Candle may have caused deadly fire

The Cape Town police's forensic unit believes a knocked over candle may have caused a deadly shack fire at Valhalla Park informal settlement in the Western Cape.

The blaze destroyed nearly a dozen shacks, leaving more than 40 people homeless.

Officials also recovered the body of a toddler, who was reported missing on Monday evening.  

Sniffer dogs spent hours searching for little Christiano van Wyk, before the body of the 18-month-old was found on the scene.

Police spokesperson Frederick van Wyk said the toddler's mother was taken in for questioning. 

“According to the 34-year-old mother, she left the baby boy with a friend while she went out in search of food for her two other children. She was then alerted that there was a fire. Upon arrival, she discovered that her baby had been burnt inside the shack.” - Eyewitness News

Housing MEC’s subsidy warning

Human Settlements MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela says the national government should not raise “unrealistic expectations” among the public with the announcement of a R1 billion fund to help people secure home loans.

“I doubt that the programme will begin in April, because to implement (it) we need to be ready with the policy and administrative structures… and, as of yet, have received no clarity or guidance,” he said.

During the State of the Nation address last week, President Jacob Zuma announced a R1bn gap housing guarantee fund for those who cannot access RDP housing or home loans from banks, but earn between R3 501 and R15 000 a month.

Those earning R3 501 would qualify for the full subsidy of R83 000, while those earning R15 000 would receive a R4 000 subsidy.

The housing fund will be managed and implemented by the National Housing Fund Corporation.

“My view is that through stabilising the property market and transferring assets into the hands of more people who can pay for and maintain these assets, and lowering the costs of their mortgages, we will avoid a financial crisis brought on by the collapse of the middle-income property market, as was recently seen in the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the US,” he said.

On Monday, Madikizela said he would like to see a much greater amount made available for the fund, “so that the hundreds of thousands of earners in this category in our province can be assisted and people can be quickly empowered with asset ownership”.

“The subsidy to help people earning between R3 501 and R15 000 a month will not benefit everyone, but only a limited few, and on a first come, first serve basis. I welcome the government’s initiative to provide a housing subsidy of up to R83 000.

“However, the subsidy will need to be drawn from the Western Cape government’s budget allocation, and we will not be given any extra funding for this. As such, the amount of subsidies we will be able to offer will be limited.

“I would welcome an increase in the Western Cape human settlements budget in order to better serve the gap market,” he said.

He said the statement of R83 000 for everyone must be clarified because those earning R3 501 a month would qualify for the full subsidy of R83 000, which would be decreased on a sliding scale as the income of the applicant increased, which might result in those earning R15 000 receiving only around R4 000.

On Monday night, Madikizela held a public meeting at the Andile Msizi Hall in Khayelitsha to explain how housing allocations will take place for the Nuwe Begin Housing Project in Mfuleni.

About 900 RDP houses will be allocated to residents of Khayelitsha’s TR Section out of a total of 1 900 houses.

The beneficiaries will be drawn from people living on the wetland and also those from surrounding areas, based on the City of Cape Town’s housing list.

The rest of the housing will include 700 gap houses, and another 300 RDP houses will be allocated to people in Mfuleni.

He said the selection would prioritise those who had been waiting the longest – the elderly and the most deserving.

- Cape Argus

Child missing after fire

A two-year-old boy is missing after a fire swept through an informal settlement in Valhalla Park, Cape Town, the city said on Tuesday.

The area was being searched to establish if the child died in the fire on Monday, disaster risk management centre spokesman Wilfred Solomons-Johannes said.

Forty-four people were displaced in the blaze and an emergency shelter had been set up for them. It was not clear what caused the fire. – Sapa

Fires leave 192 homeless in Cape Town

Several fires left 120 people homeless in Cape Town this weekend, the city's disaster risk management centre said on Sunday.

Eighty-eight people were left homeless following shack fires on Friday night and Saturday morning in Ocean View and the Philippi informal settlements of Brown's Farm and Sweet Homes Informal Settlements, said disaster risk management spokesman Wilfred Solomons-Johannes.

