HOUSING CRISIS

I now live in Brooklyn, New York, but still regularly visit Cape Town. My most recent visits were in December last year (for one month) and in June this year. On this last trip, my younger brother David and I drove to the township where we grew up. I hadn’t done it in a while. I was struck again by the unemployment, the drug abuse (my brother estimated that at a troubling number of young people in the street where we grew up, are using a local variant of crystal meth, called “tik”). But most of all I was depressed by the housing crisis. The housing stock has been neglected for a decade or so. Overcrowding is rife. Shacks and extensions of either plastic, wood or tin to two-bedroom council houses (built in the 1970s for nuclear families), are a necessity for families with grown children. Many of my peers, now married, divorced, or single parents, still live with their parents through no fault of their own. No new houses have been built.

Certainly the national, provincial and city governments are aware of the housing crisis...

"I did not know housing was such a crisis in the Western Cape."
Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu

In March this year, for example, the provincial government announced statistics that would be a scandal in any other democracy. According to the province, by conservative estimates (an annual growth rate of only one percent), Cape Town housing backlog was expected to reach 460 000 by 2020. That same report also suggested that if the city spends R1-billion every year on building houses, “the demand for formal housing would only be met by 2033.” Should the city spend half of that amount every year, the demand for “site and services” (meaning squatter camps with a standpipe and electricity supply) would only be met by 2017. The provincial government controlled by the ANC also announced that 51 percent of housing applicants lived in shacks, 31 percent in backyards and 12 percent shared homes with other people. These people’s positions are made worse by poverty and unemployment. “Of the applicants, 79 percent earned less than R1 500 per month and 18 percent between R1 500 and R3 500.” Finally, the report noted that 63 percent of applicants listed their status as unemployed.

City and provincial officials would be quick to point out that they (well, private firms supported by banks) are building plenty of low cost houses: in Delft, Khayelitsha and near Blue Downs. Anyone with knowledge of Cape Town and its jobs knows this is a daily commute of two hours. It is also de facto racial segregation and class-based apartheid. Apart from privately developed gated communities close to the city, Cape Town has a habit of expanding existing racial ghettoes. And the end of apartheid has not stopped this practice. So another coloured ghetto is built next to an existing one. Another “African” ghetto is constructed next to an existing African ghetto. Urban sprawl appears to be criteria for successful tender. Moreover, what results is that poverty--manifested by unemployment, bad schools, and gangsterism---is trapped in the townships far away from the city center and the op-ed pages of the main newspapers or the talk shows on AM Radio. It’s worth mentioning that police statistics, reportedly, prove that the homicide rate has dropped in almost all urban areas of the country, except the Western Cape and are mostly concentrated in these townships.

- Sean Jacobs - maisonneuve

politics - the few over the many

...The only people that benefit are the small group of politically connected individuals who take home millions of rands in bonuses each year, despite the fact that they repeatedly fail in their core mandate of electricity generation and reticulation.

The latest example of the tragic consequences of the ANC's policy of empowering the few at the expense of the many is the housing crisis in Delft, in Cape Town. Recent flare-ups between police and various categories of homeless people as a result of the N2 Gateway Project illustrate the rage that such policies can provoke.

This project is pumping billions of rands into housing that is affordable only to those who can afford to pay substantial rentals. These are the people whose housing needs should be addressed by the banks and developers in the market category known as the "gap" housing market. Government policy should be designed to encourage the market to service people in this market with long term, affordable housing loans. Government grants should be reserved for the truly indigent.

The ANC has done the opposite. Through the N2 Gateway we have seen indigent shack dwellers permanently displaced from well located land near Cape Town, despite the fact that the previous ANC administration promised they would return to formal housing on their previous sites. In fact, only one of the hundreds of displaced families could afford to pay the rent and return to a unit when the first phase of the N2 Gateway in Joe Slovo was completed. The rest had to be moved 15 km outside the city, to what is known as a "temporary relocation area" in Delft. This is also a poverty stricken community where hundreds of families, many of whom have been on the housing waiting list for decades, live in backyard shacks.

For them the new RDP houses would have been a considerable improvement, and they felt they should have first preference to new housing in their areas, especially as most of them have been on the housing waiting list for much longer than the residents of Joe Slovo.

The N2 Gateway formula was a social and political powder keg waiting to explode, and seriously fuelled by racial divisions. When I warned the Minister of this, (shortly after I was elected Mayor) I was expelled from the project. Ironically this has not deterred the ANC from blaming me and the DA for everything that has gone wrong with the project.

When I saw a looming conflagration in Delft, I made an appointment to see the Minister to offer my help to resolve it. She did agree to meet me, but failed to arrive for the appointment. I waited for two hours in vain.

It was clear from the beginning that the project was never intended to seriously tackle the housing backlog, but to present an illusion that something substantial was being done to house the homeless. The real target is the middle class, while the poor are set up in conflictual situations against each other.

The residents of the second phase of Joe Slovo realized that those who were moved out in phase one did not return. They therefore resisted removal and blockaded the N2 Gateway in protest. They took their case to the High Court.

Equally, in Delft, the backyarders invaded the houses meant to "temporarily" house the Joe Slovo shack dwellers...

- Helen Zille - Cape Town Mayor - Politicsweb

Housing intervention - mooted

CAPE TOWN — The housing row between Western Cape’s government and Cape Town’s city council continued yesterday with Premier Ebrahim Rasool disclosing that the city received 73% of the province’s housing subsidy allocations.

Rasool fired a broadside at Cape Town mayor and Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille and her multiparty city government, saying that while they got 73% of the budget they would not take responsibility when things went wrong.

The premier suggested that, while it was not “desirable”, the provincial government should become the agent to contract developers. He said there had been disagreements on policy between the city and the province, and “it leaves us with very little choice”.

Rasool said projections were that the city would underspend by R145m on housing this financial year, which was “criminal”, especially for an area as critical as housing.

He said yesterday at a housing summit of the province and the South African National Civics Organisation (Sanco) that the housing situation “frustrated” the provincial cabinet, controlled by the African National Congress (ANC), because the city, which received 73% of the housing subsidy budget, took no responsibility when things “went wrong”.

A comparison had been drawn at a provincial cabinet meeting on Wednesday between “the eunuch and the harlot”. Whereas the eunuch had responsibility, but no power, the harlot had power but no responsibility.

“I don’t want to say who’s who,” he said.

The “sensitive” housing issue has raised political temperatures in Cape Town since the illegal occupation in December of nearly 1000 houses at Delft Symphony, part of the government’s flagship N2 Gateway project.

Now the province is seeking to institute a civil claim against DA councillor Frank Martin, who led the housing invasions, and the DA, for at least R20m.

Rasool said Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi was becoming “increasingly frustrated” by fights in Western Cape, and he was proposing a national housing agent to deliver houses in the country.

Mufamadi met housing MEC Richard Dyantyi and Zille on Wednesday about the city declaring an intergovernmental dispute with the province, which has so far failed to grant housing accreditation to the DA-led multiparty city government. The effect of this would allow the city to bypass provincial approval for new housing projects, and speed up delivery of houses by the city.

All Dyantyi would say about the meeting was that it was to discuss “mutual issues” that were considered “work in progress”. - Business Day - NEWS Worth Knowing

W Cape 'may take over control from city'

The provincial government is frustrated by what it sees as the city council's underspending of its housing budget and says that it may do the job itself, dealing directly with developers and contractors.

Premier Ebrahim Rasool has told a summit on housing that the city has received about 73 percent of its housing budget and is projected to underspend by R154-million this year.

The city and the province continued to differ on policy matters and, if this persisted, the province would be left little choice but to act to speed up delivery, he told the summit, attended by bank, municipality and community representatives.

"The city is not coming to the party with land. Increasingly we are having policy differences when we have to implement the national template. It make us (wonder) whether to pass on the money," Rasool said.

"You have a sphere of government that gets 73 percent of the housing budget, but takes no responsibility when things go wrong.

"I'm to suggest we ask (Local Government and Housing) MEC Richard Dyantyi to seek ways (in which) the province itself becomes the agent that contracts the developers, rather than … the city."

