

By Thursday night there were still reports of sporadic stone-throwing in the township. Van Wyk said police were still deployed in the area to deal with any further violence.

kieran.legg@inl.co.za

- Cape Argus

Mayhem at Cape’s Marikana

Cape Town - City of Cape Town law enforcement officers with shotguns fled from a crowd of angry Marikana residents carrying rakes, hammers and stones.

For the fourth day running residents were protesting against the demolition of 100 shacks erected at the Marikana informal settlement in Philippi on Sunday.

The site, at the corner of Sheffield and Stock roads, is privately owned and has been earmarked for development.

On Wednesday, the intersection was closed off to motorists while protesters burnt tyres in the road.

City law enforcement officers fired rubber bullets at the crowd, and then left under a hail of stones.

For half an hour an increasingly angry crowd wreaked havoc in the intersection, attacking traffic lights and passing vehicles, including media vehicles and a truck carrying planks and gas tanks, smashing the windscreen and stealing the freight.

A taxi carrying people to Philippi from Bellville was also attacked, along with a city traffic vehicle.

Law enforcement officers later returned accompanied by police in two Nyalas.

Two men were arrested for public violence.

Mayoral committee member for safety and security JP Smith said law enforcement officers acted correctly by leaving the scene.

“At a certain point the operation commander has to make a decision to defuse the situation by either withdrawing staff or by escalating the force. To withdraw means they will go back to the scene with more resources and manpower.”

A Cape Argus team saw a policewoman hit in the stomach with a stone. She fell to the roadway but did not appear to be seriously injured. Smith said he had not been informed about it.

Franco Stallenberg, the driver of the Swartland Logistics truck, was injured on his left hand.

Stallenberg and his colleague Titus Swartz had driven into the area to make a delivery when they were forced out of their vehicle by protesters.

The truck’s windscreen was smashed in with a hammer, and the

keys and gas tanks were taken by the mob.

Stallenberg said: “They came running towards us, throwing stones; we could not stop. Why wasn’t this road closed? Why weren’t police here? This is our lives they were playing with.”

Asanda Maye, a passenger in the Bellville taxi, said she was awoken by a loud bang.

“I was sleeping in the taxi, so I didn’t see what was happening. I just heard the two loud bangs and those were the windows being smashed in. I’m tense now and scared.”

Residents said they were not going to let the evictions continue.

Lulekwa Joyi’s shack was demolished on Wednesday. She had moved into the area on Monday after getting tired of paying high rent. Joyi said: “I can’t afford the rent because I’m unemployed and have a 2-year-old child to take care of.

“All my materials are gone - R3 000 down the drain.”

zodidi.dano@inl.co.za

- Cape Argus

No metros have received the new housing grant yet - Lindiwe Sisulu

Minister says MINMEC has yet to grant the necessary level three accreditation to any of the six municipalities

No funds will be transferred to the City of Cape Town or any other metro

Following the unnecessary and misleading media statement issued by the Mayor of Cape Town Ms Patricia De Lille on Sunday, August 10, 2014 accusing the Minister of Human Settlements, Lindiwe Sisulu of withholding R50 Million due to the City, the Minister wishes to put the following on record.

1. The City of Cape Town and the other five Metros, ie Nelson Mandela, Ekurhuleni, City of Johannesburg, City of Tshwane and Ethekwini have submitted Business Plans to access a Municipal Human Settlements Capacity Grant. This is a new grant, the roll-out of which is starting in the currently financial year, for the coming three financial years.

2. The Grant is sliced from the national Human Settlement Development Grant to develop capacity for Municipalities and Metros that have received level 3 accreditation. Level 3 accreditation is approved by Provincial MECs of Human Settlements after Municipalities and Metros meet the criteria set out in the Human Settlement Code and other policies. In total the grant set aside for the six metros for this financial year is R300 000 000.00.

In total the grant set aside for the six metros for this financial year is about R300 000 000 and to be allocated as follows to the each metro:

Nelson Mandela Metro - R37 707 000

Ekurhuleni Metro - R52 374 000

City of Joburg - R59 573 000

City of Tshwane - R47 506 000

E Thekwini - R52 469 000

City of Cape Town - R50 370 000

3. The nine provincial MECs, who form the Human Settlements MINMEC, chaired by the Minister of Human Settlements, have indicated that none of the six Metros have qualified for level three accreditation and it is thus premature for them to be demanding that funds be transferred to them.

