Makhaza residents take to the streets over toilets

Several Makhaza residents believe their basic rights have been violated with the temporary removal of open-air toilets.

Metro police officials broken down about 65 un-enclosed toilet structures on Monday morning - a move that angered the Khayelitsha.

A group of about 500 people took to the streets in protest to voice their dissatisfaction.

Last week, ANC Youth League members trashed the toilets after the City of Cape Town attempted to erect enclosures around them.

Andiswa Ngabi said the fact that their toilets have been taken away is something that makes the community unhappy.

“We are not happy. We are complaining about toilets without covers. Now, instead of doing what we want, they just take off the toilets. We’re feeling that government destroyed us.”

Another resident from the area said the destruction of the toilets was not the only issue angering them.

“There is a lack of service delivery; electricity, toilets, water,” said Nobulumko Cabe.

But Cape Town Mayor Dan Plato believes the toilet debacle is a political ploy motivated by the youth league.

“In this instance I cannot understand why the broader community [and] their leadership can’t bring the ANC Youth League to book.”

But ANCYL spokesperson Chumile Sali believes the city could have done a better job of informing the residents about their plan to take down the toilets.

“We are convinced that what happened today is a result of a failure to act when you lodge a complaint against the city council. And also the city council, which is led by the racist DA, is undermining the dignity of people living in Makhaza.”

- Eyewitness News

Khayelitsha protests toilet destruction

Khayelitsha residents responded to the mayor's call to burn tyres to protest against the removal of 65 toilets in the Makhaza settlement by doing so.

Khayelitsha police spokeswoman Anneke van der Vyver said the protest happened in the Walter Sisulu area.

"There were about 200 people who were protesting," she said.

"They burned tyres, but police moved in and extinguished the fires and dispersed the crowd.

"No incidents of violence were reported."

Van der Vyver said councillors and MECs spoke to residents, after which "everything was calmed".

Cape Town mayor Dan Plato earlier said the unenclosed toilets were removed on Monday morning after their enclosures were destroyed by ANC Youth League members and some community members last week.

Plato said the toilets would be replaced once residents had built enclosures themselves.

He called on Makhaza residents to burn tyres and protest against ANCYL "hooligans" and "thugs" who had destroyed the toilet enclosures.

"I want to throw it back at the community... that you need to tell those rude hooligans, those thugs, that you must march and burn tyres against those hooligans," Plato said at a media conference.

"What is happening now is that the Youth League is taking decisions on the part of the community without the community having any say in it.

"Given that the city has been prevented from building the remaining enclosures, we have resolved to temporarily remove the toilets until appropriate enclosures have been built.

"We are willing to go back and reinstall the toilets as soon as the community reaches an agreement with the Youth League."

- SAPA - Times Live

Residents use road signs to build shacks

With high unemployment, shacks like these have become a sign of the times.

So don't be surprised when the next time you're driving across the Flats you get lost because of missing road signs.

The Daily Voice spotted a shack made of a detour sign in Brown's Farm, Philippi, on Friday afternoon.

The 46-year-old owner of the shack, who was still busy building his home after the previous one flooded, says he found the sign on his way to look for work.

"I don't have money to buy good material and this keeps the rain out," he says.

"I came across this board and picked it up to build my shack."

A few metres from his shack another road sign was spotted - this time masquerading as a garage door.

A 42-year-old woman, who wanted to remain anonymous, says there are a lot of similar homes in the area.

"Yes, it's dangerous for motorists but unemployment has reduced people to commit all sorts of crimes," she says.

"Imagine tourists for the World Cup coming to a country with no road signs."

Ward councillor for the area, Bongani Mini, warned that stealing government material is a punishable offence.

"Offenders can be charged for theft," he says.

- Daily Voice

Makhaza residents protest over toilets

Police fired rubber bullets at protesting Makhaza residents in Khayelitsha after they burned barricades because City of Cape Town workers destroyed temporary structures around toilets in the area.

On Monday morning residents from Zone 14 in Makhaza and the Nkanini settlement of Makhaza burnt tyres.

They marched towards Baden Powell Drive where the city workers were dismantling the toilets.

The group then turned around and marched back to the area where they burnt rubbish and tyres in the streets as city authorities stood around the toilets.

By noon, a heavy police presence monitored Makhaza, although most of the protesters had dispersed.

This breaking news flash was supplied exclusively to iol.co.za by the news desk at our sister title, the Cape Argus.

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Plato: protest against ANCYL 'thugs'

Cape Town mayor Dan Plato has called on Makhaza residents in Khayelitsha to burn tyres and protest against the ANCYL for destroying toilet enclosures last week.

"I want to throw it back at the community... that you need to tell those rude hooligans, those thugs, that you must march and burn tyres against those hooligans," Plato said at a press conference at his offices in Cape Town.

"What is happening now is that the Youth League is taking decisions on the part of the community without the community having any say in it."

Plato said the unenclosed toilets in Makhaza were removed on Monday morning. They would be replaced once residents had built enclosures themselves.

"We are willing to go back and reinstall the toilets as soon the community reaches an agreement with the Youth League."

Plato said charges were laid against the ANCYL last week for destruction of city property.

"We are also looking at the Youth League's call to make the City of Cape Town ungovernable, and so we are looking at a charge of inciting violence."

He said the case was with detectives. "The detectives and officials have it in hand."

Plato said the ANC's criticism of its youth body was "too little, too late".

"The ANC leadership did not respond immediately to the actions of their cadres. It is a week too late. Their actions were not enough. The damage has been done."

Plato said the city had reached an agreement with residents and the ANCYL that it would install the toilets once the enclosures had been built. This had been done in other parts of Khayelitsha with great success.

"In 2007, the city negotiated an agreement that residents would contribute to the project by building enclosures around the toilets themselves," Plato said.

Of the 1 316 toilets provided in terms of this agreement, 1 265 were properly enclosed by residents. The remaining 51 were not.

"Given that the city has been prevented from building the remaining enclosures, we have resolved to temporarily remove the toilets until appropriate enclosures have been built."

Plato said the city had to remove 65 toilets on Monday morning. He said this was because some of the residents in Makhaza had sided with the ANCYL and broke down more enclosures.

- Sapa

Controversial toilets removed

Western Cape Premier Helen Zille on Monday said they were temporarily removing the toilets that were damaged by ANC Youth League members in Khayelitsha last week, Eye Witness News reports.

This comes after hundreds of Khayelitsha residents protested against the corrugated iron structures.

Zille said the move was only temporary.

"Unfortunately we cannot continue with the indignity of open air toilets so we must remove them. But that is temporary until the enclosures are built and then we will return the toilets," she told Eye Witness News.

Meanwhile, the youth league's Chumile Sali said they did not understand why the toilets were being removed.

"Police arrived and are removing all the toilets meaning people will be left with no toilets from today," Sali said.

In the wake of landslide losses in two by-elections, the SACP has blamed racist statements by the youth league for the ANC's defeat, while the party's provincial task team head, Membathisi Mdladlana, rebuked the league for its members' "ill discipline" in the fiasco over open toilets.

"It's important that we support the (Western Cape) youth league's campaign against open toilets, but (action) should be highly disciplined," Mdladlana said.

- IOL

R100m housing fiasco - Only four houses make the grade

More than R100-million has been spent on two massive housing projects in North West - but there are only four low-cost government homes to show for the money.

'300 of 470 houses are uninhabitable . the contractor was erroneously overpaid by R27m'

On the outskirts of Vryburg, near the Northern Cape border, the provincial government spent more than R86-million on building 470 houses, but only four have been satisfactorily completed.

Three hundred of the houses are uninhabitable - their foundations and walls do not conform to specifications and building standards.

The remaining 166 houses are being checked.

Vryburg's town manager, George Mthimunye - sent to administer the town in July by Co-operative Governance Minister Sicelo Shiceka and North West human settlements MEC Desbo Mohono - has ordered that the defects be corrected.

Vryburg municipality is now partially administered by the provincial government

About 300km away in Meriting extensions 3 and 4, in Rustenburg, the government spent more than R28-million on 1930 low-cost houses. But they were so shoddily built that they will have to be demolished.

Mthimunye said: "The foundations [of the Vryburg houses] are faulty, some of them are half-built and some are built up to roof level. But most, if not all, have defects according to a report I got from our building inspector."

Mthimunye said Khasu Engineering, which was contracted to deliver 3000 houses by the end of July, is taking the municipality to court, claiming that R4.7-million is owed to it.

This, Mthimunye said, is despite the fact that he discovered that Khasu was "erroneously overpaid" by R27-million.

He said he had given the company an ultimatum to fix the 300 houses by December 15, but Khasu had refused.

"They say they will only correct the [defective] houses at the end of the project," he said.

This, Mthimunye said, was unlikely to happen as Khasu had not been on site since October, claiming there was no money left to continue with the project.