The mayoral committee member for housing, Dan Plato, said it was untrue that the city had underspent.

"Some time last year, the province added R150-million to the city's original budget of R450-million. Obviously, we could not spend all that money and we informed the province.

"The (city's) previous (ANC) administration let go of experienced personnel, such as engineers and project managers. We have now had to appoint these people again as we need these skills to implement the housing programme." - Cape Times

R3million disaster relief spent... again...

Western Cape Disaster Management officials spent over 3 million rand on assisting Cape Town shack dwellers over the second half of 2007.

In that time, Cape Town Fire and rescue services responded to 841 blazes in informal settlements. These included false alarms.

Between July and December more than 8 thousand people were displaced in shack fires in Cape Town alone. Disaster Management supplied them with meals setting the City back more than two hundred thousand rand.

While the cause of most of the blazes is unknown there are suspicions that many of them were started by unattended candles or Paraffin Stoves.

Meanwhile, the Paraffin Safety Association of South Africa says their awareness programmes are paying off. The association's Patrick Kulati says communities they work with seem to be more cautious than they were a year ago.

Kulati says the key is educating shack dwellers about the danger unattended stoves and candles can cause. - 567 Cape Talk

Seperate housing policy for backyard dwellers

Activists in the Western Cape want a separate housing policy for backyard dwellers.

Backyard dwellers' associations have joined their counterparts from informal settlements at a housing summit in sea point to discuss the province's housing crisis.

Government admitted it does not have all the answers.

It says it asked the groups for their input to help map the way forward. - 567 Cape Talk

Bill in the pipe to halt informal settlements

Dyantyi addressed a housing summit in Cape Town today

Western Cape Housing Minister Richard Dyantyi says government will introduce new legislation to curb the mushrooming of informal settlements in the province.

Speaking at a housing summit in Cape Town, Dyantyi said there were currently 340 informal settlement areas in the province.

Dyantyi says legislation will also curb those who sell subsidised houses and move back to informal settlements. He says a percentage of new housing development projects in the province will be given to backyard dwellers.

Government will conduct a survey of all the houses that were handed over between 1994 and 2006. The purpose will be to establish whether those currently staying in the houses are the rightful owners.

Dyantyi says housing officials from the Western, Northern and Eastern Cape will meet at the end of next month to map out joint plans for housing developments. The Western Cape currently has a housing backlog of about 400 000 units. - SABC

Housing crisis centre stage at Summit

The Western Cape housing crisis takes centre stage at a summit in Cape Town this morning.

The summit will feature submissions from provincial housing officials, party heavy-weights and community organisations.

The Delft housing debacle is also expected to come up for discussion.

The Western Cape housing department faces a host of challenges following the illegal occupation of N2 gateway homes in December.

Heated debates around the province's critical housing shortage are expected to continue today.

Participants include Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool, housing councillors from the province's municipalities and several civic organisation and backyard dwellers associations.

However, one of the housing department's biggest critics, Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign Chair, Ashraf Cassiem says he's simply not interested.

Delegates are expected to come up with resolutions to counter the backlogs. - 567 Cape Talk

Evicted SA squatters live on hope & a prayer

Legsaan Levember can only pray for better days as he huddles with 12 family members in a roadside tent, another victim of South Africa's spiralling housing backlog.

The family uses a plastic sheet to extend their tiny tent, which perches precariously on the slope of a small dune and is regularly blown away by Cape Town's relentless south-easterly winds.

Levember and his kin inhabit one of countless makeshift homes lining the roadside in Delft, a small settlement 40km outside the tourist mecca where more than 1 000 people were left high and dry after being evicted from brick houses they had occupied illegally.

"It is the first time in my life I have to live like this," said Levember. "Even during apartheid it was better," he added.

Most black South Africans still live in townships on the fringes of cities and towns where they work.

The universal right to adequate housing has been a focus of the African National Congress since it was elected to power in 1994. But 14 years after the end of apartheid, the housing backlog shows few signs of abating, with squatter camps mushrooming around cities.

Impatient with the slow pace, a group of mainly coloured people invaded the Delft homes, meant for other beneficiaries, in December.

But they lost a high court appeal against their eviction, which turned violent last week as the squatters threw stones at police, who retaliated with stun grenades and rubber-coated bullets.

As the group found itself on the roadside, the city government said it would provide chemical toilets and water while an alternative accommodation site was sought.

But the destitute said help has been slow in arriving, with several families sharing a single tap and relying on bucket toilets.

"I am old and sick. I don't even sleep at night because I guard the tent against strong winds or people breaking in and raping my kids," said Levember.

"I don't know what are we going to do when it rains. We only pray ... It's bad."

The tents are near a main road on which children now play. Residents say one was bitten by a scorpion in adjacent bushes, while another discovered a snake.

"We were thrown out like dogs," Lola Wentzel said, adding she had nowhere to go with her four children.

"They just dump us," added Latovica Philander, sitting on the roadside with scant possessions and heavily pregnant with her fourth child.

"We have no house to go to, no shack to go to. Nowhere to go. Nowhere."

'This is apartheid in reverse'
Last year, the national government said it had put roofs over the heads of 12-million citizens by building 2,4-million houses. This left 2,2-million individuals still in need.

The government aims to eradicate shack dwellings by 2014, but housing delivery has been hamstrung by slow and often shoddy construction.

The government has also warned that rising building costs could hamper progress as demand increases for materials as South Africa prepares stadiums and infrastructure for hosting the 2010 Soccer World Cup, the first on the African continent.

The government has budgeted about R18-billion until 2009/10 for stadium construction and other costs associated with hosting the football spectacular, but critics say this money should be spent elsewhere.

Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, however, has insisted that World Cup preparations were boosting the economy and contributing to "sustained growth".

Sporadic countrywide protests against dire living conditions are turning increasingly violent. The United Nations urged South Africa last year to halt forced evictions, saying they contravened the spirit of the Constitution.

In Delft, the situation has fuelled simmering racial tensions between coloured people and black people, each believing the other is getting preference for housing by political parties canvassing votes.

Coloured people suspect the ANC of reserving housing for black South Africans, who in turn accuse the main opposition Democratic Alliance, which governs the city of Cape Town, of favouring coloured people.

"This is apartheid in reverse," lamented Lola Wentzel, who has been on the waiting list for over a decade.

"During apartheid, we were told we were not white enough to own houses. Now in democracy we are not black and poor enough. Where are we supposed to go?" -- AFP

Watchdog body gets housing fraud order

A GRAHAMSTOWN High Court judge has ordered Eastern Cape Housing MEC Thokozile Xasa to produce paperwork relating to 583 Bhisho officials accused of housing subsidy fraud.

Justice Clive Plasket ordered that the Rhodes University-based Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM) be given detailed documentation by the Housing Department on the corrective steps taken against the officials implicated in the fraud more than two years ago.

The documents include the number of prosecutions, convictions and acquittals; civil proceedings to recover the money; internal disciplinary steps against guilty officials; and copies of the employment contract and performance agreement of the department’s HoD (head of department) and superintendent-general.

Using the Promotion of Access to Information Act, PSAM’s six-month legal fight to access the documentation would shed further light on damning testimony heard in 2006 by the Bhisho-appointed Pillay Commission of Inquiry. The commission considered the impact of such housing fraud on public funds meant to benefit the poor and needy people of the province.

A national performance audit by the auditor-general (A-G) dated January 2006 revealed irregularities in housing subsidy applications approved to government employees earning salaries in excess of the housing subsidy threshold.

The A-G estimated the monetary value of such irregular approvals to be in the region of R93million across all nine provinces.

The A-G noted that the potential amount in subsidies awarded incorrectly was calculated on an average subsidy of R15000 per applicant. Using this average, the 583 public officials implicated in the Eastern Cape may have conservatively benefited to the tune of R8745000.

A “pleased” Jay Kruuse, PSAM’s programme head, yesterday said last Thursday’s court order would enable the watchdog group to obtain information and records “which will reveal the extent to which public officials have been held accountable for their actions – particularly where such actions involve the misuse and abuse of public funds entrusted to them”. “The court order will also provide authority to support the PSAM gaining access to the performance agreements of all provincial HoDs and superintendent-generals,” he said.