4. The respective MECs have requested the six Metros to re-submit Business Plans for a review of how they will use the funds. The MECs are concerned that some of these funds will be used to appoint consultants instead of creating permanent structures in Metros to support the fast tracking of housing delivery.

5. MINMEC has indicated a serious concern that low quality houses are still being built whereas municipalities with level 2 accreditation should have the capacity to monitor and ensure that houses are of the best quality. MINMEC also expressed its unhappiness with continued under-spending and the use of consultants and reminded Metros of importance of developing projects that are in line with the national policy of integrated human settlements.

In conclusion, no funds will be transferred to the six metros until they have received level three accreditation. This is in line with the Human Settlements Code. They are encouraged to meet with the provincial MECs to submit all required documents. The Minister and MECs have met with SALGA to explain their position and have asked for an urgent joint MINMEC with the Minister of Local Government and the relevant MECs.

We call on the City of Cape Town to go to Wale Street, just around the corner from their office to meet the Western Cape MEC of Human Settlements to discuss this matter. He is located on the 4th floor, first office on the right and his name is MEC Madikizela.

Statement issued by Ndivhuwo Mabaya, Ministry of Human Settlements spokesperson, August 13 2014

- Politicsweb

Cape angers RDP beneficiaries

Cape Town - Residents of Zilleraine Heights informal settlement near Grassy Park have complained of being held to ransom by the city, which demanded they demolish their shacks before they were given keys to RDP houses.

The residents were to be given formal houses during a housing handover at Pelican Park on Tuesday, but said the city ordered them to first demolish their shacks.

Less than half of Zilleraine Heights residents started destroying their shacks as they chased the 3pm deadline which the city gave them.

The majority of residents refused and said they had not been given any notice about destroying their shacks.

Eleanor Hoedemaker said her family refused to destroy their shack.

“We are not prepared to demolish our shack. They take us for granted. How can they only come this morning and tell us to remove our structures?

“This shows that these people are taking us for granted.

“No one here knew about this thing of pulling down our homes. It took us almost two months to settle here and they don’t even give us a month’s notice.

“What if you don’t meet the deadline, which is 3pm, it means you going to sleep on the streets because they are not going to give you the keys to your house,” Hoedemaker said. Mother of four Rachieda Matthews broke down her shack.

“I am very frustrated and I can’t even think right now. This morning we were told by the officials from the City of Cape Town that before we could get keys to our houses, we have to destroy our shacks. It was this morning they told us about this,” she said.

Another resident, Filidene Fransman, said: “We will sleep on the streets. We have nowhere else to stay.

“This is shocking to me because they did not even give us a notice. This is stressful because it took us a while to build this shack as no one here works.”

Mayoral committee member for human settlements, Tandeka Gqada said the residents were notified last week.

“Approximately half of the residents were contacted and advised by the city that they would have to produce a certificate confirming that their informal structure had been demolished,” Gqada said.

A city official was sent to Zilleraine Heights to check whether residents had dismantled their shacks.

“The city requested residents to inform each other in the settlement. A number of residents understood and started demolishing early yesterday morning,” Gqada said.

“The city therefore expects that when a formal house is given to a beneficiary from an informal settlement such as Zilleraine Heights, that the beneficiary should demolish their old structure as it is no longer required,” she said.

Gqada said the residents were given approximately six days’ notice.

“Some of the residents refused to move today and the city will accommodate them in the next batch of handovers next week,” Gqada said.

- Cape Times

New housing delivery plan ‘a DA poll ploy’

Cape Town - Opposition parties in the Cape Town city council were less than impressed with the city’s new housing delivery draft plan – which aims to speed up delivery – saying it was an election ploy and that the DA should come up with a radical plan to wipe out informal settlements.

The issue of land and housing came up several times in council this week, with mayor Patricia de Lille saying all roleplayers in the public sector had a part to play in addressing the housing crisis.

She told council that they had been trying to lobby the national government for about 10 years to release parcels of land at Youngsfield and Wingfield for housing.

Informal settlement groups and opposition parties have also appealed to the city to strengthen its efforts to acquire the land.

De Lille said: “We have sent numerous requests over a period of about 10 years to the two national departments… Unfortunately, not every branch of government, and certainly not most of national government, regards the needs of service delivery as urgently as Cape Town.”