Three more fires at Lwandle, Wallacedene, and Strand, left 102 people homeless and destroyed 32 shacks, he said.

On Saturday night, a fire at the Lwandle informal settlement near Strand, destroyed 11 shacks and left 26 people displaced.

Later that night, a fire destroyed a backyard shack in Wallacedene, Kraaifontein, displacing four people.

A fire on Sunday morning, in Mpumlani village informal settlement near Strand, destroyed 20 shacks, affecting 72 people.

In total, the fires destroyed 120 shacks and left 120 people homeless.

No one was injured.

Disaster response teams from the city would provide food parcels, clothing, blankets and building material to people affected by the fires, said Solomons-Johannes.

-Timeslive

CTown fires leave residents homeless

Nearly 90 people have been left homeless after three fires in the Western Cape, the City of Cape Town said on Saturday.

The city's head of disaster operation, Wilfred Solomons-Johannes, said the first fire was at Brown's Farm informal settlement in Phillipi on Friday night, where one shack burnt down.

The second fire destroyed two backyard dwellings in Ocean View on Friday. Six adults and nine children were left homeless.

The last fire, at the Sweet Homes informal settlement in Phillipi on Saturday, destroyed 15 shacks and left 70 people homeless.

Solomons-Johannes said the city's disaster response teams were on hand to assist the victims with food parcels, clothing, blankets and building material.

The causes of the fires were still being investigated, he said.

-Sapa

Speak up before you are gagged

All concerned citizens should take part in the second and final phase of public participation hearings on the Protection of State Information or "secrecy" Bill. It is your last chance to make your voice heard.

Obfuscation, ideological deflection, secrets and all power to the spooks -- that is what the Bill means in democratic South Africa. The basic democratic principle being ignored is that the public's right to know outweighs the possible danger the disclosure of information could pose to national security.

We are slap bang in the middle of the National Council of Provinces public consultation process and must bear in mind that the enactment of the secrecy Bill without an acknowledgement of this basic democratic principle will signify a break from the values of openness, transparency and accountability as well as the culture of justification before exercising power, all of which are entrenched in the Constitution.

The Bill has to be passed by the council before it can proceed to the president for his signature and then be gazetted. There is some hope that public participation hearings present an opportunity for amendments to be made to align the Bill with the progressive values of the Constitution.

The chairperson of the council committee, Raseriti Tau, said at the end of last year it would not rubber-stamp the National Assembly's decision. He intimated that the outcomes were wide open.

The public participation hearings have delivered some surprises. For the ANC it must have been disappointing that its officials promoting the Bill got a severe roasting two weeks ago in Cape Town's Gugulethu and Thembalethu townships.

Members of the public grilled the officials and stated their feelings in no uncertain terms: the Bill was a cover for the failure of service delivery and a transparent attempt to hide activities such as corruption.

New tactics

Forewarned by this attack, the ANC in the Eastern Cape bused in supporters last week and Tau tried a new tactic. He turned off the microphone every time anyone said "secrecy Bill". He also apparently told people not to mention service delivery but to the stick to the issue.

Reports from attendees at the Eastern Cape hearings said many people questioned why the government was prioritising the Bill at this time.

Given this mixed bag, something astonishing then transpired. Parliament issued a statement saying "2 February 2012: Bill gets resounding approval". A careful reading of the statement does not explain why the hearings so far were considered to be a "resounding" success. The statement says only that "the hall" was packed to capacity and more chairs had to be brought in.

Hearings in Mangaung this week were marred by booing and arguments. The meeting's chair reportedly told attendees not to bring "political party concerns" in to public hearings on the Bill.

The Right2Know campaign has made other findings. Many people do not know the implications of the Bill, but when they do they state unequivocally that they want less secrecy in society, not more. They want a free flow of information so that they can make informed decisions about their lives.

In summary, here are some of the serious problems with the Bill: it goes far beyond what is reasonable to protect national security; it shields the intelligence agencies from scrutiny; it hands over more power to intelligence and security clusters; the state security minister can decide whether any organ of the state should be protected from the public and the media; and whistle-blowers and journalists could become "enemies of the state" and face jail time. Their sentences would be severe -- not just a few days or weeks but many years. It is a terrible shoot-the-messenger phenomenon.