Although the PSAM was given an 83-page bundle of documents by the department minutes before the court appearance, they decided to continue with the application.

“We did not want to go through the whole legal process again – especially if the documentation was not what was requested. It is indeed regrettable that the PSAM should have had to litigate for material of this nature,” he said.

Department spokesperson Phumulani Mdolomba yesterday said the department had co-operated by not opposing the PSAM application, and had sent the information “as requested”.

He said no disciplinary action had been taken yet against the officials as they were still trying to recover the debt.

“The Eastern Cape has investigated all the cases and referred some to the Special Investigations Unit and South African Police Service. We have already got some convictions,” he said. - Daily Dispatch

Innercity Refugee camp mushrooms

A makeshift refugee camp, housing over 1 000 desperate asylum seekers, has sprung up on the Foreshore.

This was the startling picture that emerged when a Cape Argus team visited the area around Customs House this week.

Asylum seekers are flocking to the city centre in the hope of being assisted by the Department of Home Affairs in their bid to get legal papers.

More than 1 000 immigrants, who want to beat the daily bus queues which take them to the Home Affairs offices in Barrack Street, are now camping there.

'This is the only place I know where I can't be arrested'

On the site, there are three mobile toilets put up by Home Affairs. Only two of these were working on Tuesday. There is no running water or bathroom facilities and the stench of urine permeates the air.

When the Cape Argus visited the site on Monday evening, men, women some pregnant, others with babies and children were getting ready for "bed".

There were no mattresses, not even much cardboard. The refugees were simply wrapped in thin blankets and lying on the pavement.

Applications for asylum papers are processed in Barrack Street. Because that road is so narrow, people converge at the Foreshore and are bused there.

The Home Affairs Foreshore office closed two weeks ago following the sale of Customs House.

'We don't even move around as we might lose a place in the queue'

During the visit by the Cape Argus, the immigrants admitted that their unofficial campsite was a health hazard.

Most of them spend up to three weeks on the pavement, but when they leave, their spots are taken up by new refugees.

Most are Zimbabweans, peppered with a few Somalis, Congolese and Malawians.

Simba Tibape, a Zimbabwean banker, has been in the country for about two months. He has been working on a farm in Worcester.

"This is the only place I know where I can't be arrested," he said. "It is not an ideal place. Where else in the world would you find a thousand men, women and children sleeping on the same pavement?"

Tafadzwa John, a property evaluator from Harare, said: "We are here 24/7; we don't even move around as we might lose a place in the queue."

Last October, the Barrack Street office started to process application for new immigrants to ease pressure at the office on the Foreshore.

Immigrants were transported by pick-up trucks, but early this year the department introduced buses.

According to a Home Affairs official, who did not want to be identified, initially about 100 people were served each day, but the number has risen to about 240. But, since Friday, an IT system upgrade has had teething problems and only about 100 people have been processed.

Braam Hanekom of the refugee rights group Passop pointed a finger at the City of Cape Town for not providing adequate facilities to the immigrants.

But the city's safety and security portfolio committee chairman, JP Smith, said on Wednesday that the refugee camp was not of the city's making.

"It's the refugee centre's incapacity... and the city cannot necessarily fix that."

However, he said the city had met with Home Affairs and would help reduce the backlog.
- Cape Argus

Delft homes to be handed over to rightful owners

The first batch of 30 Delft homes cleared of backyard dwellers who illegally occupied the unfinished houses of the N2 Gateway Housing Project, are being prepared to be handed over to their rightful owners by Friday this week.

The houses on the Cape Flats were vandalised during the two month illegal invasion by backyard dwellers. Thubelisha Homes General Manager Prince Xhanti Sigcawu says the housing units were supposed to be handed over in December last year, but could not be due to the invasion.

Sigcawu says plans are underway to handover more than 100 houses per week, until all the rightful owners take ownership of their homes. - SABC

Outcry as Delft tents torn down

Cape Town - The City of Cape Town, along with police, tore down four tents sheltering Delft evictees on Monday afternoon, sparking an outcry from the community.

"We put them up yesterday (Sunday) because we thought it was going to rain," said chairperson of the Western Cape anti-eviction campaign, Ashraf Cassiem told News24.

They had received the tents from charity organisation, Islam Relief Worldwide's Western Cape branch.

About 1 800 people evicted from unfinished subsidised houses in Delft last week are now living on a site adjacent to the land.

They illegally occupied the houses in December last year.

Hans Smit, the city's executive director of housing, told News24 that the tents were hazardous.

"There are certain structural and fire regulations which have to be complied with in terms of public safety."

He said there were no applications for the erection of the tents and no safety certificate had been issued by the fire department.

"The city cannot risk putting people into tents that do not meet the legal requirements," said Smit. "If they should collapse who is responsible for the people?"

'We want houses'

Smit said the city had provided tents for those who needed it until the evictees could be moved to a site in three to four weeks, where temporary housing was being prepared for them.

But Cassiem rejected the help. "We don't want tents from them, we want houses from them."

Smit brushed off the concern.

"There are various groups that have got their own dynamics and own agendas," he said of the evictees.

"The city's agenda is straight forward: those people were put on to the pavement by no action of the city and the city has put into place a rescue programme for them." - NEWS24

Province, city at war about Delft's homeless

The provincial government and the city are on a collision course over assisting the 1 600 homeless Delft residents.

It has also emerged that 400 of the people who were evicted from the Delft houses are due to be recipients of the very homes they invaded and which have subsequently been vandalised.

And with elections looming next year, Premier Ebrahim Rasool has accused the DA of again using the emotional issue of housing and people's fears as an electioneering tool.

On Friday Rasool and two MECs, Richard Dyantyi and Kholeka Mqulwana, outlined an emergency rescue package for the evicted people.

However, the province's role is to advise and provide funds, but municipalities ultimately have the authority to implement the plans.

Hot on the heels of the premier's press conference, the city issued a press release outlining its own rescue package, markedly different from the province's.

On Wednesday the province said while it was preparing land it wanted the city to make community halls available where the evicted people could be housed and fed, and have access to medical and social services.

The province also asked the council to place chemical toilets and water facilities there, and provide trucks to transport people who had alternative accommodation.

But the city has a different plan. Mayoral committee member for housing Dan Plato said the city would put up hundreds of tents on the edge of the building site while alternative land is being made available. Ninety chemical toilets had been placed on the road reserve, water standpipes had been installed and skips would be brought in for waste removal.

It is expected the residents will live in the tents for up to four weeks while the city fast-tracks planning, servicing and designing the identified site in Delft.

Plato said: "We estimate that we will be able to begin moving people on to the new site within three to four weeks, and we will supply them with emergency building kits."

They expected the "temporary arrangement to remain in place for approximately two years".

He said putting people into community halls was not an option as halls were fully booked for the rest of the year.

At his press conference Rasool said 400 of the Delft evictees were in fact due to receive the houses they had invaded.

Had December's illegal invasion not taken place, they would have moved into their new homes by now. Now they would have to wait while the houses were repaired.

Housing agent Thubelisha Homes estimates it will cost R20-million to repair the homes and it will be weeks before the intended recipients, 70 percent of whom are currently living in the temporary relocation area known as Tsunami, in Delft, and the 30 percent that are backyard dwellers, can move in.

Rasool blamed the DA for the invasion and said the issue was likely to be used by the party in the run-up to next year's elections.

For this reason the province would institute a civil claim of at least R20-million against DA councillor Frank Martin and his party, if he was found guilty of inciting people to occupy the houses in December.

"In 1994 it was the invasion of Tafelsig, in 1999 it was Lost City, in 2005 it was Bokmakierie and now it is Delft," Rasool said. "We cannot have the fears of 300 000 exploited."

In a scathing attack on mayor Helen Zille, the director general of the Department of Housing, Itumeleng Kotsoane, said: "Instead of condemning her rogue councillor for inciting racial tensions and leading poor people into breaking the law, Zille attempts to deflect attention by attacking the national housing policy."