Council has approved a new draft framework to manage housing delivery.

It will take up to 70 years to eradicate the backlog of 375,000 houses at the current delivery rate. The city says it currently builds about 6,100 homes annually, but that it needs to deliver five times more in order to level the backlog by 2031.

The city admitted that it was not able to keep up with the growing housing demand with a 30 percent population increase.

Ganief Hendricks, from Al-Jama-ah, said: “This policy is an admittance that the DA won’t be able to solve the housing backlog. It maintains the apartheid status quo.”

He said the city’s plan should be to completely eliminate informal settlements.

ACDP councillor Ferlon Christians said: “Why is this framework only before council now in an election year and not earlier? The DA is playing politics, promising people houses.”

ANC councillor Thembinkosi Pupa said: “At last the DA realises their current model for the delivery of houses is not working. We are supporting this framework and hopefully it will bring down the backlog, but we will monitor it closely.” Mayco member for human settlements Tandeka Gqada said: “We are not playing party politics, we are facing the reality.”

De Lille wrote to President Jacob Zuma earlier this month asking him to intervene and get the land at Wingfield and Youngsfield released, but said she had not received a substantive reply.

According to a provincial report, Youngsfield is being used by the Defence Department and is therefore not pursued for human settlements.

The report looked at an erf in Bloubergstrand that can accommodate about 13 880 units, Wingfield, which can accommodate about 9,760, and an erf in Khayelitsha which could deliver 25,872 houses.

zara.nicholson@inl.co.za

- Cape Times

2010 Stadium all over again - housing ‘football’

Cape Town - Western Cape premier Helen Zille accused the ANC on Friday of playing “political football” with housing in the province.

“They have repeatedly claimed that when they were in government in the province 'they built 16,000 houses per year, while the Democratic Alliance has only been able to build 10,000 houses per year',” she said during her state-of-the-province address in Cape Town.

She said she was sceptical of the African National Congress's claims and asked her department's forensic investigation unit (FIU) to do an audit on the source of this data, namely the 2008/9 annual local government and housing report produced under the ANC administration.

She said the report claimed the ANC completed 15 717 houses during that period but that the FIU found this claim could not be verified.

“For a start, the ANC's thumb-suck figure includes programmes that had nothing to do with building and delivering housing units,” Zille claimed.

“And it also shows that the ANC simply shifted the deadline, and counted units that had not been completed by the end of the financial year.”

The premier alleged the party “got away” with this conduct because the auditor general (AG) was not verifying statistics at that stage by actually counting the finalised housing total by the cut-off date.

She said the AG had noted in the report that the evidence provided to support the department's performance was “materially inconsistent” in a number of instances with the reported performance.

Opposition MPLs jeered at Zille's remarks and claimed her administration had not even managed to build as many as 10 000 houses per year.

Leader of the opposition in the legislature Lynne Brown criticised the FIU by shouting: “How much did that cost?”

Zille continued after order had been called.

“That is AG speak for 'you were talking nonsense'... In short, their claim to have built 16 000 houses each year is without foundation.

“I would use stronger terms than this but it would probably be unparliamentary, Mr Speaker.”

- Sapa

163 die in WC shack fires

CAPE TOWN - More than 160 people lost their lives in shack fires across the Western Cape over the past financial year.

This figure was revealed in a response to a question posed by the ANC in the provincial legislature.

There were more than 1,800 shack fires in the Western Cape last year, resulting in around 163 deaths.

Most of the deaths were reported in informal settlements in Cape Town.

Nearly 3,800 other fires, like vegetation blazes, claimed the lives of 33 people.

Local Government MEC Anton Bredell says disaster management is prepared as best as possible for the looming Cape fire season.

“We put huge effort in getting better aircraft which can carry more water. We also put a huge effort into training and getting the right equipment.”

Bredell says the fire season stretches between November and March, peaking in mid-January. 

- EWN

Tokyo Sexwale – Minister of Human Settlements - cio

Minister since: 2009 - 2013

Problems inherited: His predecessor, Lindiwe Sisulu, launched the N2 Gateway project, which she termed the “biggest housing project ever undertaken by any government”, in 2005. It became Sexwale’s responsibility. Still incomplete after eight years, it will now be passed on to new Human Settlements Minister Connie September.