Some advice

Some advice for promoters of the secrecy Bill: secrets have a way of creeping out. Tackle service delivery, poverty and unemployment and deal decisively with crooks defrauding the state. Stop tenderpreneurs and we will not have financial disasters such as that in Limpopo. Do not waste precious time and money on creating a veil of secrecy.

Supporters of the principles in the Constitution do not want the Bill -- certainly not in its current form. It allows obfuscation, deflection and hiding from real issues such as service delivery. It will impede investigations into corruption and fraud and, of course, stem the free flow of information.

Finally, some advice to the citizenry: attend the hearings and make your voices heard, or make a written submission to Parliament. Do not be pathetic afterwards and say:

"I didn’t know."

* Glenda Daniels serves on the Right2Know national working group. She writes here in her personal capacity.  - M&G

Schedule of public hearings

Gauteng: February 14

Group 1: Tshwane metropolitan municipality, Mamelodi
Venue: Vista College

Group 2: Sedibeng district municipality, Sharpeville
Venue: Community hall

KwaZulu-Natal: February 16

Group 1: Zululand district municipality, Vryheid, uMondlo township
Venue: To be confirmed

Group 2: Ugu district municipality: Harding
Venue: To be confirmed

Group 3: eThekwini metropolitan municipality, Umlazi township
Venue: To be confirmed

North West: February 21 

Group 1: Bojanala district municipality
Venue: To be confirmed

Group 2: Dr Kenneth Kaunda district municipality
Venue: To be confirmed

Mpumalanga: February 23

Group 1: Ehlanzeni district municipality, Bushbuckridge
Venue: Mapulaneng College

Group 2: Gert Sibande district municipality: Secunda
Venue: Lillian Ngoyi community centre

Limpopo: February 28

Group 1: Mopane district municipality: Mamaila
Venue: To be confirmed

Group 2: Waterberg district municipality: Mokopane
Venue: To be confirmed

Group 3: Capricorn district municipality: Mafefe
Venue: To be confirmed

Northern Cape: March 1

Group 1: Francis Baard district municipality: Galeshewe
Venue: Community hall

Group 2: John Taolo Gaetsewei district municipality: Moshaweng
Venue: Multipurpose centre

Western Cape: March 13 and 14

Venue: Parliament, Cape Town

Written submissions can be sent to the committee secretary, G Dixon, at gdixon@parliament.gov.za until 12pm on February 17.

Zuma’s house subsidy gift

Thousands of Capetonians could soon afford housing in greater Cape Town, following a key announcement by President Jacob Zuma.

The affordable housing is aimed at people who earn too much to qualify for RDP housing but not enough to persuade banks to grant home loans.

In his 2010 State of the Nation Address, Zuma announced that the government was planning to set up a R1 billion fund to “incentivise the private banking and housing sector” to put roofs over more heads by promoting access to loans.

In his speech on Thursday, Zuma illustrated the plight of many by using the example of Mzukisi Mali, a public servant from the Fingo area in Grahamstown, who had written to Zuma, saying: “In 1994 my income was too high to get an RDP and too low to get a bond, this continued until to date. When I apply for an RDP I am told that I do not qualify and cannot get a bond because I am risky to the banks...”

Zuma announced: “Fortunately we have gone some way to address the problem facing Mr Mali and many others. We are pleased to report that this fund will start its operations in April, managed by the National Housing Finance Corporation.”

He said that from April, “people earning between R3 500 and R15 000 will be able to obtain a subsidy of up to R83 000 from provinces, to enable them to obtain housing finance from an accredited bank”.

Leading property company owner Bill Rawson said the subsidy was “great news”.

“There is a huge chunk of people who want ownership, who want to get into the housing market, and who are looking for ways to afford to do so.”

He said the R83 000 loans would essentially serve as deposits buyers could put down on properties, to help persuade banks to fund the balance through loans.