In a statement Zille said Rasool's threat to sue the DA for allegedly encouraging land invasions in Delft was "just posturing".

Meanwhile, the plight of the evictees remained tense and chaotic in the area yesterday.

A woman pregnant with twins collapsed in front of a Weekend Argus team, children used the sidewalk as a toilet and an elderly couple complained of sleeping on a dusty Delft pavement.

As people clamoured to get hold of supplies from relief organisations, matters began to look ugly. Some accused others of taking too much and heated words were exchanged as people jostled for food, blankets and clothing.

In the ensuing scuffle the pregnant woman collapsed and started moaning while clutching her stomach. But Jamiela Davids, who is expecting twins, was only five months pregnant despite her discomfort.

One man, Wayne Williams, said two women had given birth on the pavement earlier in the week.

"Look at the street, full of shacks. Is this life in the new South Africa?" said one evictee.

- Cape Argus

Delft Rising

...Chaos erupted in Delft this week after the Cape High Court ruled that the invading families had to leave. A heavy contingent of police, driving Nyalas, blasted people with rubber bullets and stun grenades. Belongings were ripped from homes and piled on a nearby open stretch of land

At the launch of the project in 2006, Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said: “The N2 corridor provides us with the opportunity to address a whole range of injustices of the past, starting with the disinherited communities of District Six ... to the dislocated back-yarders who have waited for years for an opportunity to own a house; to the informal settlers of this area who took the decision to clear the bush and put up their shacks.”

But, two years later, Rose and others like her are caught in a maelstrom of misery and anger swirling around Gateway — which, together with other housing schemes in the province, are only denting an official housing backlog of 380,000 families. The national housing backlog stands at 2.2- million...

How Gateway homes are allocated:

PRINCE Xhanti Sigcawu, general manager of Thubelisha, the project manager of the N2 Gateway Pilot Project, said allocation worked like this:

If the combined family income is under R1,500 a month, they will qualify for a free Breaking New Ground house (BNG), which will replace RDP houses. BNG homes are 40m2 with two bedrooms, open-plan kitchen, a lounge and a bathroom and toilet. Families earning between R1,501 to R3,500 a month make a once-off payment of R2479 for a BNG home. Families with a combined income of between R3,501 and R7,000 will not receive a free house. Instead they qualify for a bonded house. They are entitled to a subsidy which will be used as a deposit. Bonded homes cost between R180,000 to R450,000. These homes are between 45m2 and 90m2 and have up to four bedrooms. Those who don’t want to purchase a home and earn up to R5,000 qualify for a rental home. Prices range from between R500 for a bachelor flat to R1,050 for a two-bedroom house.

- The Times

Cape Town earmarks land for Delft homeless

The City of Cape Town has begun providing water and toilets for evicted occupants of homes in Delft, and has earmarked a site for them to move to, mayoral committee member Dan Plato said on Friday.

Many of them have been living and sleeping in the open since the evictions on Monday.

The move came as state-owned housing developer Thubelisha confirmed that it intends suing Democratic Alliance (DA) ward councillor Frank Martin for R20-million, the cost of repairing damage to the homes. Martin allegedly instigated the illegal occupation.

The provincial government said it might join Thubelisha in the lawsuit, which could also target the DA itself.

Plato, responsible for housing on the mayoral committee, said the city on Friday morning placed 40 chemical toilets on the road reserve where many of the more than a thousand people were squatting, with another 50 toilets to follow on Friday evening.

Water standpipes are also being installed, and skips are being arranged for solid waste removal.

"These services will help to relieve the immediate plight of those living in the open while the city prepares an alternative site with basic services to accommodate them."

A piece of land in the Delft area has been identified for this purpose, and planning and services are being fast-tracked.

People will probably be moved to the new site within three or four weeks, and the city will supply them with emergency building kits.

"We expect this temporary arrangement to remain in place for approximately two years," Plato said.

Councillor Martin has been criminally charged with inciting the occupation of the homes, most of them meant for people being moved to make way for the N2 Gateway housing project elsewhere in the city.

Director of Thubelisha Xhanti Sigcawu said on Friday afternoon that the company had decided to sue Martin for about R20-million.

The R20-million is an estimate of the damage the illegal occupants had caused to the houses, as Thubelisha personnel had not been able to get into them while they were occupied.

Once this inventory has been completed, the amount of the claim and the court papers will be finalised.

"We are going to sue him," Sigcawu said.

Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool told journalists earlier in the day that preliminary advice from the province's legal affairs division is that the province is entitled to join the Thubelisha claim because the Delft houses are on its land and Thubelisha is its agent.

His cabinet will decide next week whether it will in fact do so and whether to extend the claim to target the DA as well.

He said the DA had either instructed Martin to lead the invasion, or allowed him to do so by not intervening to stop him.

"We think that both Frank Martin and the DA must be held responsible for at least R20-million damages that were caused in Delft," he said. -- Sapa

DA councillor could face R20m lawsuit

The Western Cape government may join in a contemplated R20-million lawsuit claim against a Democratic Alliance councillor it claims is behind the illegal occupation of houses at Delft on the Cape Flats.

Premier Ebrahim Rasool said on Friday that his administration had been given "preliminary" legal advice that it could sue the DA as well.

Several thousand people were this week evicted from the homes they have occupied illegally since December last year.

DA ward councillor Frank Martin allegedly encouraged the occupation of the homes, most of them meant for people being moved to make way for the N2 Gateway housing project elsewhere in the city.

'We think that both Frank Martin and the DA must be held responsible'

He has been criminally charged with inciting the invasion and his role is also under investigation by the city council.

Thubelisha director Xhanti Sigcawu said this week his company was contemplating suing Martin for about R20-million, the cost of repairing damage caused by the illegal occupants.

Rasool said on Friday the DA had either instructed Martin to lead the invasion, or allowed him to do so by not intervening to stop him.

"I think it is as clear as daylight that the mayor [Helen Zille, who is also leader of the DA] has not condemned someone whose salary she pays ... he's a favourite," he said.

"We think that both Frank Martin and the DA must be held responsible for the at least R20-million damages that were caused in Delft."

Preliminary advice from the province's legal affairs division was that the province was entitled to join the Thubelisha claim, because the Delft houses were on its land and Thubelisha was its agent.

His cabinet would decide next week whether it would in fact do so, and whether to extend the claim to target the DA as well.

The aim, Rasool said, was "to make sure that no one can cause such damage and think they can get away with it without paying", and he would use all the legal means at his disposal to make sure that responsibility was placed at the door of Martin and his party.

He said there had been a pattern of land invasions before previous elections.

He believed the Delft occupation was an orchestrated attempt to prevent the African National Congress - the ruling party in the provincial government - from competing equally in the runup to the 2009 general election.

There were 400 000 people on the City of Cape Town's waiting list, and one could not have their fears being exploited in this way.

"We are of the view that there has been a wilful, deliberate misleading of very vulnerable people," he said.

This was why the province was taking the unprecedented step of holding Martin accountable.

The only way to deal with the city's housing problem was in an orderly way: chaos such as the Delft occupation would mean a disaster every day.

"Fairness and transparency is going to be our only weapon in a very difficult situation," he said.

Social services MEC Kholeka Mqulwana said the province's "service providers" were supplying meals to the displaced occupants, and social workers were conducting an audit to make sure children were not missing school. - Sapa

Housing tender blunder may write off millions

It could prove almost impossible for the city to recover some of the R12-million paid for an N2 Gateway housing contract a "previous administration" originally awarded for R5-million.

Cyberia Technologies was hired in 2005 as project manager when the city was still in charge of awarding contracts to get the now beleaguered housing project off the ground.

The contract was extended three times without the process being put out for re-tender.

'This has been a very expensive, and a very sloppy issue'

The council's housing committee called for a forensic audit on the termination and payment of Cyberia Technologies in April 2006.

On Wednesday the city's mayoral committee endorsed a recommendation from its forensic department that the Office of the Auditor-General was best placed to conduct an investigation into the matter because it had greater jurisdictional powers.