Failures: 

Sexwale has previously termed his portfolio a “daunting challenge”, with a housing backlog of more than 2 million units, affecting about 8 million people. With a 2030 deadline to remove the backlog, the department had to provide 200 000 houses a year, a target it could not meet. Sexwale admitted that the bill to fix the problems was R50 billion – nearly twice his annual budget.

Sanitation has proved to be a major political point scorer ahead of next year’s election, and Sexwale earlier this year admitted that his department, with a sanitation backlog of more than 2 million households, was unlikely to meet the December 2014 deadline to eradicate the bucket system. He attributed this to poor performance by municipalities, and growing numbers of migrant workers...

- IOL

Shack fires: A devil in the detail of development

According to the City of Cape Town, within the boundaries of the municipality alone, there are more than 100 deaths from shack fires every year.

On New Year’s morning a devastating fire broke out in BM Section shack settlement leaving about 4,000 people homeless and at least five dead. 

Residents claim it took almost two hours for fire trucks to arrive, despite the Khayelitsha fire station being only a kilometre away. By then, hundreds of shacks were already ablaze and the single truck that responded to the emergency failed to get close enough to the fire to make a difference. It soon ran out of water and had to leave to find more. Eventually, more fire trucks came and, with the help of hundreds of residents using buckets to draw water from local taps, they were able to slow down the rapidly spreading inferno.

By late morning a strong Cape Southeaster was driving the fire, which began at about 4am, through the settlement. A single helicopter, the earlier dispatch of which could have greatly diminished the destructive force of the blaze, was able to bring the fire under control by about 10:30.

Police left unattended the charred remains of three dead bodies till well after 17:00 when investigators finally returned to the settlement. On Friday, another body was discovered when bulldozers began levelling the settlement and a fifth man died in hospital.

Richard Bosman of the City of Cape Town disputes this account. He puts the response time of fire-fighters at under 20 minutes saying access was hindered by residents’ personal belongings. Bosman appears to believe that the massive damage was the fault of residents themselves rather than the slow response of fire services or the complete lack of prevention initiatives by the city's human settlements department.

A City of Cape Town media release the following day claimed that city staff were continually on-site helping residents rebuild their homes. But no disaster management officials were seen in BM Section during site visits by the Daily Maverick on the afternoon of 1 January.

By 3pm, however, some residents had already taken to selling off their charred zinc sheets and rebuilding their homes themselves, while an array of ANC politicians and clergy made vague promises of support to passersby. Top Democratic Alliance politicians did not bother to show up to conduct the poltical play of their own or to check if victims were receiving the support they are claiming to provide. According to the online publication GroundUp, effective leadership from both parties has been absent.

During a following visit by the Daily Maverick on Friday 4 January, it was discovered that disaster management officials only began to take record of the number of homeless the previous evening and were still struggling to put together a complete list of the dead. By Friday evening, there were 528 males, 591 females, 486 children and 55 babies on the list – though officials expected numbers to shoot up as working families checked in during the weekend and others returned from the Eastern Cape.

Most shocking, though, was that emergency accommodation at OR Tambo Hall meant that entire families were sleeping on the cold, hard floor. Disaster management had not thought it relevant to provide victims with even the most basic foam mattress. Perhaps this is why at least half of the victims chose to cram in with family rather than stay at the hall.

Community members’ accounts indicate that the fire was started by a man, said to be drunk, who fell asleep while cooking a midnight snack of boerewors. The unnamed individual and his family have since fled the settlement to avoid the fury of angry neighbours who lost everything in the fire.

Still, indignant residents are adamant that government should also shoulder blame for the conflagration. Kuselo, the younger brother of both Luyanda Ngcebetshana and Lunga Krexe, who died as flames engulfed their respective shacks, says “the government always comes with its promises” of development. BM Section has supposedly been in the subject of an upgrade for more than three years now – at least that is how long ago notice boards announcing the upgrading project appeared at the section's entrance. The signs tell residents who the tender winners for this project are, but not much else. 

The city's development services department claims “good progress” is being made in the process of upgrading the area despite resistance from residents to proposed relocations. However, BM Section, like adjacent QQ Section, still lacks service roads, electricity, sanitation services and other basic and potentially lifesaving developments that have been promised. Taps, for instance, are few and far between, something residents complain hindered their ability to fight the fire. Kuselo claims he has not seen any change in the years since the upgrade began.