Rawson said the Parklands-Sunningdale suburb on the West Coast had shown just how big this market was in greater Cape Town. Houses there that were now selling for far more than R500 000 had been introduced as affordable housing in the 1990s and had met a huge gap in the property market at the time.

Speaking for the City of Cape Town, mayoral committee member for human settlements Ernest Sonnenberg welcomed the initiative.

“The city is a major supporter of the GAP housing initiative as part of our suite of housing delivery options.

“The city already has agreements in place with Standard Bank and Nedbank in particular, where the city has made well-located land available specifically for the GAP housing market.

“While it is difficult to quantify the number of Capetonians who will benefit from this fund, we know that it will help many of the city’s nurses, teachers and policemen, who are unable to access housing finance in the private bond market,” said Sonnenberg.

A report would be submitted to the council soon to extend the possible GAP market beneficiaries from those earning R10 000 a month to those earning R15 000 to align the GAP policy with the new fund, he said.

MSP Developments, part of the Mevelaphanda Holdings group and widely regarded as the largest developer of affordable housing in greater Cape Town, is working on on more than 9 000 houses in three large developments – in Blue Downs, between Kraaifontein and Durbanville, and between Somerset West and Firgrove.

Commercial director Philip van der Berg said: “We’re essentially building whole new towns, and this subsidy could offer great incentive for more such developments...

“The problem is that you will sometimes sell the same unit three times over because of the difficulty many people have with getting home loans. And of this, the biggest constraint has been in securing a deposit, with banks still being reluctant to grant 100 percent bonds in line with the National Credit Act.”

But Rawson warned that there were several potential obstacles to the roll-out of more suburbs like these.

First, buyers would still have to prove exemplary payment profiles – that they had managed their debt responsibly in the past – because this was the key factor banks used to decide whether to grant loans.

Second, even if there was a proven market for houses priced up to about R500 000, aided by the new subsidies, property developers would still battle to access finance to fund such new developments.

Third, banks still categorised many poorer Cape Town suburbs as “red line” areas, where they remained extremely reluctant to grant housing bonds.

- Cape Argus

High court bid to halt N2 Gateway tenders

A development consortium has obtained a Western Cape High Court order to halt tenders for the construction of homes at two N2 Gateway project precincts.

Ibuyile Development Consortium alleges that the rights that are the subject of the tenders were awarded to it in 2005.

The high court interdicted the government from awarding the tenders until February 22, when it will formally hear the application, lodged by Ibuyile and Sea Kay Property Development - the company appointed to construct homes in two of the project's precincts.

The government has until tomorrow to file its opposing papers.

The N2 Gateway Project was initiated in 2004 by the City of Cape Town, the Western Cape government and the national government to alleviate the housing shortage.

In an affidavit before the court, Sea Kay director Pieter van der Schyf said the city awarded a tender to Ibuyile in May 2005 for construction work at Delft Symphony precincts 1 to 6.

He said Ibuyile had put "considerable effort" into the project and had, to date, completed and handed over more than 3 200 homes.

However, he said that the Western Cape Department of Human Settlements gave notice in December of two tenders to build homes and amend services in precincts 3 and 5 of the project.

If the government was allowed to award the tender, the rights previously awarded to Ibuyile would be rendered of no value and the construction of homes stood to be jeopardised, he said.

Ibuyile intends to institute court proceedings relating to the tender issue, but approached the high court to interdict the award of the tender pending the outcome of those proceedings.

Explaining the background to precincts 3 and 5, Van der Schyf said the precincts were treated differently in 2006 when First Rand Bank (FRB) became involved.

Van der Schyf explained that the national Department of Housing entered into a memorandum of understanding with FRB in terms of which FRB undertook to participate in and support governmental plans for sustainable integrated housing development and settlements.

Precincts 3 and 5 were identified to fill the gap market - for beneficiaries too poor to afford houses of their own and not poor enough to qualify for subsidised housing. FRB was to finance the construction and become a bond holder.

A joint venture agreement was entered into between BVI, Ibuyile, Sea Kay and M5 Housing.