But the city's chairman of the housing portfolio committee, Neil Ross, said he wanted the council's Special Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) to investigate the matter and to ensure that procedures were now in place that would avoid a repeat situation.

Ross said Cyberia Technologies should never have been awarded the tender because it was not among the three top bids and, being an IT company, had no housing project management experience.

Ross said it was important that the city gleaned more information about exactly how the contract had been awarded and then repeatedly extended.

'The projects are being driven by political pressure'

The role of the former city manager also had to be investigated.

The poor manner in which the contracts had been drafted between the city and Cyberia Technologies made the recovery of any funds virtually impossible, said Ross.

"This has been a very expensive, and a very sloppy issue."

"It is something this administration inherited but we can't allow it to happen again," said Ross.

The city has since been pulled off the N2 Gateway project.

Mayor Helen Zille placed the blame on politicians and provincial leaders whom she said used councillors to drive projects through.

Mayor Helen Zille placed the blame on politicians and provincial leaders whom she said used councillors to drive projects through.

"The politicians disappear and officials are left to carry the can."

"It's happening in all local authorities where another political party thinks it's above the law."

"The officials are on the back foot and the projects are being driven by political pressure," she said.

Zille said systems needed to be tightened up to protect officials from political abuse. - Cape Argus

Legal residents evicted in Delft move mayhem

A legal Delft resident was caught in the middle of the mass evictions of illegal squatters, when officials removed her possessions from her home while she was at work.

Bongiwe Luthi was at work when her neighbours phoned her to say she was being evicted. Luthi instructed her neighbours to show the movers she had proof that she was legally occupying the house.

When the Cape Argus at-tempted to intervene after seeing papers that showed Luthi was a legal dweller, movers continued to load the truck and drove away.

'I had R1 000 under my mattress'

"I had R1 000 under my mattress and I am not sure if I will get it back. My children are crying here and I don't know what to do," said Luthi.

Down the road, Cingiswa Pele and her neighbour Noma-themba Ngcengane acted quickly when the sheriff of the court told them they would soon be evicted.

The pair rushed to the Thubelisha offices with their proof of identification to rectify the bungle and the movers were apparently called off.

Thubelisha's Prince Xhanti Sigcawu, who said he had been informed of the bungle, added that he was not sure when Luthi's possessions would be returned.

Prince Xhanti said the sheriff of the court had not received instructions from his office to remove residents.

'My children are crying'

"When people started being evicted, we did not expect that this would happen and we have informed the police and the sheriff.

"It was a mistake on their part," he said.

Friday's action took place after mass evictions - and incidents of violence that left at least eight people injured on Tuesday - after illegal dwellers lost a court bid to remain in the homes they had moved into in December.

A heavy police contingent continued to patrol the area and oversaw movers completing the eviction process while a helicopter hovered over the area.

An SPCA vehicle also roamed the area and, according to the SPCA's Andries Venter, the association had an agreement with some residents to remove their animals for safe-keeping and return them once owners had found permanent housing.

Makeshift tents were erect-ed on the pavements directly opposite the N2 Gateway's Section 1 yesterday where some residents had spent the past two nights.

Jennifer Meyer and her companion collected an assortment of old doors to shelter her sparse belongings. She had no plan as to where she would stay.

"My plan is to stay here on this very spot. I go to the bush when I want to use the toilet, I have no choice," she said.

By last night, dozens of informal structures had sprouted along Symphony Way in Section 1 and on an open field across from Section 2.

Despite mounting tensions in Delft ever since the evictions, the overall mood in the informal camps was calm last night.

Most police had vacated the area and only patrolled every half and hour or so.

Residents had been offered temporary accommodation in nearby Tsunami until a suitable piece of land could be found.

But many residents said they refused to take up the offer, fearing they would be "left and forgotten" in Tsunami for years.

Other residents said they had refused to allow their children to go to school because they were filthy.

"We don't have much here - only some blankets, no running water.

"But we are like a family here and everyone knows we will not leave here until we get houses in Delft," said Ursula Ferguson.

Several volunteers and NGOs fed the evicted breakfast and lunch at the N2 Gateway yesterday. - Cape Argus

Delft people in need of food, water, sanitation

A spokesperson for about 1 800 people evicted from unfinished homes in Delft, on Thursday appealed for water and food for the group, now living on a site adjacent to the land.

"It's like a state of emergency," said Ashraf Cassim, a spokesperson for the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign.

"It's a sad affair, but people are strong. People are losing their jobs, children are not going to school, and people don't have anywhere to pass urine or stools," he said.

The group had occupied homes being constructed for the N2 Gateway project for two and a half months on the grounds that the process to allocate houses was unfair, with people who had not been on the waiting list for long, getting preference over people who had waited for about 12 years, Cassim said.

On Monday the Cape High Court ruled that their occupation was illegal and that they should be evicted.

They are planning an appeal, but, said Cassim, they do not have the money for the legal costs to lodge the application.

The group is primarily composed of backyard dwellers and "people who have been sleeping on steps", he explained.

"We are trying to reach out to people to support us with food and water. An Islamic relief organisation is helping us and we are trying to raise funds for the (Supreme Court of Appeal)," he said.

A housing department official was not immediately available to comment on plans to assist the group, but an earlier statement said that the City of Cape Town should take responsibility "following the arrest of one of its councillors for inciting the invasion".

Meanwhile, developers would meet later on Thursday to "plot the way forward".

A quantity surveyor would assess damage caused to the homes and determine the amount of a civil claim to be lodged against Democratic Alliance councillor Frank Martin.

The DA could not immediately comment on this.

The construction site would be fenced off and police and security companies were keeping a "watching brief" at the site.

The number for the relief organisation working with the group is 021-699-0375.

- Sapa

SAHRC to probe rights abuse in Delft eviction

The SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) will visit Delft on Thursday to investigate whether the rights of people evicted from the N2 Gateway houses they invaded had been violated.

Leaders of the Adam Kok V Royal House lodged a complaint with the SAHRC on Thursday after hundreds of people, including children and the disabled, slept in the open and later sat in searing heat following Tuesday's eviction.

"In essence, the complaint is that not much or nothing was done in terms of the Emergency Housing Act. Concerns were raised that children were out on the street and people were left destitute, with no access to water and proper nutrition, and worried about their safety,"SAHRC spokesperson Vincent Moaga said.

"The commission will conduct its own investigation to establish the facts. After this we will have an idea if there is a violation of human rights case. The complaint will go through the relevant processes, including contacting the local authorities who are respondents in this matter."

Adam Kok V Royal House leader Nico Nel said their concerns stemmed from what happened in Delft before, during and after the eviction.

"It is about the allocation of N2 Gateway houses in Delft. The 70/30 split between squatters, mainly African people from Joe Slovo, and backyard dwellers, mainly coloured people, is pitting amaXhosa and the coloured Khoi people against each other.

"Both were oppressed by colonialists and previous regimes. We've also asked the commission to investigate the use of force by the state when they evicted people.

"We believe that the rights of people, particularly children and the elderly, were violated," Nel said.

Meanwhile, three NGOs provided meals to those left homeless. Police patrolled the area, security guards kept watch at vacated houses and an animal welfare van arrived to pick up abandoned pets.

Symphony Way was blocked off because people erected shelters on the pavements.

"I had to sit and sleep in the cold last night and now the sun is beating down on me. This is terrible. I'm not that young anymore and pray to God to relieve me and them of this pain," said 61-year-old wheelchair-bound Maria Davids as she watched children playing on nearby dunes.

There were a few rare minutes of joy when a bakkie loaded with plums stopped and the driver allowed people to help themselves to the fruit.

Anti-Eviction Campaign leader Ashraf Cassiem said: "The night was peaceful. They will stay here until alternative accommodation is found."

DA ward councillor Frank Martin said council officials had started preparations to clear a piece of city land in Delft, but said that it would take a few days to install basic services such as water. - Cape Times

City must 'close the file' on ANC's R12m loss

The City of Cape Town does not have enough information to take "disciplinary or recovery measures" against any of the officials "potentially liable" for the controversial R12-million contract awarded to Cyberia Technologies by the former ANC-led city administration for the first phase of the N2 Gateway project.

