Asiyi eDelft! - WE won't go to Delft!

The Joe Slovo community and dozens of other communities affiliated to the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign will march on First National Bank in Cape Town tomorrow (28 November 2007).

The march will leave from Cape Town station at 9am under the theme "Asiyi eDelft!" (We won't go to Delft)

The communities want to show their support for the Joe Slovo residents, who are currently resisting a forced removal to Delft, and also to protest about evictions and water cut offs in their own communities.

Mzonke Poni of QQ Section Campaign, and a Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign leader, says that the Temporary Relocation Areas (TRA's) in Delft "are like a concentration camp. No tarred roads, rubbish in the streets, public toilets only many of which have been closed for a year so people must relieve themselves in the bush. People in the TRA's are living in limbo, unhappy, tolerating the awful conditions only in the hope that they will get a real house. But Thubelisha has promised 9500 houses to more than 20,000 families -- from Joe Slovo, New Rest, Barcelona, Boys Town Crossroads etc, as well as to Delft backyarders and to people from Nyanga, Malawi and many other places. It is a recipe for conflict, misery, and disaster."

Mncedisi Twala, Chaiperson of the Gugulethu Backyard Dwellers Forum said that "Delft is the dumping place for the poor. The ANC's economic policy is chasing the previously and currently disadvantaged people. First National Bank contributed to the killing of black people in the past by giving millions of rands to the apartheid regime and now FNB is taking the land of the poor people everywhere in the townships."

Jane Roberts and Margaret Lotz, from the Leiden Delft Anti-Eviction Campaign said that they did not advise anyone to accept forced removal to Delft. "Crime and violence are extremely high in Delft. There are frequent water cut-offs. Where will the Langa children go to school because Delft schools are already very overcrowded. Children play in the streets here and get run over by cars frequently. As the Leiden Anti-Eviction Campaign we support the idea that houses must be built for people where they are already staying," said Roberts and Lotz.

Willie Heyn, Chairperson of the Gympie Street Residents Committee said that the Gympie Street residents have pledged their support for the Joe Slovo residents because they face the same problem. "The residents of Joe Slovo received an eviction letter from Lindiwe Sisulu's office with an alternative of moving to an area far away, while Gympie Street received an eviction letter/threat from a landlord to move 'peacefully' or face the consequences. Our young democracy is falling into ruin," said Heyn.

Professor Emeritus Martin Legassick, and an Anti-Eviction campaign activist said that "Thubelisha Housing Company wrongly accuses the Joe Slovo task team of 'intimidating' people into opposing going to Delft. When people were moved from Joe Slovo after the 2005 fire, cranes loomed over their houses and they were told "move, or all your belongings will be gone." Was that not intimidation?"

…/ends

For further comment please call Abahlali baseMjondolo :

* Mzwanele Zulu – Joe Slovo Task Team representative – 076 385 2369
* Mzonke Poni – QQ Section, Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign – 073 2562036
* Ashraf Cassiem – Tafelsig, Western Cape Anti-Eviction campaign – 076 1861408
* Mncedisi Twala – Gugulethu Backyard Dwellers, WC AEC - 078 5808646
* Gary Hartzenberg – Newfields Village, WC AEC – 072 3925859