All rights and obligations of the joint venture were transferred to BVI in October 2008.

Ibuyile transferred its rights in respect of precincts 3 and 5 to the joint venture for R31.65 million.

Sea Kay was the entity appointed to construct the houses and FRB was to provide funding.

Construction of the first batch of houses started in March 2008.

However, FRB was unable to pass development bonds over provincial land and eventually brought an application to liquidate BVI.

After a provisional liquidation order was granted, the appointed liquidators instituted an action in Gauteng in which they claimed repayment of the R31m in consideration for alienation of the rights.

The liquidators' case, according to Van der Schyf, was that BVI did not receive the rights.

He said that, if the liquidators were correct, the rights remained vested in Ibuyile.

"The right of the provincial authorities to award a tender for the construction of homes in precincts 3 and 5 was alienated by the award of the tender to Ibuyile in 2005. The provincial authorities accordingly cannot award the tender," Van der Schyf said.

Van der Schyf added that, even if the liquidators were not correct, Sea Kay enjoyed an interest in the rights through its participation in the joint venture, and an interdict would still be necessary in order to protect its interests.

He said that beneficiaries would be affected if a new appointment was made.

- Cape Argus

Fifa media, Antartic, but no toilet report - Shit!

It's no wonder the 'stinking job' has not been completed as promised by the Minister of Human Settlements, this month has been a month of sidelines; 'my people' will have to continue to shit in buckets...

Tokyo you are a joke at the expense of those who live and don't live in matchbox houses!

Thanx for the white elephants!!

Boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo !!!

The SA Football Association (SAFA) lauded the appointment of Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale to FIFA's Media Committee on Tuesday, saying the move epitomised and acknowledged the vital role he has played in promoting the world's favourite sport.

The Minister was, until recently, a member of the FIFA Fair Play Committee, which among other things fought against racism and discrimination in football. It was in this role that Sexwale played a critical role in the campaign to show racism the “red card”.

He is also a former a member of the FIFA Development Committee.

“This is yet another vote of confidence for the role South Africans are playing in promoting the world's number one sport. It is due recognition for the role the Minister has played in the past, during the 2010 FIFA World Cup and the effort he continues to put into the Beautiful Game.

“He has made South Africa proud and we are really happy for him,” said SAFA president Kirsten Nematandani from Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, where he is doing duty as a member of CAF's AFCON organising committee.

Sexwale left a lasting legacy as a champion of anti-racism in the sport when he spoke up for FIFA president Sepp Blatter who was criticised for saying “there was no racism in the field of play”.

South Africa expected Sexwale to play an equally important role in his new role working with the media, added Nematandani. - Sapa

Hemp building at Science Museum in Wroughton

A storage facility made of hemp is being erected at the Science Museum at Wroughton in Wiltshire.

The former airfield near Swindon is the large objects storage facility for the London Science Museum, housing more than 500,000 objects in 11 hangars.

As part of an £800,000 project, the hemp building is being installed inside one of the hangars to reduce humidity.

Matt Moore, from the museum, said: "Essentially it will be deep storage - preserving objects for evermore."

He said: "The environment in the hangars for the majority of objects is pretty good, pretty constant, but some items with wood and leather would do better with not quite so much humidity to preserve them for even longer.

"So we've gone back to basics and have decided to use hemp to stabilise the environment."

Rolling Stones airliner

Lime Technology is supplying the pre-fabricated hemp building.

Ian Pritchett, the company's technical director, said: "We build lots of hemp buildings but this is a building within a building which is far more challenging.

"The hangar is fairly enormous - about an acre of space."

Construction began in January and is due to be completed by the end of April.

"It's a bit like that child's tile game," said Mr Moore.

"As we refurbish a hangar, we can get more stuff into it and so we're moving objects when there's a space free to move them.

"We originally wanted to do all the hangars at once but we've got a more moderate approach now."

The museum houses giant exhibits, including a bus that was used to transport railway workers around Swindon and an airliner which was used for a Rolling Stones tour.