Councillor Ernest Sonnenberg, the mayoral committee member for human settlements, has confirmed that BM Section is indeed in the process of being upgraded. Yet neither Sonnenberg nor City of Cape Town spokesperson Kylie Hatton could explain why the upgrading process is taking so long. Sonnenberg has further urged victims to rebuild their homes at least 3m apart but failed to address the fact that residents do not have enough space to do so.

At the same time, residents aren't actually being allowed to rebuild – yet. On Friday and Saturday bulldozers were levelling the area to make way for dirt roads and fire breaks. While people seem happy about that, they are concerned about where families displaced by these roads will end up. Sonnenberg could incur the wrath of the community if empty land next to the hall is not allocated to victims of the fire who appear to be unwilling to move out of Khayelitsha. (In her book Cities with ‘Slums’, urban planner Marie Hutchzermeyer notes that the resident’s fears may not be unfounded. Across the country shack fires have often been misused by local authorities to force shack dwellers into transit camps and out to barren peri-urban peripheries.)

Longtime resident, Edward Mavakala, was furious: “It is the government's fault. Because there are no streets here, the fire brigade could not get through [to the fire].” He says residents have been asking for this for years. If the government had delivered just the basics, hundreds of homes could have been saved.

Mthobeli Qona from the Western Cape branch of the shack dwellers’ movement Abahlali baseMjondolo, who lives across the road in QQ Section, said both his settlement and BM Section, which are more than 20 years old, are among the first in line for upgrading in the City's informal settlement master plan.

In the winter of 2007, the then mayor, Helen Zille, visited a flooded QQ Section where she promised to move residents to a site and service scheme in Bardale near Mfuleni the next year. Similar promises were allegedly made to residents of BM Section that same year. But residents of both communities say they've been hearing the same promises since democracy brought them politicians. They don't understand why Zille would promise to move them to Bardale but later settle other communities on the same land.

In response to the city's failure to fulfil these promises, residents of QQ and BM Section engaged in an informal settlement strike in 2010. This year, BM Section again took to the streets during recent protests that the mayor, Patricia de Lille, has claimed are being coordinated by the ANC Youth League which, she has implied, is bent on leading a full on civic insurrection in the city. My research into the protests indicates they are being driven by popular anger at inconsequential development projects and empty rhetoric about meaningful engagement in such projects.

Stoney Sithole, whose son and daughter both lost their homes and livelihoods during the fire, said that these previous protests were not about the ANC and DA. They “didn't strike because of politics but because of need.” She insisted that her community has been promised houses for a long time.

A 2008 report on shack fires in Durban by academic Matt Birkinshaw, who spent months living in shack settlements in Durban, backs up BM residents' claims that government policy is to blame. The report cites evidence that shack fires are becoming increasingly prevalent throughout the country as shack settlements grow and local governments refuse to tackle the challenge head on.

“Shack fires,” Birkinshaw concluded, “are not acts of God. They are the result of political choices, often at municipal level.”

InternAfrica slams lack of action on shack fires Feb 7 - 2008

Local government policy in Durban is designed to force poor residents into small and densely populated pieces of land without access roads where they are often denied electricity, proper plumbing and sanitation. Without security of tenure, residents are forced to build their homes with cheap flammable material rather than bricks and mortar. 

Instead of blaming the victims of shack fires, the report concludes, municipalities should be held accountable for refusing to provide the same services to shack dwellers which they provide to people living in formal houses. 

The root cause of the problem according to a 2008 article by Professor David McDonald is that “Cape Town's decision makers have allocated the lion's share of the city's resources for the benefit of a few, leaving two-thirds of the city's population struggling in varying degrees of poverty.” In other words, there is an economic rationale behind Cape Town's “World City Syndrome” which, among other perverse outcomes, means that officials responded with more speed and zeal to a small New Years' bush fire in Camps Bay than they did to the deadly and much more destructive fires in the shack settlements of BM Section, WB Section and Du Noon.

Shack fires and shack settlements in general are symptoms of a wider social malaise rather than core problems in themselves.

“Shack fires are routinely presented as natural disasters, as tragedies, when in fact they are a direct result of political decisions”, says Richard Pithouse of Rhodes University. “We only started to make some headway against the Aids pandemic when access to medication was politicised. In the same way we will only start to make progress against shack fires when they are politicised.”