"It's a major headache for me. I will terminate the contract and get a new company, and see how many houses we can get from the remaining money.

"We will have to look for another contractor, which will demand more money. We are starting the project afresh, two years down the line," Mthimunye said.

A government house costs R55000 to build, according to the department of human settlements website.

Mthimunye said the contract with Khasu was flawed from the start because it was not put out to tender. It was awarded in 2007.

The company was awarded the contract by the former municipal administration, which allegedly flouted procurement procedures.

As a result, Mthimunye said, he asked the National Prosecuting Authority's special investigation unit to investigate.

But the Vryburg municipality's council is far from delighted that the investigation has begun.

"There is no support. In fact, I am a problem to the council itself. Last week, they took a resolution that we must pay [Khasu the R4.7-million it claims]. They said if I don't pay, I will be in defiance and I will be charged," he said.

At least one councillor has threatened to charge Mthimunye with insubordination if he does not pay Khasu speedily.

"I told her to do as she pleases because I won't pay."

When The Times approached Khasu general manager Christo van Niekerk, he refused to comment, saying the case was sub judice.

Meanwhile, in Rustenburg, "not a single house has been completed" by another housing contractor.

"Something went terribly wrong. Along the way the [Rustenburg] municipality realised that the work was not of good quality. They were stopped, and the contractor took them to court," said Mohono, who was not able to identify the contractor.

"All the 1930 structures and the foundations will have to be destroyed. We have huge problems with almost all housing projects. The municipality must try to recoup the money."

Henry Hartley, a DA councillor in Rustenburg, said the builder had been paid about R28-million of the R45-million contract for 1950 low-cost homes.

"It is unsafe for any human being to occupy those houses, whether completed or not.

"We will now need about R71-million to rectify all the houses. The whole thing will have to be redone," he said.

Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale last year said that it would cost R1.3-billion to rebuild houses that had been poorly built.

About 3000 of such houses were in North West and Eastern Cape.

- Times Live

BoP - Base of the Pyramid (Southern Africa) - Learning Lab

The BoP Learning Lab:

There is a worldwide shift in corporate attention towards the challenges of unemployment and poverty at the base of the socio-economic pyramid, and businesses in South Africa are stepping up their efforts to understand the needs of the market at the base of the pyramid and integrate the lower income segments into their value chains...

ANCYL threatens further toilet protests

"Violent" protests over the great toilet debacle are being threatened by Cape members of the ANC Youth League and other Khayelitsha residents.

League members from Makhaza in Khayelitsha, and other community members last week destroyed the corrugated iron toilets the City of Cape Town erected. Some residents, supported by rowdy members of the league, demanded concrete units instead.

Chumile Sali, deputy secretary general of the league in the Dullah Omar region, said the march was "going to be violent. It is going to be bad. We'll have 3,000 members of the youth league, community members and members of the SA National Civics Organisation".

Sali said they had met Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor, whose constituency office is in Khayelitsha, who promised to speak to President Jacob Zuma on their behalf. Sali added: "But you can't expect anything from them (the government) because they tell us that it is a recession, yet their salaries are increasing."

Andile Lile, treasurer of the league in the Dullah Omar region and chairman of the 95 Ward Development Forum, said the league had been misrepresented in last week's row. "This is not a political thing and they are trying to make it political by blaming the ANCYL for destroying the corrugated structures."

Lile said league members who had torn down the toilets only did so at their own houses.

The issue is that in 2008 the city offered a choice to shack dwellers in the area: the city would provide one toilet, enclosed by concrete panels, for every five families, or one toilet for each family, provided the families enclosed the toilets themselves.

Most people opted for one loo per family, and 1 300 families did enclose their toilets. However, around 50 did not, covering themselves with blankets for privacy instead.

Lile said people with enclosed toilets had paid for it themselves. Concrete enclosures cost R840, and if people did not have the money they had to go without.

Brothers Mlungisi and Zolani Maseko, who live in Makhaza, said that they did not want the corrugated iron structure, and preferred to use one of the council's concrete-enclosed public toilets behind their house.

Zolani said while he did not want to share a toilet "with 10 other people", he had taken down the corrugated iron shelter at his house because he wanted a house with a proper toilet.

Lile said the people of the Ward 95 Development Forum had rejected the corrugated iron structures earlier this year. "We launched an application with the Human Rights Commission and the people destroyed the corrugated iron structures then, so why would they be happy with them now?"

Ntombentsha Beja, 76, said she wanted her own enclosed loo. She had been stabbed while walking from the public toilet that she has to share with five other families.

But the Makhaza incident is not the first collaborative effort between a municipality and residents. Gagu Tugwana, a spokesman from the City of Joburg, said they have been having problems with housing which has lead to strikes.

"We now approach the situation of moving squatters in collaboration with the residents. We move them row by row and they are not allowed to let anyone jump the queue as it halts the process for everyone."

He said that this approach helped the city to move squatters from an area close to Avalon Cemetery in Soweto to Legae, which is close to Lenasia.

- Cape Argus

Gritty Cape Flats attracts fans - Go Rosalie!!!!

World Cup tourists are turning their noses up at posh city hotels to stay in the shacks of Blikkiesdorp.

The impoverished shack land has already welcomed a number of foreign visitors and now soccer-crazy fans have indicated they also want the gritty Cape Flats experience.

Jane Roberts, 53, has opened her shack for free to anyone who wishes to get a feel of the area dubbed Cape Town's dumping ground - her only rule is that visitors must bring their own food.

Netherlands student Rosalie de Bruijn is her current guest and the 22-year-old says she read about Blikkiesdorp on the Internet last year.

"I saw the articles about the Temporary Relocation Area and wanted to come stay for a while," she explains.

"Then two weeks ago, I got an opportunity to visit Cape Town and met Auntie Jane who said I could come and stay in her shack."

Rosalie says the pictures she saw in her comfortable home in Holland don't do justice to the horrible reality of Blikkiesdorp.

"It's inhumane how people are brought to such a place but I see some are comfortable living here because they didn't have any form of roof over their heads before relocating here," she says.
Struggle

The Urban Studies student says she has had to adjust from the comfortable life she has back in the Netherlands to the pace of Blikkiesdorp where everything from fetching water and going to the toilet is a struggle.

Rosalie tells the Daily Voice washing in a plastic bucket is the most difficult challenge.

"I have to boil the water then put the basin on the floor, then I use a cup to pour water on my hair," she says.

"It's difficult but it's an experience that I got to enjoy as I got used to it.

"But sharing a toilet with three other families is not right. I have to think twice before I go... I don't go at night."

The Dutch woman says she has also had a taste of Flats food.
"I've eaten a gatsby, curry, hot chips and also braai," she says.

"I am also learning to cook the food."

Rosalie has spent the past week visiting a Blikkiesdorp creche and helped look after the toddlers.

"I even prepared lunch for them," she says.

Jane, who lives alone, enjoys having Rosalie in her tiny tin shack home.

"We talk all night and we do things together," says Jane.

"She watches while I prepare food for us and Rosalie also goes with me when I go help the community with problems."

Jane says she is impressed with Rosalie's down to earth attitude.

"She doesn't act like a Dutch Queen, she even helps with house chores," she says.

Jane says as the World Cup fast approaches, she has been inundated with requests from tourists who want to spend time in her shack.

"Since 2010 kicked in, people email through the Anti-Eviction Campaign and ask if I will let them come and see where we have been dumped," she says.

"It's been a blissful experience to have visitors come to my home.

"I've already had two ladies from England and others from France and Italy."

The busy Delft woman is now expecting 20 foreigners next month.

"I won't have enough space, my friends will have to accommodate them," she says.

Jane is one of the original people evicted from the N2 Gateway houses in 2008.

She then moved to the pavement in Symphony Way for over a year before finally moving to Blikkiesdorp.

"The foreigners love being here with poor people," she says.
Rosalie says the men seem keen to date her.

"I have been asked out by many men," she says.

"A weird request was when a man asked to smell my hair."

- Daily Voice

Crocodile tears for the poor

There is nothing surprising about the living conditions and the standard of education and healthcare endured by the poorest of South Africa's citizens.

Yet hardly a day goes by without one or another senior government official expressing shock and despair at the lives lived by the poor.

Most recently, the alarming statement by the minister of basic education, Angie Motshekga - that problems dating back to last year in crisis-hit schools have not been resolved - added yet another voice to a growing chorus of politicians who have spoken with horror of government's failure to deliver.

Multimillionaire and minister of human settlements Tokyo Sexwale slept over in a shack in Diepsloot and declared the conditions "inhumane".

It took a crisis of tragic proportions to get the Department of Health galvanised into sending a task team to investigate baby deaths.