And the city's forensic services has been advised by senior legal counsel to "close its file" on the matter, pending further action by the Auditor-General.

But DA councillor Neil Ross, who heads the city's housing portfolio committee, rejected this recommendation at Wednesday's mayoral committee meeting.

"I don't believe this matter should be left with the Auditor-General. A lot of money was misused.

"We need to look at procedures so that this does not happen again.

"Sloppy contracts were used to appoint Cyberia."

Soon after the DA came into power in 2006, the city called for an urgent forensic audit of the contract, initially awarded to a Johannesburg-based company for R5-million.

Despite being one of the more expensive bidders, Cyberia was awarded the contract to act as project manager for the N2 Gateway Project.

The R5-million contract was extended by a further R3-million by former chief financial officer Rusj Lehutso in 2005.

Former city manager Wallace Mgoqi then approved a payment of a further R4-million into the project after saying that the "normal requirements of calling for tenders be dispensed with" so that Cyberia's contract could be extended.

Ross said on Wednesday that Cyberia had failed to deliver and was eventually fired, after legal opinion.

The city, however, still paid R12-million to the company for work that was never done.

In a report submitted to the mayoral committee, advocate Ashley Binns-Ward, SC, said that as the N2 Gateway was a project of the national and provincial housing departments with the city as the implementing agent, the Cyberia contract should be subject to a special audit.

He said the Auditor-General, with jurisdictional powers spanning all three tiers of government, was "best placed to conduct this investigation".

Although mayoral committee chairperson Ian Neilson wanted the item to be discussed after the meeting, Ross insisted the committee note the pitfalls of irregular procedures and "sloppy" contracts.

Mayor Helen Zille said the "big loophole" in this and other irregular contracts was national and provincial political interference in local government procedures.

"What worries me is how politicians drive things (for their own interests) and the officials are left to carry the can.

"The core problem is that the politicians don't give a damn about procedures."

She said this was happening in other municipalities "ruled by another political party".

Zille said systems (such as procurement processes) needed to be tightened to protect officials from political abuse. - Cape Times

Delft still under heavy police guard - Budget this!

Several families spent the night outside

A large number of police and security guards from a private company are still keeping a watchful eye on Delft on the Cape Flats. This follows yesterday's eviction of hundreds of people who had illegally occupied unfinished houses in December. The units form part of the N2 Gateway Housing project.

Amid scenes of violence, teams working for a private company moved the possessions of many of the occupiers to a storage facility in Blackheath yesterday. However, scores of families refused to budge, spending the night outside along the Symphony road, which has since been closed to traffic.

On Monday the Cape High Court turned down their appeal against their removal from unfinished homes in the area and yesterday the eviction process began, amid clashes with police.

At this stage the situation in Delft is tense but stable. There are fears that the evicted people might try to re-occupy the housing units. - SABC

Delft is 'volatile and explosive'

Police have seized six petrol bombs during violent confrontations with backyarders facing eviction in Delft, arrested three people, and injured seven, including a schoolboy.

They were bracing for a second night of resistance.

Women young and old wept and men hurled abuse at security guards and police as possessions were removed from the N2 Gateway houses in Delft that had been illegally occupied since December.

'while we are poor we are not stupid, while we are poor we can still think'

As tension mounted throughout the day, there were fears that there might be more trouble.

After dark, hundreds of evictees were milling around on the streets, some in groups, and eyeing the police, security guards and removal workers.

All the while, the police kept up patrols.

A group of clergymen arrived to offer pastoral support and to cool tempers.

"The situation is volatile and explosive," said Wilfred Meyer, Anglican archdeacon for Blue Downs.

'I beg you, please, do something'

"We don't want to say who is right and who is wrong, but we are here to connect with people and to try to play a mediating role between them and police. This is an awkward situation."

On Tuesday night Anti Eviction Campaign leaders met about 400 evictees in a field to discuss plans for the night.

Campaign member Ashraf Cassiem said it seemed people would have to sleep in the open and a number of non-government organisations undertook to provide tents and food on Wednesday morning. People were asked to record the number of children, women, elderly and the disabled who would be spending the night out in the open.

Cassiem said the Anti Eviction Campaign had decided against returning to court to seek leave to appeal to stop the eviction as there was not enough money for costs.

"We expected (the eviction) when we moved here," he said.

"The people who evicted us are the ones who have the money and the ones who have the final say that's even in the court of law."

"I apologise on behalf of the Anti Eviction Campaign for not being able to stop this eviction legally, but remember, while we are poor we are not stupid, while we are poor we can still think.

"These houses were built for us, for our elderly who waited 23 years for a house but now have to sit on the side of the road. These houses have not been built for other people and whoever comes to live in these houses will have nightmares."

Throughout the day there were tense and sporadic stand-offs between police and occupiers of the homes as teams working for a private company cleared houses and loaded household items onto trucks.

Incensed people complained about losing their possessions, later taken to a storage facility in Blackheath. Children looked lost and confused and pets were abandoned in the chaos as a crowd gathered in protest.

A crowd of youths stoned a truck passing through and wanted to set its tyres alight, but adults stopped them.

"Please, please help me," said Megan Foure, clutching her year-old baby and overcome with emotion. "They have taken my things and I have nowhere to go. The government don't feel anything for us. I beg you, please, do something."

On a pavement, distraught pensioners Jacob and Maria Booi spoke of their anguish at being left without a roof over their heads.

"I never thought that in my lifetime I would see people handled in such an inhumane way," Mr Booi said. "To be treated like this in our old age is sad. Our lives are almost finished, but God will take care of this."

At one stage police lobbed stun grenades and opened fire with rubber bullets when a number of people tried to prevent goods from being loaded on to a truck. Later a group of policemen took into custody a man they had chased through backyards.

Police spokesperson Andre Traut said: "Police have fired rubber bullets and threw some stun grenades to stop the crowd from injuring the staff of the sheriff of the court. We've arrested a 26-year-old man for possession of petrol bombs and two others for public violence. Our duty is not to evict people, but to ensure that law and order is maintained while the sheriff of the court carries out the eviction."

By Tuesday night hundreds of families had moved their things on to a nearby open field while others still waited for transport to collect theirs.

The eviction appeared well planned as it was done in stages and street by street. It started at Section 1 - the northern side of Delft and later moved to south Section 2. Eviction teams wasted no time removing makeshift windows and doors.

Meanwhile, the ANC "fully supports" the evictions. Said spokesperson Garth Strachan: "The ANC notes Judge Deon van Zyl's ruling that no matter how flawed the housing allocation process was, this cannot be used as a reason to break the law."

He said that there would be anarchy if this was allowed. "The ANC empathises with the plight of homeless people. But communities should remain vigilant and not allow themselves to be used by those with hidden and mischievous agendas."

The situation in Delft was also raised in Parliament on Tuesday, with the ANC targeting the DA and accusing it of sowing racial tensions, the Political Bureau reports.

ANC MP Zo Kota accused the party of trying to "score cheap political points" by encouraging ordinary people to break the law.

She was apparently referring to DA ward councillor Frank Martin. He has been charged with inciting the invasion and is under investigation by the city council for his alleged role in the illegal occupation of the N2 Gateway homes.

She also urged Cape Town Mayor Helen Zille to "show leadership" by urgently acting on the matter.

Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu echoed Kota, telling MPs it was "an absolute disgrace that the DA should sink so low in its desperate bid to rally support".

"I must commend the people who have been moved from Langa and are presently living in temporary shelter."

"I commend them for their restraint and understanding, in the face of this violation."

Sisulu thanked backyard dwellers in Delft who had not responded to "the irresponsible calls from the DA councillor".

"The houses will now be rectified and the intended beneficiaries (will) move in."

She, too, urged Zille to deal with "the delinquent DA councillor" and called on the party's MPs not to "stand by a councillor who is blatantly racist".- Cape Times

Police used grenades during violence in Delft

Several people were injured on Tuesday when police fired rubber bullets at crowds resisting eviction from newly built homes at Delft on the Cape Flats.