- DM

Fransman forgets he was Housing MEC and didn't deliver when he had the chance

Cape Town - There was a tense stand-off in Khayelitsha on Thursday when the ANC called a meeting with residents displaced by the recent fires and charged that the city council was not looking after the displaced people.

Local DA representatives were forced to leave the meeting when ANC provincial leader Marius Fransman told the crowd to send them “back to their white bosses to tell them that you are suffering”.

Fransman, together with provincial ANC Youth League leader Khaya Yozi and SACP provincial general secretary Khaya Magaxa, told more than 800 residents at the meeting that the City of Cape Town only caters for whites.

More than 4 000 people were displaced and three died when a wild fire ripped through the BM settlement, destroying almost 800 shacks.

The Western Cape ANC leadership arrived at the OR Tambo Hall on Thursday afternoon after calling for a meeting with residents to “intervene” in the humanitarian relief effort. Fransman first met church leaders and community leaders to “devise a plan of action”, and a committee was elected.

Addressing residents, Fransman said: “There is no proper disaster management with this incident. The city is not proactive enough. No one sees the plight of people living in this centre. People have to sleep on the cold floor, they are given a few pieces of bread and a bottle of juice…”

He said the committee would be the link between the City of Cape Town and those living in the centre. Fransman said the committee would focus on co-ordinating food and donations, setting up a database of those living in the centre and “getting the city to be more active”.

A confrontation followed when DA PR councillor in Khayelithsa Puliswa Marman and three other women, dressed in DA clothing, walked in. Fransman said: “Tell those women in the DA T-shirts that they must go back to their white bosses and to tell them that you are suffering. They must go back to where they came from… ” Fransman said as the crowd cheered.

Some shouted derogatory comments at Marman. A group of about five men then surrounded her, telling her to leave the hall. She at first refused, but left as the situation intensified. Outside, she said she and DA MP Masizole Mnqasela wanted to address the residents on the progress made with the relief.

“We are planning to hand over more blankets and food to the people. The ANC has used this incident as a way to score political points,” she said.

Cape Town Disaster Risk Management spokesman Wilfred Solomons-Johannes said assistance offered to people included blankets, clothing and food. Those who lost their identity and social grant documents would be helped. He said engineers had surveyed the site.

The city would plan a layout for the affected area, including roads. “ We will also provide services such as water, electricity and temporary roads,” he said.

- Cape Times

Heavy rains displace 480

Close to 500 people were displaced by the heavy rains on Saturday, according to the City of Cape Town’s Disaster Risk Management Centre.

Spokesman Wilfred Solomons-Johannes said 480 people from Strand and surrounding informal settlements such as Uitkyk, Rasta Camp, Pinetown, Rooidakkies and Kanaal were being housed in a community hall. On Friday, the SA Weather Service warned of cold conditions, rain, galeforce winds and high seas for most of the weekend, prompting disaster management to put rescuers on high alert.

But, while the weather service has predicted a 30 percent chance of rain for today and a maximum temperature of 13ºC, wind speeds are expected to slow to 10km/h.

Solomons-Johannes said on Saturday that disaster teams had been deployed to 12 areas in the Western Cape, including Strand, Khayelitsha, Delft and Brown’s Farm. Officials would remain on high alert. He urged motorists to drive slowly and cautiously in the rain, and to be extra careful when driving through large puddles.

Provincial traffic chief Kenny Africa said a vehicle had driven off Sir Lowry’s Pass. “There were no injuries. It’s likely the driver lost control because of wet conditions.”

- Weekend Argus

Cape Town looks to R2bn loan

The City of Cape Town wants to raise a R2 billion loan from a French development bank to finance a range of its capital projects, it was reported on Wednesday.

The Cape Times reported the loan, funded by L'Agence Française de Développement, could be taken on condition that it be repaid over 15 years and have an interest rate fixed at nine percent.

Deputy mayor Ian Neilson said the loan would be used over the next two financial years for a range of capital projects such as water services, roads, refuse collection, and sewerage.

The mayoral committee agreed on Tuesday to recommend to the city council that the loan be taken up. - Sapa

ANC lashed over cadres

Researchers at the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) have warned the government to start listening to advice to improve services to poor South Africans.

They have lamented the state of the public service in the country, saying it was marked by incompetence and in need of urgent intervention.

The researchers, in a scathing paper presented on Thursday, also called on the government to invest in recruitment, training and retention of skilled and talented public servants who were appointed on merit and subjected to a strict code of conduct.