- BBC

Same News Source 9 years ago - and viola a country with less raw materials and less demand for jobs and housing have accomplished more than our own. Thanx for nothing - ARC - Human Settlements etc.

Sixty people homeless after fire

A fire near Steenberg in Cape Town left 60 people homeless on Wednesday, a City of Cape Town spokesperson said.

The fire razed shacks in the Overcome Height informal settlement at about 3.30pm, said Wilfred Solomons-Johannes of the city's Disaster Risk Management Centre.

“No injuries were reported and the cause of the fire is unknown,” he said. - Sapa

MKMVA & ANC Incite violence for Bloody Secrecy Bill

Education, rather than conflict, was needed over the Protection of State Information Bill, ANC member of the Western Cape provincial legislature Mcebisi Skwatsha told a public hearing on the bill in Gugulethu on Tuesday.

Skwatsha said research showed that less than 30 percent of South Africans knew about the bill.

“We don’t need to fight about this bill; what we need is to educate each other about it,” said Skwatsha.

MK Military Veterans Association Western Cape treasurer Themba Sidini told the hearing his party would kill for the bill.

“We as the MKMVA and the ANC will protect the bill, and if we have to spill blood for it then so will it be,” said Sidini to applause from ANC supporters.

Sidini said the bill was a cornerstone of the country’s democracy and that it sought to protect the country from undue foreign influences.

“Libya collapsed because it did not have a Protection of State Information Act,” he told the partially full Gugulethu Sport Complex.

- IOL

Libya fell becuase the people of Libya were sick of the dictator that had been in power for 40+ years. Remember this lesson, and the bloody bitter end Gadaffi met with. Not becuase they didn't have an act; they had the green book! Which in the end meant nothing!

Mayor challenged over fire deaths

ADULT men have been the main victims of shack fires in Cape Town, making up for more than half of all informal settlement fire deaths recorded last year.

Between January and December, 115 people died in fires, according to Mayor Patricia de Lille.

A breakdown of the recorded deaths for informal settlement fires last year is as follows:

• Males (age 18-60) – 59
• Males (age 61-100) – 4
• Females (age 18-60) – 23
• Females (age 61-100) – 1
• Male children (0-17) – 17
• Female children (0-17) – 11

There were 1 157 responses to fire reports in informal settlements (including false alarms) last year.

De Lille provided the statistics in a written reply to Al Jama-Ah councillor Ganief Hendricks who asked if the city had a plan to “totally stop” fires in informal settlements which resulted in deaths.

She said the city, through its Fire and Rescue Service and Disaster Risk Management Centre, had conducted an intensive public awareness and preparedness campaign on the issue of fires in informal settlements from December 20, 2011 until January 16 this year.

As another preventive measure, the Fire and Rescue Service is in the process of exploring the options of monthly fire drills and a fire team consisting of local residents through establishing a “fire reservist programme”.

Hendricks also asked if De Lille was prepared to place a fire engine in each informal settlement where fires had occurred over the past year, for the next 15 years.

“Can there be monthly fire drills and a fire team consisting of local residents in informal settlements prone to fires?” Hendricks asked.

De Lille said there were 30 fire stations covering the city.

“A dwelling unit can be completely engulfed in flames within one minute and 40 seconds,” she said.

“The placement of fire engines on every corner of an informal settlement will not prevent a dwelling unit from burning down.

“Behavioural changes need to happen and hence concentration on awareness and preventive measures exists,” De Lille said.

She said the city had, over the past four years, invested close to R200 million in the city’s Fire and Rescue Services which had enabled it to meet the “international baseline” for responding to emergencies.

She said this would substantially reduce deaths from fire incidents in informal settlements.

“Each of the informal settlement areas had fire stations within legislated and accepted response distances,” De Lille said.

In one of the worst fire incidents last year, a woman who lost all four of her children in a fire at their Khayelitsha home died in hospital two weeks later.

Bulelwa Matewu’s children – boys Tebogo, 15, and Masithembe, 11, and girls Nthabiseng, seven, and Sesono, two – died after neighbours tried to save them from their burning shack in Makhaza on August 8 last year.