President Jacob Zuma himself was recently shocked to discover that many South Africans live in appalling conditions. His visit to a shack in Orange Farm almost brought him to tears, and he could not find any words - not even along the lines of an admission of culpability - to explain why people were living "like pigs" after nearly two decades of democracy.

Perhaps the hostile reception that Zuma received from residents of the Siyathemba township in Balfour, where he was heckled, indicates that there is some understanding of, and anger over, his government's inability to change the lot of South Africa's poor.

But it apparently took only a few lines of Umshini Wam to get most of the crowd behind him again, a reflection of the power of public relations and an appeal to nationalism to gloss over the real problems faced by his followers.

It is inconceivable that these leaders had not been aware of the conditions they saw. Their response shows either that they are completely out of touch with their constituents and with the realities of the country's economy and society, or that they are attempting to hide the reality of their ineptitude and align themselves with the downtrodden to deflect accountability from themselves.

But these injustices have been perpetuated, and in many cases have worsened, on their watch. A year after they were installed as leaders, what have they done?

And in the weeks or months since their public displays of dismay, how many heads have rolled? What resources have been allocated to change conditions? How much money has been rerouted from the pockets of bureaucrats and consultants into bricks and mortar or the training of teachers and health workers? Have emergency plans been rolled out to stop any more babies from dying?

The government has proved itself ineffectual in improving the lot of its people. The lack of accountability is only entrenched by these public displays of empathy, which should be replaced with public promises of action, and visible proof of the results.

- Sunday Times Editorial

SA system in tatters

Corruption and nepotism are affecting service delivery in South Africa, Amnesty International said on Thursday.

"Corruption and nepotism impeded community access to housing and services, and led to the collapse of some municipal governments and to widespread protests among affected communities," read a report by Amnesty International on human rights in South Africa.

"Persistent poverty, rising levels of unemployment, and violent crime, together with the crisis in the public health sector, posed significant challenges for the new government."

The report is entitled "The Amnesty International Report 2010: State of the World's Human Rights".

"Political developments continued to affect the independence and integrity of the administration of justice," read the report.

It singled out as examples the withdrawal of corruption charges against President Jacob Zuma, the acquittal of Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe by the Judicial Service Commission and the appointment of Menzi Simelane as National Prosecuting Authority head.

The trial of ANC Youth League president Julius Malema in the Equality Court, for remarks he made regarding women who claimed to be raped, was also noted for its negative implications on the rights of women and girls.

Amnesty also made general mention of xenophobic as well as ethnic attacks against Mpondo members of shackdwellers' movement Abahlali baseMjondolo, in Durban's Kennedy Road informal settlement.

In September, members and leaders of Abahlali fled their homes after attacks. In the aftermath, their homes were destroyed and further violence threatened.

The Amnesty report noted that while 13 Abahlali supporters were arrested in connection with the two men killed on the night of the attacks, no charges were brought against anyone for the attacks on Abahlali.

The report also mentioned that in the context of this violence, Abahlali had won an important case in the Constitutional Court that declared part of the Slums Act "inconsistent with the Constitution".

"Despite the impact of their successful litigation, Abahlali's community-based work remained severely disrupted by the violent events in September," read the report.

The only xenophobic attacks mentioned by name were violence in De Doorns in Western Cape, Balfour in Mpumalanga and Polokwane in Limpopo.

"The police response to incidents varied from complicity or negligence to, in some cases, a visible effort to prevent violence from escalating."

Amnesty made mention of Zuma's public condemnation of the violence and creation of a plan to deal with xenophobia.

It also noted the home affairs department had introduced 90-days of visa-free entry for Zimbabweans coming into South Africa and immigration permits for those already in the country.

However, "the permits not been implemented by the end of the year".

Amnesty also pointed out that the "abrupt" closure of the Musina showgrounds had resulted in several thousand Zimbabweans seeking shelter at the Central Methodist Church in Johannesburg "with the authorities failing to meet their humanitarian needs".

Police actions and criminal justice also came in for scrutiny.

According to Amnesty, several accusations of torture and "extra-judicial executions" have been made against the police.

Using information from the Independent Complaints Directorate, Amnesty said deaths in custody had risen 15 percent in 2009, with KwaZulu-Natal seeing a spike of 47 percent.

It also mentioned Sidwel Mkwambi, who died in police custody in February in Bellville, Cape Town. Police claimed he jumped out of a moving vehicle.

His injuries were not consistent with this explanation. Also killed while trying to escape was an alleged car hijacker whose death did not match police reports.

Police claimed he jumped onto an electric fence, but his body showed no signs of electrocution.

Many others have complained of torture.

"Suspects in several cases were interrogated and assaulted while held without any record of arrest.

Amnesty said in its report South Africa had not ratified the United Nations' Optional Protocol Against Torture.

Commenting on more positive ground, the report noted South Africa had committed itself to act on a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court against the president of Sudan Omar Al Bashir.

- Sapa

Malema skirts toilet issue in Parliament

African National Congress Youth League chief Julius Malema on Wednesday brought members of the branch that vandalised township toilets to Parliament, but declined to comment on their threat to make Cape Town ungovernable.

Malema introduced the delegates from the ANCYL's Dullah Omar region to MPs, saying they "felt that they needed to be part of this important meeting" on discussing the formation of a state-owned mining company.

The group applauded Malema's submission to MPs in which he urged an immediate moratorium on issuing mining licences to prepare for the nationalisation of mines.

Malema said nationalisation would become ANC policy in 2012 and private companies would be forced to operate in a partnership with the state that would limit their profit margins to 10 percent or less.

Like Malema and ANCYL spokesperson Floyd Shivambu, the delegates from the Dullah Omar region refused to talk to the media about the destruction of newly-erected toilet enclosures in Makhaza in Khayelitsha on Monday.

The violence broke out in protest over 50 families having had to use open toilets built by Democratic Alliance-led local authorities for a year.

Malema sought shelter in the ANC chief whip's office when journalists tried to ask him about the unrest during a tea break. Shivambu told reporters to "stop harassing me".

Pressed by a Beeld reporter, he angrily retorted: "Go and ask your mother."

- Sapa

Cape Town Community Housing Finally meets its match!

Five families in Newfields Village face their verdict for their evictions on the 10/06/2010 (on the day the opening ceremony of the World Cup 2010 will be held).

Background

In 1994 President Nelson Mandela promised to build one million houses and accordingly the City of Cape Town and the National Housing Finance Company (NHFC) tried to make this dream a reality for the poorest of the poor by forming a Section 21 Company called Cape Town Community Housing Company. Eight years ago CTCHC started to build the worst houses in the history of our country with both latent and patent defects. Accordingly, the residents of the nine villages (Newfields Village, Hanover Park Phase 1, 2 and 3, Luyoloville, East Ridge, Woodridge, Manenberg (Tornado Victims) and Phillipi) went on a rental boycott, had marches to the Company, they occupied their administration office, they handed over numerous memorandums of demands and even occupied the administration building in Tijger Valley. The company changed directorship, because of bad management of fances and the pressure from the different communities. All that the community wants is to honour the original understanding and agreements made that they will get a subsidized houses and pay-off the balance over four years with affordable rental.

Because of the struggle for their own homes, unjust administrative action as well as legal action in the form of eviction applications by the Cape Town Community Housing Company.

The Company, because of the bad Installment Purchase Agreement (IPA) have attempted to reformulate the original contract by calling the new contract The Affordability Programme. As a result, all the families have attempted to unknowingly sign this proposed contract with the goal of saving the bad houses, paid by their own subsidies, that they made their homes.

Many families evictions’ are being sort by the Company, but the families have managed to secure the assistance of an attorney as well as an advocate and have through them presented their case in the Wynberg Magistrers Court. We are going back to Wynberg Court together will all the affected communities on the 10th of June 2010.

We will attach our heads of argument to this press release so that everybody in South Africa and the World can see what the struggles have been about for the past eight years.

For more information, please contact:

Gary: 0723925859

Ashraf: 0761861408

Attorney: Mr. S. Parker

Read more here - Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign

Right to the City campaign to help underprivileged get housing

The City of Cape Town said on Saturday it listened to the views of a group of residents who want to boycott the World Cup.

Abahlali baseMjondolo launched its Right to the City campaign on Saturday in a bid to get housing for the underprivileged in the Western Cape.

It plans to erect shacks outside Cape Town Stadium a few days before the first match unless adequate housing is allocated to the poor.

However, the city’s Kyllie Hatton said their hands are tied.

“The City of Cape Town recognises and is empathetic to the significant housing challenges that we have in Cape Town. We have a number of interventions in place to deal with this challenge that includes the delivery of housing and upgrading of existing informal settlements,” she said.

- Eyewitness News

Toilets: ANC slammed for 'double standards'

# Gallery: ANCYL thrash toilets

Open toilets were not unique to Makhaza, Khayelitsha, as the previous ANC-led city administration had been guilty of the same thing in Samora Machel some years ago, said mayoral committee member for health Dumisani Ximbi.