The researchers also criticised government departments for lacking the basic capacity to investigate charges of corruption and bribery, while officials who were found guilty generally received very lenient punishments, such as written warnings, without the matters being reported to police.

Professor Modimowabarwa Kanyane, an acting director at the HSRC’s democracy, governance and service delivery programme, called for a single public service to be able to produce more effective provision of services.

“One of the serious challenges facing the public service and municipalities is how to deal with the ANC’s policy of cadre deployment, and the consequences of this policy,” he said.

“One conclusion that seems to be common is that the ANC’s deployment strategy systematically places loyalty ahead of merit and even competence.

“Politically connected and, in many cases, incompetent people are deployed to positions, leading to demoralisation in the public service,” said Kanyane.

He said the lack of skilled professionals in the public service was also contributing to the government’s failure to provide even the most basic of services, such as water.

The public service was also struggling to attract and retain the most talented people, with skilled managers constituting only a small fraction of the public service at 0.4 percent, and the majority serving at national departments.

Another researcher, Gregory Houston, said numerous reports by the auditor-general had pointed to poor governance by many government departments and municipalities.

“Poor governance has resulted in prevalent underspending… in a situation of substantial service delivery and infrastructure backlogs,” said Houston.

Although all government failures to deliver services could not be attributed to corruption, it was disappointing that there was no feedback from most departments on corruption cases reported, he said.

- The Star

Nyanga Housing Delays Anger Residents

Cape Town — "Every time we think we are getting somewhere, we just go right back to square one." These are the words of Thembisa Maso, a KTC resident and mother of three who has been waiting for her house to be completed.

Maso is one of 57 residents who is part of the Masizakhe People's Housing Process (PHP) project. The residents say their houses were left unfinished in 2001.**

"We want to know what is happening with the project. I live behind my unfinished house in a shack with two of my children. I had to send my other child to live with my sister because we suffer in this shack during winter when it rains," Maso said.

She said she was part of the project which was approved in 2001. Two hundred and fourteen houses were supposed to be built in total but more than 50 houses were left unfinished. Some residents finished the houses themselves with their own money.

The houses, situated in the Nyanga area, are hollow structures made with grey bricks, with frames for the doors and windows, and no roof.

"We have been back and forth to the Department of Human Settlements. We are either chased away or told the same thing, that the matter will be investigated. In 2008 someone came to check the houses and photographs were even taken of the structures, but nothing came of that. We are tired of this running around. We just want to know what is going on and when our houses will be finished," explained a visibly angry and frustrated Maso.

Agnes Fuma, 65, who is also one of the project's beneficiaries, said the only thing she was provided with from the project was sand and building bricks.

"I built the actual house myself. I got someone whom I paid to build my house for me, from the roof to the windows and doors. It was all me," said Fuma.

Bruce Oom, spokesperson for the Western Cape MEC for Human Settlements, Bonginkosi Madikizela, said the houses were left unfinished by the contractor responsible at the time.

"The intention of the original PHP projects was that the community would be empowered by taking a role in appointing and managing the contractors.

However, this led to some problems with service delivery. The Department now takes a more hands-on role in appointing and managing contractors," explained Oom.

Oom said subsidies for the project were paid out to the accounts administrator (which was the City of Cape Town), yet due to the contractor leaving the work unfinished, not all the money in the project was paid out by the City.

Oom continued, "The City has subsequently repaid the unspent funds to the Department. The Department is currently assessing the outstanding work needed on the site, and identifying the costs needed to complete the units, so that the people who most need houses can get them. Once the current assessment is completed, the Department will then be in a position to revise the subsidy and reissue it so that the units can be completed."

He said the assessment could likely take several months or longer because after it there would need to be a tender process to appoint a contractor.

- allafrica

Bending the house rules

Housing parastatal, the Housing Development Agency (HDA), awarded two contracts worth hundreds of thousands of rand irregularly in the 2010/11 financial year.

The tenders, worth R847 000 and R576 000, were issued to two companies – Exact Cape and Young Blood – through either a written quotation system or without any quote on November 2, 2010 and March 22 last year, respectively.

This was despite the National Treasury regulations requiring competitive bids for contracts above R500 000.

The Star Africa can also reveal that the agency awarded another contract worth R249 000 to the sister-in-law of its CEO, Taffy Adler, in May last year.