Matewu herself was badly burnt and was taken to Tygerberg Hospital.

After battling to survive for two weeks, she eventually succumbed to her injuries.

Earlier this month, 65 shacks were destroyed, leaving 170 people displaced when a fire broke out at in RR Section in Khayelitsha.

- Cape Times

Why being a Capetonian sickens and distresses me

A relentless, unforgiving Cape Town heat is shimmering across Rondebosch Common as I drive around it on this Saturday afternoon.

The common is almost empty, except for a lone teenager with a ball in his hands and a security guard from a local school taking a break under one of the pine trees.

The parking lot is filled with police vehicles. They are presumably on standby should anyone try to occupy the common, which people had attempted to do the previous day.

A loosely-based coalition of "occupiers" wanted to hold a summit on the common, a public space in the middle of suburbia bequeathed to them as residents of Cape Town.

That no one occupied the common is the culmination of a series of events that led me to feel deep shame at being a Capetonian.

For those who don't know the full story, I am not going to intimate that I do. But the horrifying scenes that played out on the edge of the common on Friday have left me feeling dazed and confused - and angry.

The Occupy Rondebosch Common summit was billed as a weekend event to highlight issues of poverty, homelessness and dissatisfaction with non-delivery to the poor and dispossessed of Cape Town.

The organisers reportedly applied for permission to march from Athlone stadium to Rondebosch. Permission was refused, apparently because they missed a meeting with the Cape Town City Council to put their case to them.

On Friday morning a friend posted on Facebook that anyone with an emergency should not look to the police for assistance as most of them were patrolling and surrounding the common. Through the day there were reports that people had been stopped from leaving Manenberg and Athlone and that one of the key organisers had been arrested.

Then came reports that police had used a water cannon to disperse about 40 occupiers. But they did not say anything about the blue dye. And so, when I was confronted by the images on Saturday morning of blue dye being sprayed on the small group who had made it as far as the edges of the common, I was whipped back to 1989: to images of purple rain in the city when the apartheid police doused anti-apartheid protesters with purple-dyed waters from a water cannon in the middle of the city.

During the standoff on the common between police and occupiers, 41 people were arrested. I have watched the filmed arrests on YouTube. A group of police officers protected by full riot gear move in among the protesters, most of whom are seated on the ground.

Young women are bundled into a van. One is heard asking: "What have I done?"

I am sickened by the images and I am sickened by what seems to me to be an overreaction of polarising proportions.

But I am confused by the politics. I am not heartened by Cosatu's Tony Ehrenreich's apparent attempt to appropriate the event and stamp his political agenda on it. Neither am I heartened by the comments on the Occupy Rondebosch Common's Facebook page . In fact, there appears to be a fair amount of name-calling and ad hominum attacks on individuals .

I'm still trying to work out why everything feels so wrong, so I take another drive around the common. It is still eerily empty except for the police cars. The evening is cooling down, but there is an edginess afoot.

I know there are two sides to every story. I know the DA runs what everyone thinks, and in many ways is right to claim, one of the most efficient provinces in the country. I know that providing housing is a complex issue that requires dancing through a maze of red tape and conflicts between provincial and national government competencies.

I know all that, but when I read Patricia de Lille's response to what happened on Friday, I am enraged again. It all sounds so reasonable.

The city is engaging with the "right" people to bring change. It is a long-term project and we should all be patient and let them get on with it.

The occupiers are playing the race card. But the mayor's contention that the occupiers had no right to come to what is commonage, open public space bequeathed to the city, to hold their summit holds a sentence that distresses me: "This [Rondebosch] is a peaceful and diverse community known mostly for its schools and retirees."

Does this mean that discussions about homelessness and poverty should not be held in what is, quite frankly, an upper-class privileged area? In all honesty, if it were not for the University of Cape Town, Rondebosch would not be very diverse at all. And yes, it has great schools, but does this mean they must be shielded from the sight of poverty and not see people from other areas raising their concerns? Can we not move past the "us" and "them" divide?

- Timeslive THE BIG READ: Crocker lives in Rondebosch