Speaking during yesterday's budget debate, where the toilet issue took centre stage, Ximbi said the ANC should be the last party to complain about unwalled toilets because it also did something similar during its controversy-riddled tenure.

"We witnessed the destruction of the corrugated toilets in Khayelitsha and we ask ourselves where the problem was and we get no answer," said Ximbi.

He said the ANC was applying double standards.

"It was done in Samora Machel, but because it was done by the ANC-led City of Cape Town nothing was said. They are still engaged with the government today about that. Things are right when they are done by the ANC. There's a tendency of one party taking people for granted. We need to rectify mistakes. Two wrongs don't make a right."

ANC chief whip Peter Gabriel said the DA had no permanent solution to the toilet problem and was busy running around defusing people's anger.

"Let's face it, the DA made a huge mistake in providing open toilets," he said.

"The DA is now rushing in to do damage control instead of addressing broader development in those areas. They must engage with communities. The mayor also made reference to work done in informal settlements, but for four years the DA has had no sustainable plan to improve the situation."

Mayor Dan Plato said the city had provided communal toilets and the ratio was one toilet for every five people.

He said the ANC Youth League members who destroyed the toilets were nothing but hooligans and thugs.

"We ask the ANC that by close of business on Thursday they... stop the youth league from intimidating," he said.

- Cape Times - IOL

DA councillor 'stole from the poor'

The City of Cape Town has agreed that a Democratic Alliance councillor be fined R10 000 for taking money from poor people in return for promising them state-subsidised houses - and has recommended that she be removed from the council for fraud.

But whether councillor Charlotte Tabisher will now be sacked is up to Local Government MEC Anton Bredell.

Tabisher, a councillor for ward 49, which includes Athlone, Mowbray and Kewtown, was found guilty of eight counts of misconduct and one of fraud for helping a resident prepare a grant-in-aid application for a creche that no longer existed.

Tabisher also charged residents "deposits" ranging from R300 to R1 000 between 2005 and 2008 while promising them houses. She was found guilty at a disciplinary hearing last month.

In its report to council, the disciplinary committee recommended that Tabisher be fined for the eight counts and removed from council for the fraud charge, a sanction that was slammed by the Independent Democrats.

Tabisher's case was discussed at a full council meeting yesterday afternoon.

DA chief whip Anthea Serritslev said the council unanimously approved the findings of the disciplinary committee. The case would be handed over to Bredell, who would review it and report back to the council.

Meanwhile, Tabisher continues her role as a councillor.

ID caucus spokesman Brett Herron said the party was "alarmed by the surprisingly lenient sentences".

"This councillor appears to have abused her position of trust to enrich herself at the expense of poor and vulnerable people who are desperate for a home," Herron said yesterday.

"It is therefore hard to imagine that there are mitigating factors that warrant a recommendation on sanction that falls short of anything but removal from office for each of the eight charges."

Voters were "tired" of politicians promising to clamp down on corruption, but who became involved in corruption.

Herron said failing to send a clear message that corruption would not be tolerated in housing allocations would be a mistake.

Serritslev said the punishment was "the highest" that could have been given.

"That's a huge penalty, the most a council can give to a councillor - removing her from office."

The DA-led council took the case seriously and there were "no cover-ups".

- Cape Times

Community bowed to ANCYL pressure, says Plato

The city of Cape Town has reached a "crossroads" over the toilets destroyed in Khayelitsha this week, mayor Dan Plato said on Tuesday.

"We can no longer continue on this path of confrontation and sabotage," he told a city council budget meeting.

"Money that is badly needed for service delivery is wasted through damage for the benefit of certain agendas."

Earlier in the day, the ANC Youth League, which led the destruction of the controversial toilet structures on Monday, threatened widespread vandalism in the city in protest over service delivery.

Plato said that on the one hand the community had repeatedly confirmed it wanted the city to continue with the provision of the toilets.

"On the other hand, they bow to pressure from the ANC Youth League and other disruptive elements to disown the work and vandalise the equipment.

"Mr Speaker, we cannot continue in this way. I am therefore asking the ANC as the governing party to publicly confirm by close of business on Thursday 27 May that they will constrain their Youth League.

"They must prevent the league from intimidating the community and from organising this resistance and damage to public property paid for with public money."

Plato did not say what would happen if the ANC did not meet the deadline.

The controversy is over toilets installed by the city in the Makhaza area of Khayelitsha.

Residents apparently agreed to build enclosures themselves, but this was never done.

The city put up corrugated iron structures around the toilets on Monday, but members of the ANCYL and some community members immediately knocked them down, and taunted Plato to arrest them.

The league demanded concrete structures instead.

- Sapa

ANCYL threatens violent protest in Cape Town

The ANC Youth League (ANCYL) has called on its followers to vandalise the City of Cape Town in protest at poor service delivery.

"We are going to destroy everything and make the city ungovernable," ANCYL Dullah Omar regional secretary Loyiso Nkohle said on Tuesday.

"We are calling on all youth to do this [vandalise the city], especially those living in informal settlements."

Nkohle's deputy Chumile Sali said the ANCYL was doing this to expose those parts of the city where the Democratic Alliance had failed to deliver services.

On Monday, ANCYL members and community leaders led residents in the destruction of toilet enclosures the city council had erected hours earlier. They taunted mayor Dan Plato to arrest them.

"The African people's dignity has been undermined by the DA. It is time to take action," said Sali, denying that the ANCYL was promoting violence.

Regional treasurer Andile Lili said the ANCYL did not intend being violent, but was being forced to by the city.

The ANCYL Dullah Omar branch had written an open letter to Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale asking him to intervene in the toilet debacle.

"Our complaint is based on the reality that African people residing in Makhaza, Khayelitsha, are forced to s**t in full view of the public," the ANCYL wrote.

"This satanic action by the city council is tantamount to gross human rights violations and undermines the people's right for their dignity to be protected as stipulated in section 10 of the constitution."

The ANCYL said it lodged a complaint against the city with the South African Human Rights Commission in January, but had not yet received a response.

It would not wait for Sexwale's response to proceed with its plan of action.

The ANCYL said that in 2007 the city built a toilet for each household in the Makhaza area which each household had to enclose itself. However, since 2008, about 50 Makhaza families had been relieving themselves in full view of the public.

The ANCYL said it was unhappy with the corrugated metal sheets the city had used to build enclosures around the toilets and wanted concrete instead.

Plato told the Cape Times on Monday that he had recently met with the ANCYL and community leaders and they had agreed to tell residents that open toilets would be enclosed.

He said the corrugated metal sheets used to enclose them were not inferior to the material people had used to build the homes they were living in and that if people wanted to destroy new structures he would "walk away".

- SAPA

ANCYL calls on youth to vandalise Cape Town

The ANC Youth League has called on the youth to vandalise the City of Cape Town, in a protest against poor service delivery.

“We are going to destroy everything and make the city ungovernable,” Loyiso Nkohle, secretary of the ANCYL Dullah Omar region, said on Tuesday.

“We are calling on all youth to do this, especially those living in informal settlements.”

Nkohle’s deputy Chumile Sali said the ANCYL was doing this to expose those parts of the city where the Democratic Alliance had failed to deliver services.

On Monday, ANCYL members and community leaders led residents in the destruction of toilet enclosures the city council had erected hours earlier.

They taunted mayor Dan Plato to arrest them.

“The African people’s dignity has been undermined by the DA. It is time to take action,” said Sali.

Regional treasurer Andile Lili said the ANCYL "did not intend" being violent, but was being "forced to" by the city.

- Sapa

ANCYL trashes toilets

The open toilets saga in Makhaza in Khayelitsha took another turn yesterday when ANC Youth League members and community leaders led residents in the destruction of toilet enclosures the city council had erected hours earlier.

Since 2008, about 50 Makhaza families have had to relieve themselves in full view of the public, an embarrassment that had the youth league asking the Human Rights Commission in January this year to probe human rights violations.

Yesterday, Cape Town mayor Dan Plato personally supervised the erection of 51 enclosures, but shortly before the last enclosure was erected, youth league and Ward 95 Development Forum members began demolishing them. They told residents to join them and while some participated, others watched in shock or tried to stop the destruction.

A tearful resident, who refused to give her name as she feared intimidation, said: "It was humiliating to use the toilet when people see you. There is covering now, but look at this (destruction). It is not what I want."

Resident Phillip Bayapeli and his wife tried in vain to save their enclosure, but were told the community had rejected the corrugated enclosures and wanted concrete ones.

Plato said he had met the youth league and community leaders recently and they had agreed to tell residents that open toilets would be enclosed. He also went from house to house to get residents' permission for the enclosures, Plato said.

"Ninety-nine percent agreed they want this. I asked them to put it in writing. Now the ANCYL is trying to give the impression there was no undertaking. The ANCYL don't respect the wishes of the broader community. They are not truthful," Plato said.