Josie Adler confirmed yesterday that she was doing business with the agency.

She also conceded that she was married to Taffy Adler’s brother, David, but denied any wrongdoing.

Exact Cape and Young Blood’s contracts had been part of 32 deviations (tenders awarded outside the normal supply chain) by the agency last year, according to documents that The Star Africa has in its possession.

The agency, which has a budget of R92 million, had been established in terms of the Housing Development Agency Act of 2008, in a government attempt to deal with the housing shortage in SA.

According to a document from the agency’s supply chain management unit, it deviated from tender processes when awarding Exact Cape the tenders because “no quotes were obtained”.

The document stated that the reason for the Young Blood tender deviation was because “quotes exceeded R500 000”.

Josie Adler, a social development consultant, had been awarded a tender worth R650 an hour “to assist with the neighbourhood development area’’ in Joburg. Her contract was signed in May last year.

The tender had come into effect on August 31, 2010 and ‘‘shall terminate on 30th September 2011, unless terminated or redefined in terms of clause 9 or by mutual agreement between parties”.

Josie Adler, 68, said yesterday that the fact that she was Taffy Adler’s sister-in-law “has been public knowledge since 1971”.

She said she was a professional community development agent, who had worked tirelessly resettling the poor from the squatter camps and that she should be judged on merit.

“This matter has been dealt with before, but it keeps popping up and it’s like a bad smell to me. I am really not interested,” she said, before referring further enquiries to the agency and Sexwale’s office.

Another contract awarded without a quotation because “continuity (was) required” had been awarded to Blazing Solutions. The firm is owned by Sally Blaine, who is said to be close to Taffy Adler.

The R494 760 tender was issued on September 6, last year.

Blaine confirmed that auditors queried her tender, but said nothing untoward was found.

“As far as I am aware, there was an audit query in the draft audit report, not in terms of the validity of the contract, but relating to the failure of the HDA procurement office to produce the full contract and my valid tax clearance certificate. The HDA subsequently found and produced these documents to the auditors and the query was resolved and cleared by the auditors and audit committee,” Blaine said.

She denied her tender was R495 000, saying it was R168 000 ‘‘billable on a time-used basis”.

Blaine said she had been appointed through a competitive bidding process because she was an expert who had “extensive experience in organisational development, strategy and HR-related matters in the housing sector and ‘‘my price competitiveness informed the decision’’.

Two employees said the agency had been “paralysed” by infighting, nepotism, fear and tender irregularities.

They said that the agency’s former human resources manager, Cate Mamabolo, was pushed out in February for speaking out against irregularities and protecting staff members who were being victimised.

Mamabolo could not be reached for comment.

An employee said “generally, morale is low here. Remember, we do not know whether we are part of the government or Taffy Incorporated. He runs the agency as if it is his own private company”.

Kate Shand, the agency’s spokesperson, said “a copy of the internal audit into our procurement processes, published on the Department of Human Settlements website, found no evidence of irregularity …

“We would like to emphasise that the HDA received a clean audit for its financial and procurement management during the period in question from both its internal auditors and the Auditor-General of South Africa”.

She referred further enquiries to a statement released by Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale last month.

Sexwale, who oversees the agency, had said he had intervened, through his advisers – Barney Ntlou and Richard Dyantyi – after corruption and allegations were brought to his attention in December.

Taffy Adler has repeatedly denied allegations of nepotism, financial mismanagement and tender irregularities.

- The Star

Shack fires leave 85 homeless

Cape Town - Three separate fires in Cape Town informal settlements left 85 people without homes overnight, the city's Disaster Risk Management Centre said on Sunday.

12 shacks were destroyed in Maroela Street, Wallacedene informal settlement, near Kraaifontein, displacing 50 people on Saturday night, spokesman Wilfred Solomons-Johannes said in a statement.

Five shacks were destroyed in Burundi informal settlement, off Naledi Street in Mfuleni, leaving 20 people without homes.

A further four shacks were destroyed in Wallacedene informal settlement, off Botfontein Road, displacing 15 people early on Sunday morning.

Authorities were investigating the causes of the fires, said Solomons-Johannes.

He appealed to residents to exercise caution in working with open flames. Gas burners, candles, lamps and paraffin stoves should be extinguished before going to bed, and electrical devices should be isolated. - Sapa