Western Cape police spokesperson Superintendent Andre Traut said police had to use "some sort of force" when the illegal occupants became violent.

Police and staff of the sheriff of the court carrying out an eviction order were pelted with stones.

The order was made against people illegally occupying houses, meant for residents of an informal settlement which is being cleared to make way for the Gateway housing project.

'We must find a way of defending the poor'

"The [people] prevented the sheriff of the court personnel from executing the eviction order and on those grounds the police were necessitated to act," said Traut.

A "small number" of rubber bullets and stun grenades were used.

He had a preliminary tally of seven people with minor injuries as a result of the shooting, all of whom were treated on the scene by emergency services personnel.

On Tuesday evening, Traut said, everything was quiet in the area.

"There are no reports of any violence."

'It is a project that should be nurtured and guarded'

He said a group of about 300 people remained in the area and that police were keeping an eye on the situation.

Traut said the police were not involved in the actual evictions, and were on the scene only to maintain law and order.

Anti-Privatisation Forum spokesperson Patra Sindane said 22 people had been left seriously injured after clashes with police.

Sindane also said teargas had been used, something the police deny.

He said police opened fire without engaging in talks. "Three people who got shot were trying to negotiate with police."

Sindane said most people were eventually evicted.

Some had managed to stay in their homes because the violence meant police had not had a chance to go further into the community.

"Obviously most of [those evicted] will spend the night on the street. There is no alternative place for them to go."

He said some meetings were being organised for Wednesday to allow people to regroup and find a way to deal with the situation.

"We can't just let this thing go. We must find a way of defending the poor. Every time they are always voiceless."

Sindane said Delft evictees hoped to use the courts as a tool in their struggle.

On Monday afternoon, a Cape High Court judge rejected an application by the occupants for leave to appeal against the eviction order.

The evictees still planned to appeal their case at the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein.

"Though we know that justice tends to be on the side of the authorities, sometimes we use institutions as a tool... Anything can happen. We are the law-abiding citizens of this country," Sindane said.

On Tuesday, the department of housing said the N2 Gateway needed to be protected from "anarchy".

Director general Itumeleng Kotsoane said the "rule of law must prevail" in relation to the situation at Delft.

"The houses must be returned to the building contractors for repair and completion, and allocated according to the equitable allocation policy agreed to by the three spheres of government at the commencement of the N2 Gateway Pilot Project."

Kotsoane said the government's N2 Gateway housing project to provide accommodation for poorer South Africans was built on a pioneering housing policy.

"It is a project that should be nurtured and guarded by all South Africans," he said. - Sapa

'I will die here'

There were tears, threats of violence and volleys of verbal abuse in Delft from dawn today as evictions got under way after illegal occupants of the N2 Gateway houses were refused leave to appeal against their eviction in the High Court on Monday.

After a night of discontent among residents who threatened to resist the move, a large eviction team moved in from 5am on Tuesday to carry out the court order to evict up to 1 600 people.

They were backed by a strong police presence, including Nyalas carrying massive trailers of barbed wire in the event of the need for crowd control.

'I will die here'

By 6.30am a vast army of security staff roamed the streets.

As each house was cleared by the eviction team, makeshift wooden boards that were used as panes were knocked out of the windows and a guard was posted outside each empty house to prevent people from returning.

Mothers carrying babies wept openly while they struggled to drag their possessions away from their homes, then put them in piles across the sandy street.

At the time of going to press, a large crowd had gathered at one of the suburb's main intersections and police began setting up a barricade and donning their riot gear.

Residents tried to set alight tyres in the street as more police continued to arrive.

By 9am, cars piled high with mattresses, covers and goods were leaving the evicted zone

Outside the homes, violence threatened to erupt as residents hurled abuse at policemen this morning, threatening to kill anyone who moved into the homes from which they were being evicted.

"I will die here," screamed Megan Fourie.

The woman and her toddler, Jordan-Lee, sat in a hole she had dug in the ground in front of her doorway.

"If we were black they would have let us stay. They may as well bury me here."

The Cape Argus witnessed dozens of residents screaming racially abusive epithets at "people from the Transkei" who they said would be moved in.

The Anti-Eviction Campaign's Mncedisi Twalo said the occupants were due to meet to discuss a way forward.

"Obviously we are so upset. We had hoped that the judge would consider the history of the housing backlog," he said.

The evictions took place over several square kilometres of the N2 Gateway project in Delft.

Hundreds of backyard dwellers from Delft, Belhar, Elsies River and Bonteheuwel, who said they had been waiting for promised housing for several years, moved into the unfinished houses in the N2 Gateway project exactly two months ago.

The houses were reserved for Joe Slovo residents who had lost their informal homes in a Langa fire two years ago.

Despite having been home to the thousands of illegal dwellers for the past two months, the area is filthy with rubbish, construction material and general waste lying in heaps around the streets.

Some of the houses have been vandalised; but others have been beautified with paintings on the walls by their temporary residents.

On Tuesday morning some of those being evicted waited for transport. The transport had been organised by themselves and trucks had also been arranged to take their belongings to a depot in Blackheath, from where they would be able to collect them.

By 9am, cars piled high with mattresses, covers and goods were leaving the evicted zone while other residents chose to stay put.

"I don't know where we are going," said William West. "We used to live in a backyard, but they don't want us there anymore."

"What rights do the brown people have," asked neighbour Elwin Smit.

Instructing attorney for the dwellers William Booth said this morning that they were considering to appeal against the High Court decision in the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein, but that he was still waiting for specific instruction from his clients.

"There has been talk of taking the appeal route," he said.

This follows Cape High Court Judge Deon van Zyl order that the Delft eviction of illegal occupants at the N2 Gateway goahead as planned.

On Monday Judge Van Zyl was responding to a leave to appeal an application brought by some 1 600 people who moved into incomplete Delft houses in December.

The judge said there were no merits for the application and that no other court would reach another conclusion.

When news that the application had been declined reached Delft, some residents vented their anger by burning tyres and blocking off a road in the development.

They said they had been informed that the evictions would be carried out before noon today.

"Where do we go from here? There are poor, sick and elderly people who have nowhere else to go," said occupant Shamiela Isaacs, who has been on the housing waiting list for 16 years.

"It's very heartbreaking because we can't go back where we came from. I even made myself garden thinking they would consider letting us stay."

At about 6pm, while some residents held a peaceful meeting, a handful of others blocked off a road by laying two long wooden logs and bricks across it and setting tyres alight.

Police arrived once the fire had been put out. But security guards, armed with batons and protected with shields and helmets, were deployed to patrol the streets in case of another demonstration.

This morning sources close to the housing department said the department would repair the houses before moving in the rightful owners. - Cape Argus

Police open fire in Delft

Police have opened fire on people resisting eviction from newly built homes at Delft on the Cape Flats, activists said on Tuesday morning.

The Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign said shortly before 11am that there was "pandemonium" at the scene, and that 20 people were injured in the shooting.

Police spokesperson Superintendent Andre Traut said police had been obliged to use "some sort of force" after the illegal occupants of the houses became violent and threw stones at police and personnel of the sheriff of the court.

"They prevented the sheriff of the court personnel from executing the eviction order and on those ground the police were necessitated to act," he said.

A "small amount" of rubber bullets and stun grenades were used.

He had a preliminary tally of seven people with minor injuries as a result of the shooting, all of whom were treated on the scene by emergency services personnel.

The campaign said in a statement that private security guards and police moved on site early on Tuesday morning to evict over 1 000 people who illegally occupied the houses, meant for residents of an informal settlement being cleared to make way for the government's flagship Gateway housing project.

This followed a Cape High Court judge's rejection on Monday afternoon of an application by the occupants for leave to appeal against an eviction order.

The campaign said that following the Monday ruling, the residents had decided to approach the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein.

Lawyers had worked through the night doing the paperwork for this.

"All the anti-eviction campaign co-ordinators have advised the police that there is another legal case pending and they have no authority to evict until the legal process is exhausted but they are doing it anyway," the campaign said in a statement.