Corrugated sheets used for the enclosures were not inferior to the material people used to build homes they were living in and if people wanted to destroy the new structures he would "walk away", Plato said.

"It is their call. If they do, I won't assist them," he said.

During a brief exchange of words, youth league member Loyiso Nkonhla challenged Plato to have him arrested for demolishing the enclosures.

"You f****** racist City of Cape Town. This is what you think of our people," Nkonhla screamed.

Lillian Zono, one of several people who confronted Plato, said residents wanted nothing less than concrete structures: "These toilets will not last. The wind will blow it down. You treat us like baboons. This will never happen in Mitchells Plain, Bellville or Eerste River."

Asked what right they had to destroy structures when residents had agreed, Ward 95 Development Forum leader Andile Lile said a community meeting on Sunday had decided to reject the enclosures.

"We've been given a mandate by the community to fight against this," he said.

Pressed about the fact that residents had signed an agreement and had a right to choose, Lile said: "I believe in majority rule. It must be a principle position for all of us here and not for individuals. The majority does not want this and we cannot accommodate individuals who betray us."

Lile denied there was an agreement with Plato and claimed residents were misled.

"Nobody told them what materials will be used," he said.

Sub-council 14 chairman Steven Vuba, of the DA, said: "A few individual ANCYL leaders who have toilets in their houses are trying to block progress and disrupt development in the area, especially in Ward 95. The community of Ward 95 should look at this very seriously. Such scoundrels should not be allowed to bully the community into submissiveness."

HRC spokesman Vincent Moaga did not respond to calls on what had happened to the youth league's complaint.

- CapeTimes

Such sweet voyeurism

What really inspires the random visits to the destitute and hungry if nothing is done to alleviate the situation?

First it was Human Settlements minister Tokyo Sexwale in his famous “sleep-over” in a shack in Diepsloot and a promise that something would be done.

It turned out to be just another political ploy to curry favour with the people.

Now we see our president spinning another sob story in front of cameras at the informal settlement of Sweetwater.

Don’t miss the catch phrase:

“I thought I should come to look…”

Sexwale was also looking.

When will the voyeurism end and the action begin?

- Sunday World

Sexwale 'unaware' of tender

Questions are being raised over the use of "blind trusts" by politicians after it was revealed that one of Tokyo Sexwale's companies had been awarded the tender for security at the King Shaka International Airport.

Human Settlements Minister Sexwale confirmed his interests were held in a blind trust and that he had not been aware of the tender.

Checkport, the company that won the tender at the end of March, is a subsidiary of Swissport - of which 49 percent is owned by Sexwale's Mvelaphanda Holdings Group.

Swissport has a contract for all ground handling at 10 airports nationally.

Sexwale's spokesperson Chris Vick said Sexwale was unaware of the contract at King Shaka International Airport, because his assets were being kept in a blind trust - in line with requirements of the Parliament's executive ethics code of conduct.

A blind trust is a trust where a person, particularly a political office bearer, places their interests or assets under the control of an independent and professional person or agency, without knowing how the assets are being administrated. The aim is to avoid a conflict of interest. For example, shares may be held in a company on behalf of a politician, and that company subsequently wins a tender, the conflict of interest is neutralised because the politician would have no knowledge of, or influence over the transaction - as has been the case with the security tender at the new airport.

Sexwale resigned as director from all 43 boards of companies last year on taking office, saying he could not work in the private sector because he was fully focused on his responsibilities as a minister.

The Public Service Accountability Monitor welcomes a blind trust as a way to reduce a conflict of interest, but argues such trusts are not fool-proof.

"The management of blind trusts may be manipulated in ways which defeat their intentions, and members may also use proxy investors to conceal their interests. Perhaps, in time to come, more attention will be paid to the regulation and oversight of blind trusts," said the monitor's Derek Luyt.

While welcoming the use of a blind trust as a measure to avoid a conflict of interest, DA MP Deon George warned that it was also open to abuse.

"A 1989 commission in the UK concluded that blind trusts for politicians are incompatible with transparency and accountability and the DA shares this view.

"They are open to abuse and should be subject to public scrutiny through a process of public declaration," he said.

George also called for Sexwale's assets to be open to public scrutiny.

"His vast wealth was acquired through the process of so-called Black Economic Empowerment - a network of political connectivity that enriched the small elite and left behind the majority of those who should have benefited.

"He is politically connected and exposed and this makes the need for complete transparency over his assets - including piercing the veil on his blind trust so that good governance can be seen to be done through a transparent process - all the more necessary. We cannot assume that blind trusts will not be abused," George said.

- DailyNews

'We did not target street people'

The City of Cape Town wants to talk to the police about the mass arrests of street people this week.

On Wednesday, 41 street people were arrested in the city centre. Police said they were "repeat offenders" and not actual homeless people.

And on Thursday night a CID van was seen dropping homeless people in Harrison Street in the city centre. The people told the Cape Argus they had been picked up in Gardens and near the Cape Town central police station. They said they were often picked up and dropped in the city's side-streets by the CID for no apparent reason.

Sometimes, they were dropped along De Waal Drive.

But the CID has denied allegations of any wrongdoing, even though a number of homeless people said they were being continually harassed.

Grant Pascoe, the mayoral committee member responsible for social development, said the city had investigated whether any city officials had been involved in the operation and had found that none were.

"We would like to meet police and discuss what happened here," said Pascoe.

NGOs say the homeless people, as the most vulnerable in society, are not being heard and law-enforcement officials are increasingly harassing homeless people.

Police spokesman Captain Ezra October denied that street people had been targeted during the operation. October stressed that the 41 people arrested were "repeat offenders" who were known to police.

Many homeless people who spoke to the Cape Argus said they were often arrested under the so-called PK Law. October explained that this law was referred to when people refused to obey an instruction from a police officer.

"They were asked to move and did not do so. Anyone can be arrested under that law; we did not target street people. This is untrue. Criminal elements have infiltrated the street people in the city."

At a meeting at the Scalabrini Centre, scores of homeless people spoke of how law- enforcement officials were dealing with them. While both the city and the CID's social development departments were dealing with people in a caring manner, it was law enforcement officials who were unnecessarily harsh with them.

"The mandate of the Central City Development District's security department is to target criminals and criminal behaviour in the city centre.

"We clearly differentiate between criminal and anti-social behaviour and we deal with each differently," said Tasso Evangelinos, chief operations officer of the CCID.

"Each has its own consequences, being sentenced by a criminal or community court for instance. A person urinating in public or drinking and harassing people will be taken to the community court for sentencing."

A homeless woman said at the meeting: "They took everything. I didn't even have a pair of shoes. All these clothes have been donated to me; now I have to lock up all my stuff in the cathedral."

Cape Town Partnership spokeswoman Petro Mostert confirmed that the CCID had helped the police arrest 41 people on Wednesday. But the CCID denied that any of its security officials were confiscating clothing, blankets, personal belongings or harassing people living on the streets.

Linzi Thomas, who has spent 12 years working with homeless people, said she often heard that people were being continually harassed, especially in Sea Point.

- Cape Argus

Cape Town's clean-up

Tensions are running high in Cape Town over the city's apparent relocation of poor and homeless people to Blikkiesdorp on the Cape Flats -- an attempt, critics charge, to hide grim reality from visiting World Cup fans.

Blikkiesdorp was built by city authorities in Delft on the Cape Flats in 2008 and has since mushroomed. Its hundreds of corrugated-iron structures house about 3 000 people.

Homeless people claim they have been forced off the streets and taken there in an attempt to "clean up" before kick-off next month.

The city denies this, saying it is part of general policy.

"There has not and will not be a concerted clean-up campaign," said city spokesperson Kylie Hatton.

Blikkiesdorp resident Sadica Abrahams (42), a single mother of two teenage boys, said that she had spent most of her adult life on the streets of Mitchell's Plain and the authorities had never moved her before.

Abrahams claimed that were it not for the World Cup, she would still be sleeping in a tunnel in the township -- but would prefer that to being "trapped in a World Cup dumping site" for the poor.

"The struggle is much tougher here than on the streets," she said. "The law-enforcement people came to pick me up one morning last year and told me I must pack all my stuff and get in the car. They said if I didn't, they would take my belongings and throw them away."

Suleiman Mikkelson (40) said that he was forced to move to Blikkiesdorp from Woodstock, where he had lived under a bridge for nearly 10 years. Insisting he was moved because of the Cup, he said: "I don't understand how the government expects us to live here. This place is like a concentration camp; there's absolutely nothing."

Mikkelson claimed begging on the streets and sleeping outdoors is better than living in a tin shack 40km from the city, as there are no jobs and nobody to ask for handouts, as everyone is poor.

