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.
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.
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
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' |
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 |
"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
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