"This is unlawful.... Mncedisi Twalo of the Gugulethu Anti-Eviction Campaign was making a speech to the people of Delft urging them to sit down on the spot, and the police suddenly opened fire on him and the Delft residents who were directly in front of them.

"Twenty residents have been injured and rushed to hospital, including... three children."

Traut said the police were not involved in the actual evictions, and were on the scene only to maintain law and order. - Sapa

Eviction!

Cape High Court rejects appeal by Delft squatters to stay on in illegally occupied houses

Thubelisha Homes, which manages the N2 Gateway Housing Project outside Cape Town, has welcomed a ruling by the Cape High Court rejecting an appeal by Delft squatters to stay on in illegally occupied houses.

Early this month, Judge Deon van Zyl ordered the occupants to leave by the evening of the 17th of February. Legal representation for the community filed for leave to appeal at the last minute on Friday.

Yesterday, judge van Zyl dismissed the request saying it had no merit. Thubelisha spokesperson Prince Xhanti Sigcawu says it is now up to the court sheriff to execute the court order.

Lawyers representing the dwellers are considering approaching the Supreme Court of Appeal. The illegal residents say they will not leave because they have been waiting for houses for years. - SABC

Heavily armed police and security officials have cordoned off with barbed wire the area in Delft where the eviction of about 1 000 backyard dwellers is set to go ahead on Tuesday, SABC news reported.

The Western Cape's anti-eviction campaign has appealed to Delft residents not to resort to violence.

This follows the dismissal on Monday of backyard dwellers application for leave to appeal an eviction order in the Cape High Court.

More than 1 000 backyard dwellers are illegally occupying housing units which are part of the N2 gateway housing project.

A lawyer for the backyard dwellers William Booth said that they were considering petitioning the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein against the High Court ruling. - Sapa

'I'm not going to move'

Beverley Jacobs sits in an illegally occupied house in Delft. (Ruvan Boshoff, News24)

Housing verdict sparks chaos Dwellers chant outside court Delft evictions halted Eviction for Gateway dwellers Slovo eviction bid dismissed Delft evictions photo essay">Delft evictions photo essay

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Cape Town - After three years of watching government's N2 Gateway housing project going up in Delft, more than 1 000 residents were crushed when told the houses were intended for another community altogether. Feeling they had little choice, these residents decided to illegally occupy the houses last December.

Just on two months later, the Cape High Court granted an eviction order forcing the "home invaders" to vacate the occupied premises.

It will be yet another move for mother-of-three Beverley Jacobs, 39, who has never lived in one place for more than a year.

Angry and disappointed, the community made the anonymous houses their own when Thubelisha Homes, the BEE company hired to build houses all over the country, closed the building site for the December holidays.

And as the housing crisis appears to be seemingly insurmountable, Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu faces growing criticism, court proceedings and one delay after another.

'Top-down approach'

In its 2004-5 report the Development Action Group, an NGO, wrote: "The top-down approach in the N2 project undermines its overall sustainability... The casual, continued and increasing practice of excluding people from decision-making about development processes that directly affect their lives is an obstacle that communities are unlikely to tolerate for much longer."

It was an accurate prediction. The attempt to move thousands of people around and clear away shack dwellings ran into massive problems when none of those people had a say in their movements.

The use of force and lack of consultation invoked memories of the apartheid government's forced removals in the 60s and 70s.

Their dissatisfaction was met with sympathy by DA councillor Frank Martin - people chanted his name as they marched to Thubelisha's offices last Thursday.

In his ruling, Judge Deon Van Zyl slammed the councillor for misleading the community who were "wrongly advised by people who should have known better".

False prophet

Itumeleng Kotsoane, DG of the Department of Housing, had the harshest words, calling Martin (pictured left) a false prophet and a "would-be politician struggling to build a career at the expense of the poor".

Yet, despite facing criminal charges, Martin has gathered a task team of loyal community activists like Beverley around him.

"I am not moving," she announces adamantly. "If they demolish me I will demolish this house."

Further along the N2, Mzwanele Zulu, 33, a Joe Slovo resident has been waiting for eight years for housing.

The shack dwellers of Joe Slovo, in Langa, were expecting subsidised government houses to be built on the site of the settlement.

But government's plans are to relocate, by force if necessary, residents from Joe Slovo informal settlement into the housing project in Delft.

The relocation would effectively disrupt their livelihood, residents believe. Joe Slovo is close to trains and within walking distance to many of its residents' places of work.

The Development Action Group has found that 63% of people who were moved from Joe Slovo to Delft in the past were either fired or retrenched because they were often late or simply did not arrive for work because of lack of transport.

Democracy by the rich

Mzwanele (pictured right), a former security guard who moved to Cape Town from the Eastern Cape in 2000, recalls the forced removals of District 6 when people of colour were forced out of Cape Town's CBD.

"Now under this democracy," he stops and laughs bitterly. "Or this so-called democracy by the rich, people are being chased away again. Are we not supposed to be living near the CBDs? Is it because we are black - perhaps that is the reason why."

Martin Legassick, a history professor at the University of the Western Cape, slammed the "high-handedness of Sisulu" in an article.

He called on her to meet with and listen to Joe Slovo residents as well as Delft residents. "Then it will become clear to her that both communities are united in their demands, and that they can suggest answers to their problems."

But Sisulu has stood by her decisions.

She said Thubelisha has been instructed to help the residents move back to their "previous places of accommodation" and to provide them with transport and a temporary advice centre.

Meanwhile, Western Cape local government and housing minister, Richard Dyantyi, said he would announce alternative arrangements for people needing accommodation.

But the people of Delft insist on staying. "Whatever is going to happen I'm not going to move," says Beverley. "I have nowhere to go."

Photos by Ruvan Boshoff - NEWS24

Go-slow causes a stink from uncollected trash

The strike action by municipal workers has affected a number of city areas in recent weeks with reports of refuse not being collected for days on end.

About 50 residential areas, including large parts of Mitchell's Plain, Strandfontein, Bellville and surrounds, Durbanville, Wynberg, Diep River, Plumstead and Parkwood, have been affected by the South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) action.

And a number of city residents have called the Cape Argus to vent their frustration at not having their rubbish collected on time.

'This is a disruption tactic, but we are going to compel them to work'

Evan Ravens, 64, of Wynberg, said 15 wheelie bins in Cheddar Road, where he lives, had not been collected for two weeks.

"This is a potential health and fire hazard. Kids and beggars could knock the bins over and this could block our drains.

To top it all, we have a take-away around the corner and they can't make food with this filth outside. And the butcher, they throw ofal (off-cuts) away, this is disgusting," he said.

Another resident, Wilfred Dick, 48, who lives in Diep River, said rubbish in Jenkins Road had not been collected for five days.

"Dirt is lying all over the show, in my yard, the pool, it is terrible. And the stench, I could smell it in the lounge," he said.

'We are mobilising other units and are pulling out all the stops'

But a statement by the city on Friday said: "While most of the suburbs in the city have not been affected, the solid waste department is steadily reducing the backlog of refuse removal being experienced in some areas as a result of the Samwu strike."

About 1 000 Samwu members marched to the Civic Centre at the end of January to hand over a memorandum of their grievances which were centred on the restructuring processes.

But what started as a peaceful march through the city centre ended in a battle between workers, who turned over rubbish bins, and the police, who retaliated by firing rubber bullets.

Director for the city's solid waste management department, Rustim Keraan, said solid waste removal was not an essential service but if rubbish had not been collected for two weeks it was regarded as a crisis.

"The 14th day was on January 10 already and I can't say when refuse removal will be back to normal," he said.

Keraan said unions had engaged in a "work to rule" approach and refused to work over-time.

"This is a disruption tactic, but we are going to compel them (municipal workers) to work," he said.

Residents in affected areas have been advised to leave their wheelie bins and excess waste on the pavement for collection.

Keraan said the department's intention was to sort out the issue by early this week but it could take another week to normalise the situation.

"We are mobilising other units and are pulling out all the stops," he added. - Cape Argus