'Hasty cleaning-up campaign'
Jane Roberts (54), a Blikkiesdorp resident and the chairperson of the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign, said that although the city will not admit it, the World Cup is the reason for its "hasty cleaning-up campaign".

"I know we were moved out of Symphony Way [a squatter camp on the N2 highway] because of the Cup; there's no other reason," said Roberts.

The first thing many visitors see after landing at Cape Town International Airport are the shacks along the N2. "They don't want tourists to see us and our shacks because it will ruin the image of the city," said Roberts.

Blikkiesdorp was established when backyarders and shack-dwellers illegally occupied unfinished N2 Gateway houses in 2007. The city won an eviction order in early 2008 and the occupants were temporarily moved to Blikkiesdorp, said Hatton.

It has since been extended to provide emergency housing for occupants of unsafe or condemned buildings, homeless people and victims of xenophobic attacks, Hatton said. The city also received requests from people who wanted to move there.

But Roberts pointed to evictions from Spes Bona Hostel near Athlone Stadium -- a World Cup training facility -- after it had been occupied for several years.

Shehaam Sims, the mayoral committee member responsible for housing, denied that the hostel will be used for Cup-related activities. She said that it belongs to a school and that people were moved because it is unsafe.

- M&G

Cops arrest scores of homeless people

Police have arrested hundreds of homeless people over the past five months in what they and city officials have described as a crackdown on "repeat offenders".

But homeless people say police are harrassing them because they want them off the streets ahead of the World Cup.

The City of Cape Town and police have denied the claim.

'They don't want the people from overseas to see us and make South Africa look bad.'
Police spokesman Captain Ezra October confirmed the arrest yesterday of 41 homeless people.

The city unveiled its Winter Readiness Plan for Street People this month, saying it wanted to reunite street people with their families.

Apart from issuing thousands of blankets, razors, soap, blankets and even toothpaste, the city also promised to create temporary jobs paying R40 a shift.

The city identified "high-risk areas" to be targeted for this year's campaign, including Green Point, the Grand Parade, Cape Town Station, Long Street, the Company's Garden, Adderley Street, Buitenkant Street and Gardens Centre. With police assistance, the city would clamp down on antisocial behaviour such as begging, harassing people, doing washing in public, drunken behaviour and skarreling (hustling). The budget allocation for the campaign was increased from R300 000 last year to R500 000 this year.

October said that the police had been involved in an "intelligence driven operation" to arrest "known criminals" in the city over the past five months.

The 41 people arrested - who sleep under the Culemborg bridge, in parks and alleyways in the CBD - have been labelled by the police as "repeat offenders".

October could not give a figure for how many people had been arrested since January, but said it was not unusual to make so many arrests in one day.

He said the suspects faced charges of theft out of motor vehicles and robbery and would appear in the community court in Cape Town soon.

October said the arrested people, aged between 18 and 41, were not "real" street people, even though he conceded that they returned to the streets after being released.

And it was precisely because they were returning that the police had the right to use legislation to force them to leave, he said.

Yesterday homeless people spoke of what they claimed was ongoing harassment by the police in the run-up to the World Cup.

Last year, a city pilot project under its Housing Allocation Policy saw the relocation of about 80 families from Sea Point to a temporary relocation area in Blikkiesdorp, near Delft.

Many were promised jobs and told their only option was to move to the area or face arrest.

One man said most of them still travelled to Sea Point every day, looking for work or to beg.

"I can't even tell you how many times I've been arrested there. They tell us they arrest us for 'failure to comply'. We don't even know what that means. They were always like this, but now with this World Cup, things became very bad for us."

A woman said she had slept behind the Cape Town Stadium before she was moved by police.

"...They don't want the people from overseas to see us and make South Africa look bad. Go look in Green Point and Sea Point, you will struggle to see one person sleeping on that street. People are scared."

One man, who had been moved to Blikkiesdorp but spent last night in Green Point, said he was constantly harrassed by police.

"We are also South African citizens. They don't want the tourists to see how people also live here in South Africa.

"Now they want to sweep clean the area, arrest us and take us to the cells. Then they took us Blikkiesdorp and they dumped us there like pigs."

Head of the Haven Night Shelter, Hassan Khan, said he had heard of police harassing homeless people, but he said none of their field workers had received complaints from the homeless.

Grant Pascoe, mayoral committee member for social development, said the city's winter readiness plan was an ongoing process. Last year, about 1 600 people were sheltered and fed.

"There is nothing inhumane about what the city is doing. We had beefed up our plan this year. But there is no plan to round up homeless people and dump them. It's simply untrue."

JP Smith, the city's mayoral committee member for safety and security, slammed the allegations that homeless people had been forced to move to Blikkiesdorp or that they were being targeted.

"This was not a forced removal; they are free are to return to Sea Point as some of them have done. If they are unhappy there, they can leave."

- Cape Argus

Zuma loses his cool at SA's housing failure

The government had failed millions of people who were living "like pigs" in informal settlements, and efforts to explain to them why this was so after more than a decade and a half of democracy would be meaningless, President Jacob Zuma said on Tuesday.

Zuma told a meeting of the President's Co-ordinating Council that the conditions he found on Monday's unannounced visit to Johannesburg's Sweetwaters informal settlement had brought him close to tears.

He was addressing a special meeting of the council, which brings together ministers, premiers, MECs and mayors to deal with service issues across national, provincial and local government.

The focus on Tuesday was on "unpacking the human settlements delivery agreement" and discussing solutions to obstacles blocking provision of service, Zuma said. He rebuked departments for having budget rollovers every year and said he could not comprehend how the state could fail to spend money while service lagged behind.

Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, Planning Minister Trevor Manuel and Performance, Monitoring and Evaluation Minister Collins Chabane were also present, as were MECs for housing and human settlements and representatives from the SA Local Government Association (Salga).

Zuma expressed dismay at government officials who, he said, were aware of shack-dwellers' living conditions, but who sat on their hands.

He also questioned foreign nationals who "forged" documents to gain access to services meant for South African citizens, and locals who received government houses and chose to sell or rent them out and move back into shacks.

Of Sweetwaters, Zuma said: "There is no decent housing, sanitation, electricity, access roads or health facilities. There is only one unreliable communal tap, according to residents. I visited two houses and it's not very often that I really feel almost like crying.

"One lady lives in a place that when you come in, you may believe that people left this shack 10 years ago. People are sleeping like pigs," Zuma said.

"How does it happen that some of our people still live in such areas, 16 years into our freedom and democracy?" Zuma asked.

He said the housing backlog was estimated at 2.1-million units, affecting 12-million people, while there were about 2 700 informal settlements.

"Through a progressive human settlements programme, we will be able to reverse the legacy of the Group Areas Act, the Influx Control Act and a host of other apartheid legislation which dehumanised our people," Zuma said.

Programmes being put in place were aimed at undoing this legacy and restoring to people "their dignity, self-esteem and pride".

"The living conditions have to improve," he said.

Developing human settlements - which aim to provide not just housing, but also amenities such as schools, clinics and business centres - are a key priority for Zuma's administration.

While inroads had been made in improving the provision of basic services such as housing, living conditions in some areas left "much to be desired".

While problems caused by apartheid would not be resolved "overnight", Zuma warned that the government would find it difficult to explain conditions in areas such as Sweetwaters when the country celebrated two decades of democracy.

- Cape Times

Crying lying Zuma recently claimed housing up to date now sparks Xenophobia

President Jacob Zuma was nearly reduced to tears when he saw a family’s living conditions in a shack he visited in Orange Farm, Johannesburg.

"It is not almost every time I feel like crying during my visits... You could swear no-one lived in that shack," Zuma told premiers, ministers and MECs at the President’s Co-ordinating Council in Pretoria on Tuesday.

The family living there had been totally destroyed, he said, explaining that the owner’s daughter left home to become a prostitute, and had returned when she fell pregnant.

Zuma made an unannounced visit to the Sweetwaters informal settlement, in Johannesburg, on Monday.

He has also visited, among others, the shantytown of Madelakufa in Tembisa, east of Johannesburg, where he found "very bad" and warned councillors to fix the problems.

There is currently a 2.1 million housing backlog and more than 2700 informal settlements.

Zuma told the President’s Co-ordinating Council that an investment in human settlements would be an investment in the future.

Habitable and decent homes would promote human dignity and stability in communities, he said.

He said apartheid laws had made black people foreigners in urban areas, and had forced them to settle in designated locations and temporary residences.

"For those in rural areas, they were made to belong to various Bantustans with no plan to develop roads, transport, electricity, sanitation, running water or any other infrastructure," he said.

The government’s focus on human settlements as a key national priority, would attempt to undo this legacy.

Zuma said Sweetwaters resident Enock Vilakazi had appealed to him to improve conditions for the sake of his children, For his part, he had resigned himself to dying there.

"You could hardly think that human beings are sleeping there," Zuma said of Vilakazi’s shack.

"We have gone some way towards improving our goals, although clearly there is still a lot to be done in some areas," he said.

Any attempt to explain why people were still living "like pigs" when the country was nearly celebrating 20 years’ of freedom would be meaningless, said Zuma.

The President’s Co-ordinating Council was to examine the human settlements delivery agreement and discuss solutions to problems affecting delivery during its meeting.

Zuma said all programmes had to ensure the people’s dignity, self-esteem and pride was restored. "The living conditions have to improve," he said.

Good progress had been made in changing mindsets from the provision of "housing" to "human settlements".

Human settlements were not just about building houses, but also about access to social amenities like clinics, schools, water, electricity and recreational facilities.

In the last financial year, the government invested R15-million in housing subsidies for the poor and 160,000 homes.

However, about three million households -- including informal settlements like Sweetwaters -- were still waiting for electricity.

Zuma said the government was aware that some people receives houses, but then rented them out and moved back to informal settlements, raising questions about the effectiveness of the system.

Foreigners also appeared to be benefiting when they should not, he pointed out.

"We are working on addressing this... having been government for 16 years, we must know what’s working and what is not. We need to change the manner in which we do things and move quicker."

- Sapa

Zuma under fire for housing comments

President Jacob Zuma has come under fire in parliament for stating in his budget vote speech that government has met the housing backlog in most provinces.

This is in direct contradiction to a statement made in parliament just last week by minister of human settlements Tokyo Sexwale who said that the backlog had grown in leaps and bounds.

While there is no official explanation why Zuma made such a sweeping and incorrect statement, Sexwale says the housing backlog is about 2.1 million.

This is significantly more than the 1994 1.5 million backlog.

While government has been building houses at an unprecedented rate for more than a decade, progress is undermined by the system and its duplications, inefficiencies and corruption.

While academics call for a complete review of government’s low cost housing subsidy model, opposition parties are having a field day about how out of touch the president is.

- EastCoast Radio

DA paid R8m to get rid of 16 officials

The DA-led provincial government has paid out almost R8 million to staff members whose contracts were terminated early.

In a written response to a parliamentary question, Western Cape premier Helen Zille said 16 staff were involved.

Among them were former education chief Ron Swartz, former local government and housing chief Shanaaz Majiet and 13 social co-ordinators appointed by former premier Ebrahim Rasool.

More than R5m of the payments were made by the premier's department, with the education department paying Swartz more than R2.3m and local government and housing paying Majiet R396 000.

Zille said the province's former director-general, Virginia Petersen, did not receive a payout but the province paid R850 000 to the government employees' pension fund when she took early retirement.

Majiet and Petersen were among five senior officials that the Brian Williams Report recommended should be held accountable for their involvement in the Erasmus Commission, set up by Rasool in December 2007 to investigate the City of Cape Town's probe into councillor Badih Chaaban.

The city's probe was meant to determine whether Chaaban bribed councillors to cross the floor. In 2008 the Western Cape High Court ruled that it was set up for political reasons and was unconstitutional, following a DA challenge.

In September, Zille told the provincial legislature that Majiet's contract was due to expire on September 30, 2009, but that when she was put on a precautionary transfer pending a disciplinary investigation, she approached Local Government MEC Anton Bredell with a request that her employment be ended.

This happened with effect from July 1, 2009, but for the purpose of pension benefits it was terminated on September 30, 2009.

The R5m-plus paid out by Zille's department went to co-ordinators of the social transformation programme which was closed down at the end of March.

The programme was launched by Rasool to "uplift" 27 "vulnerable" communities identified by his administration, with the aim of tackling poverty, crime, unemployment and drugs.

In September 2008, then premier Lynne Brown told the legislature that a month before he was sacked as Western Cape premier, Rasool appointed 12 co-ordinators to work in the 27 communities.

She said the co-ordinators' job descriptions were not clear but they had been contracted for three years and each earned more than R30 000 a month.

Zille's spokeswoman, Trace Venter, said on Monday that the programme was closed down because all parties in the provincial legislature had expressed dissatisfaction with it.

"There was no value for money. Around R11 million being spent each year on the programme yet this expenditure was not benefiting communities," she said.

"Instead the bulk of the amount was being spent on the salaries of the co-ordinators and their hotel and travel costs."

Venter said a total of R32.2m was spent on the programme.

The ANC's Max Ozinsky said on Monday it was strange that Zille and the DA continued to criticise payouts to civil servants, yet had paid out R8m themselves.

"This is simply a purge of civil servants appointed by the ANC when it was in power. There are no tangible reasons given for the ending of contracts," said Ozinsky.

- Cape Argus

Baby burnt alive in shack fire

An eight-month baby burnt to death while a Cape Town community stood by helplessly and listened to his screams.

Little Rudy Ontong was left alone in the shack while his mom Patricia, 35, went to buy bread and eggs for her older children on Saturday afternoon.
When she returned, the room where her baby was sleeping was engulfed in flames.

The Overcome Heights mom says she could have lost three children if her neighbour hadn't grabbed her sons Michael, five, and two-year-old Nathan from in front of the burning shack.

"That man helped me by saving my children... I don't know what I would have done if three of my children died in the fire," she said.

The grieving mom said she could not understand how the fire could have started so quickly.

"My children were hungry and I thought I should run to the spaza while Rudy was still sleeping," she said.

"I was gone for about five minutes and when I went back, my shack was on fire.

"I didn't leave the stove on and no electrical appliance was switched on.

"The kitchen was not on fire, that's what confuses me about how it started."

Community leader Karen Mentoor, 40, told the Daily Voice she had heard the baby's piercing screams.

"When I arrived at Patricia's shack, her baby was crying and people were trying to save him," she said.

"But no one could make it through the blaze and then Rudy stopped screaming.

"We knew that the baby had passed away when two gas tanks exploded," she said.

The Overcome Heights community has donated clothes and food to the devastated family who have lost everything.

- Daily Voice

Department intends to skill unemployed through housing projects

The Western Cape Human Settlements Department said on Saturday it aims to skill unemployed Capetonians through local housing projects.

The government project, which focuses on helping people build their own houses, is one of tools officials will use.

New homes were handed over in KTC on Saturday.

The department’s Kelly Theunis said it is not all about bricks and cement.

“To build houses for themselves, whilst at the same time empowering them with the necessary training, will enable them not only to build the houses but to have something sustainable at the end of the day. They’ve got a skill that they acquired that they can apply somewhere else,” she said.

- Eyewitness News

KTC Township residents receive new homes

The Western Cape Human Settlements Department said on Saturday it wants to implement housing programs "for the people, run by the people".

This forms part of its attempts to fast-track housing delivery in the province. Several KTC residents received the keys to their new homes on Saturday.

New homeowners in KTC said they are grateful to have a roof over their heads that would not leak.

A ribbon cutting ceremony was held to symbolise the occasion.

Recipient Nothembile Vethani told Eyewitness News that she was over the moon.

“I’m very happy that I finally got my house. I’ve been waiting since 1986. At least I’ll be [protected] from the rain.

The Human Settlements’ Kelly Theunis said through their PHP programme they are focusing on access as well as sustainability.

The project is government’s way of assisting people who want to build their own homes.

Over 800 new houses are earmarked for areas like Gugulethu and Khayelitsha. To date, it delivered 70 new homes.

A poor and forgotten camp

The Kraal is a desperately poor informal settlement known as a centre of crime situated in the Bo-Kaap between Cape Town's brand new R4.5 billion World Cup stadium and the city centre.

Home to about 150 people, including a number of children, it is a dirt-poor squatter camp out of sight of the tourists who flock to the Mother City to enjoy its world class attractions.

Nestled in the quarry above Hout Street, the settlement, which was set up in the 1980s, appears to have been forgotten, with not even basic services provided. However, it has striking views across the harbour and of Table Mountain

It's regarded as a crime hot-spot by law enforcement authorities, but residents say criminals use it as a short-cut when fleeing the police.

Sulayga Toffa, known to everyone there as "Poppie", has lived in the Kraal for more than 20 years. She says they have been trying for years to get the city council to put electricity boxes in their shacks. "But we are sent from pillar to post." She said that last month council officials arrived to put new numbers on the structures. "They said they'd be back the next week but there has been no sign of them. We need toilets and electricity."

Her daughter Moniera Kelly said it felt as if the community did not exist. "Even some of the people in council don't know about us." Kelly said they had asked for railings to be erected to stop people running through the area.

This week the two toilets which service the entire community were overflowing, creating a health hazard for the children playing nearby in the puddles of water from the rain.

Bo-Kaap Civic Association chairman Osman Shaboodien said the Kraal had become an eyesore and that the city administration needed to play a bigger role.

He said residents could not simply be moved to an area like Blikkiesdorp, near Delft where other homeless people have been taken.

"I know of at least 15 families who have always lived in the Kraal, so we can't say they are not from the area."

Shaboodien said it would not be fair to expect residents to be moved because the "big developers across Strand Street" didn't like the squatter camp.

"Some residents feel we should assimilate them into the community, but it's difficult because it's been so long."

Tasso Evangelinos, the Central City Improvement District (CCID) chief operations officer, said the Kraal was known as a den for criminal activity and that police raids had found drugs and stolen goods.

He said it fell outside the CCID area but affected the central city indirectly because people used it as a getaway route.

- Cape Argus

The World Cup's two faces

Cape Town was a bit of a buzz this week with celebrations to mark the 30-day countdown to the kick-off of the 2010 Fifa World Cup.

Even the mayor, Dan Plato, showed up at the celebrations to share the spotlight with local artists, including JR of “make da circle bigger” fame to the amazement of hundreds of soccer fans who packed into the City Hall on Tuesday.

However, about 40km away from the premature celebrations lies the darker and shameful side of the World Cup that city officials don’t want you to see.

It is a government-built shanty settlement consisting of hundreds of corrugated iron shacks called Blikkiesdorp, or “Tin-can Town” as critics refer to it.

This is where the city’s poor and homeless people have been relocated to ahead of the World Cup in an effort to present a better and rosier image of the city to travellers and football fans from around the world.

As much as it is a good thing for the city to provide shelter for homeless people, it is still a shameful place to put any human being.

There are not enough basic services like water, toilets, electricity and it is damn far from job opportunities in the city.

Some of the residents of Blikkiesdorp that I spoke to when I visited the area claim that they were “dumped” there by the city’s law-enforcement unit after promising them houses.

They say it’s a “concentration camp”.

Others who have spent most of their adult lives on the streets, said they were forced to move to Blikkiesdorp after the city took them to court for occupying public spaces.

You can call them ungrateful but they honestly believe that they were moved to Blikkiesdorp because of the World Cup to hide them away from the eye of visiting tourists — because they are an embarrassment to the nation.

But when you hear a grown woman who has no self pride left say this, it makes you question who exactly this World Cup is meant for.

Is it for South Africans or overseas tourists?

Last week, the city launched its annual Street People Winter Readiness Plan earlier than usual to coincide with the World Cup.

Basically, the plan is to try and keep homeless people “clean and well-groomed” for the duration of the World Cup by providing temporary shelter and related services such as rationed meals, blankets, disposable razors, soap, toothbrushes and toothpaste.

Personally, I don’t think this country should be spending billions on World Cup infrastructure when there are much more pressing issues to solve like eradicating mud schools, fixing the public healthcare system and getting rid of toilet bucket systems that are still being used in some of the poorest communities after 16 years of so-called-freedom.

Secondly, hiding homeless people from tourists or keeping them “well-groomed” just because of the World Cup is creating an unrealistic image of South Africa to the rest of the world.

It is purely a PR exercise by our government?

- M&G Thought Leader

Once Again the Name of Our Movement is Being Abused by the NGOs

On Tuesday this week we were shocked to read an article in The Sowetan by Patrick Magebhula in which Magebhula claimed that Abahlali baseMjondolo is part of the Informal Settlement Network (ISN) which falls under the control of the global NGO Shack Dwellers International (SDI). Benjamin Bradlow from SDI later sent the article to the press.

Last year, after our movement was attacked, we were invited to a meeting, in Durban, of all shack dwellers’ organisations. We discussed the invitation and decided to elect two representatives from our movement to attend that meeting. At that meeting solidarity was expressed with us and a promise was made, by Mzwanele Zulu of the Joe Slovo Task Team (which has now joined SDI), to organise marches in support of us in Johannesburg and Cape Town. We accepted this offer of solidarity. In a time when a shack dwellers organisation is suffering violent state backed attacks it makes good sense for different organisations, with different politics, to unite around a shared opposition to these attacks and a shared commitment to the right of shack dwellers to organise themselves as they chose to. However at that meeting we never agreed to join the ISN. After the meeting we heard nothing further about the promises of solidarity that were made to us.

Our movement is organised on a completely different basis to the Federation of the Urban Poor (FedUp), which falls under SDI, and we have developed a completely different politics to SDI. Our movement falls under no one other than its members. We do not believe that progress will come by friendship and loyalty to an oppressive government. It is clear to us that the government gives so many millions to SDI because they believe that SDI will help them to control the poor. We believe that we have a duty to resist oppression. We believe that it is essential for the poor to organise and to build our own power against the rich, against the politicians and against that part of civil society that think that it has a natural right to represent the poor.


However we are a democratic organisation and we respect the right of everyone to choose their own politics. We work with shack dwellers’ organisations that have chosen to affiliate themselves to SDI when they have good intentions and when we have areas of common concern. For example we are always happy to work with “General” Alfred Moyo in Makause in Johannesburg. The people in Makause have had to confront evictions and violence from the state as well as xenophobia. They understand very well the challenges that any shack dweller’s organisation must face in South Africa.

But the fact is that we did not join the ISN, we have never joined the ISN and we are not even aware of their programmes and projects. It is simply untrue for Patrick Magebhula to claim that we, along with the Federation of the Urban Poor (FedUP) and the South African National Civics Organisation (SANCO) fall under the ISN. And it is simply untrue for Benjamin Bradlow to imply that, because we are claimed to fall under the ISN, we therefore fall under SDI.

We have seen no living solidarity from SDI or their ISN while we have been under attack. SDI did issue one statement after the attack but after that all we have seen is statements from SDI praising the government – the same government that evicts us, disconnects us, arrests us, beats us and supports a violent attack against us. All we see is that the notorious Lindiwe Sisulu who abandoned Breaking New Ground and the Constitution to try and ‘eradicate’ us from the cities is chair of the board of SDI. In our view it is a disgrace that an organisation that claims to be working in the interests of shack dwellers can have someone like Sisulu as the chair of its board.

We have paid a very high price to keep our autonomy from NGOs. We will never give up that autonomy. We will always be directed by no one other than our members and the discussions that we organise in our meetings. We are willing to work on areas of common concern with organisations that respect our autonomy but the fact is that there are very, very few NGOs that are willing to respect the autonomy of a poor people’s movement. We, along with other movements, have had long experience of NGOs claiming that they represent us when they do not, claiming to be working with us when they are not, offering money and expesnive presents to individuals to try and buy our support and so on. The NGOs on the left and on the right often behave in exactly the same way. We have also had long and bitter experience with NGOs that respond to us in exactly the same way as the state when we reject their money and their authority. Some NGOs have the same ‘rule it or ruin it’ strategy as the state.

Our advice to Patrick Magebhula is to be honest with himself, with his organisations, with the media and with us. You cannot claim to represent an organisation just because you once attended a meeting together. You cannot claim to represent people that you never consult with. We would like to caution him to always remember that what ever nice things that SDI says about the government and what ever nice things that the government says about SDI people are still living and dying in the shacks. People are still being burnt and evicted and beaten and arrested. We continue to recommend that a politics that is of the poor, by the poor and for the poor must start from this reality and not from the nice things that the government and a government funded NGO are saying about each other.

We are not part of the ISN and we have never been part of the ISN. But we are part of an alliance and that alliance is the Poor People’s Alliance (PPA). The PPA consists of Abahlali baseMjondolo (in Durban and in Cape Town), the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign (in Cape Town), the Rural Network (in KwaZulu-Natal) and the Landless People’s Movement (in Johannesburg). We started that alliance when we rejected the authority of the left NGOs and, without once cent of donor money, started an alliance by the poor, for the poor and under the complete control of the organisations of the poor. Our alliance was carefully discussed and endorsed in all our movements. It unites poor people in shacks, flats, township houses and on farms. It is based on a refusal of party politics and a commitment to people’s politics. In this alliance we always aim to build a living solidarity between our organisations as we resist oppression and work to build the power of the poor. No one makes any decisions for the alliance except a meeting of representatives from all the organisations that make up our alliance. Sometimes this makes it hard for us to make decisions or to issue statements quickly. But when we say something it carries the real weight of all of our movements. This is our politics.

We do hope that both Patrick Magebhula and Benjamin Bradlow will issue a formal apology for misrepresenting our movement in this way. We have sent a letter to The Sowetan and asked them to publish a correction.

For more information or comment please contact the Abahlali baseMjondolo Office on 031 304 6420..


Uyishayile!

To view the short video by Umhlanga Rocks on the September 2009 attack on
Abahlali baseMjondolo in the Kennedy Road settlement click here

To see a collection of films on AbM click this:

Abahlali baseMjondolo, together with with Landless People's Movement (Gauteng), the Rural Network (KwaZulu-Natal) and the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign, is part of the Poor People's Alliance - a national network of democratic membership based poor people's movements.

- Abahlali baseMjondolo