No case yet on gang building protection

Cape Town - Police say “information from ground level” about protection money being paid to the Hard Livings gang by city-contracted construction companies refurbishing flats in Manenberg is not enough to warrant an investigation.

On Sunday, Jeremy Vearey, head of Operation Combat, a police operation targeting gangsterism in the province, said he had been notified of the situation in Manenberg, but needed a statement under oath to officially investigate.

“We received information from ground level which indicated these activities were taking place, but information is information. We need a statement under oath to form the basis of a case docket and then we can investigate,” Vearey said.

Vearey mentioned a report published on Sunday in the Weekend Argus, the Cape Times’s sister newspaper, that revealed an e-mail from safety and security mayoral committee member JP Smith to other city officials, dated December 12, had been leaked.

Smith confirmed this on Sunday. He said he had been made aware of the allegations in December last year.

“In the e-mail, I basically said that all the information we have needs to go to the SAPS because it is a criminal offence in terms of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act and must be criminally prosecuted.

“I made it clear that the dossier be handed over and the complaint made to a senior police officer,” Smith said.

Vearey said: “We have not seen or received any dossier yet.”

Smith said he would be meeting with the city’s human settlements department and the construction companies this week.

“Either we will hire city law enforcement as security or we will select a panel of security companies and choose one to work there,” he said.

Mayco member for human settlements Benedicta van Minnen said the city was investigating two construction companies.

“Initially there was H & I Construction, and now there is Good Hope Construction. We are busy with our investigation and will be meeting again this week to discuss the way forward. The refurbishments will continue this week and we are on track to finish in June,” she said.

Good Hope Construction chief executive Raziek Rajah denied that his company was being investigated.

“It must be made clear that according to the city, we are not under investigation. They have made contact to confirm this.”

Rajah refused to be drawn on whether his workers were asked to pay gangsters protection money.

Attempts to reach H & I Construction for comment proved fruitless.

carlo.petersen@inl.co.za

- Cape Times

Cape land invaders refuse to move

Cape Town - Illegal land invasions have spread across Cape Town from Khayelitsha, Kalkfontein near Bonteheuwel and now to Wallacedene in Kraaifontein.

JP Smith, the mayco member of safety and security for the City of Cape Town, said seven people who occupied land illegally in Kalkfontein were arrested on Saturday.

“There were protesters in the area who were burning tyres and throwing stones near the lane of the R300 earlier on Saturday afternoon. And, firemen in Hamilton Estate were also assaulted after trying to put out a fire. One man was injured and the others refused to go back to control the fire because of the danger that they were in,” Smith said.

In light of the sporadic land grabs that took place across the city last week, Smith provided a breakdown of the city’s intervention.

“(A total of) 20 illegal structures and 920 pegs were destroyed in Khayelitsha, 100 pegs were destroyed in Lwandle (Strand). Thirteen illegal structures were demolished in Kalkfontein.”

He said public spaces in Wallacedene were under threat. “More of these illegal structures are being erected. (On Sunday) police will be in the area to stop these structures from disturbing public spaces.”

When the Cape Argus visited Kalkfontein on Sunday, people remained defiant and continued to erect illegal structures, saying they have nowhere else to go.

Elliot Malgas was adamant that he and his family would not move willingly. “We still want to build here. On Saturday, law enforcement demolished our homes but we haven’t got any other place to stay.”

After being evicted, Malgas said: “It was terrible, I am not happy. Everyone here has bought all the materials for their houses, now we have to spend more money to build. I have lost my TV, clothes and even my ID.”

He said this was the third time in one week that their homes were destroyed.

A church was set alight during the violent protest.

“It’s confirmed that the church has been set alight. Apparently it appears it was set alight by protestors,” said police spokesman Colonel Thembinkosi Kinana.

No injuries were reported.

“No arrests have been made so far. The investigation is still ongoing,” said Kinana.

Joshua Njingo, who was shot in the head on Saturday said: “They came to shoot at us while we were building. It’s terrible. The South African law enforcement can’t just come from behind and just shoot you.”

Banele Ntlangani, 22, another Kalkfontein resident, feared losing his eight-month-old baby, Uminati.

“We were busy building and law enforcement came. They said they were here just to break the shacks without people living inside them. Afterwards they surrounded the whole area with hippos and then just broke all the houses.”

Police spokesman Colonel Thembinkosi Kinana said: “Eight protesters were arrested for public violence on Sunday and they are expected to appear in court (Monday).”

matthew.vanschalkwyk@inl.co.za

- Cape Argus and ANA

Church set alight during protest

Cape Town - A church was set alight during a violent protest in Kalkfontein, near Kuils River, on Sunday evening, Western Cape police said.

“It’s confirmed that the church has been set alight. Apparently it appears it was set alight by protesters,” said police spokesman Colonel Thembinkosi Kinana.

“As I understand it, it’s a continuation of the land invasion protests that were going on the weekend,” he said.

No injuries were reported.

“No arrests have been made so far. The investigation is still ongoing,” said Kinana.

Kinana could not confirm whether the protests were linked to similar protests late in March when a council home rented by a law enforcement officer was petrol-bombed, allegedly by a group of people evicted from land they illegally occupied.

Members of the public order policing unit would remain on the scene, Kinana said.

Since March, the area has seen an invasion to occupy a stretch of land belonging to the city council.

- ANA

Interim order against land invaders

Cape Town - The Western Cape High Court on Friday granted Denel an interim order evicting land invaders who this week occupied land in Khayelistha that belongs to the state-owned arms manufacturer.

Judge Monde Samela explained to the land invaders, who appeared in court without legal representation, that it allowed them until the return date of April 21 to find lawyers to argue their case.

“I explained to them that effectively I am sitting on the fence (in granting an interim order),” he said after allowing the respondents, some of who wore shirts bearing the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) logo, to ask him questions to clarify their legal position.

“In isiXhosa, one who sits on the fence is a monkey. So he told me I am a monkey and I said he must be careful now,” Samela chuckled as he translated the exchange to Denel’s lawyers.

On Monday, some 250 people seized land near Nolungile train station in Khayelitsha and began building shacks. The EFF said they were facilitating the process.

Police intervened and Denel, in a first urgent court application, obtained an interdict preventing the erection of further structures on the contested land.

Denel’s legal team on Friday told the court they were seeking the second order to maintain the status quo at the site, which most of the invaders left after their structures were removed, and to gain added protection should there be a fresh attempt to invade the land.

They said they would bring more substantiating documentation on April 1.

Regional EFF official Tlhabanelo Diholo said the party would try to assist the squatters with finding lawyers but did not have money for the legal fees in the party coffers.

“We are not steering this process, we have just tried to assist the community wherever we can,” he said.

After the order was granted some 30 Khayelitsha residents sang protest songs outside the court building.

Student Vugile Thando held a poster proclaiming: “People of Azania take back your land, the rest will follow.”

He said he was not a member of the EFF but was among the roughly 250 people who had invaded the land at the beginning of the week and began building shacks.

“I’m from Khayelitsha site C. I took all my materials and my sleeping bag and they broke it all down and now I’m homeless again.”

- ANA

RDP housing breeds poverty, says Makhura

Over 2 million state-subsidised houses, popularly known as "RDPs", built since 1994 "are nothing but incubators of poverty".

That is the view of Gauteng Premier David Makhura, who was speaking at the launch of a giant provincial housing project in Illovo, northern Johannesburg, yesterday.

Makhura blamed the collapse of planning at all levels of the government for the state's haphazard approach to housing in the past 20 years.

"We've had a virtual collapse of planning. Municipalities say they are planning with [environmental impact assessments] but they are just wasting time," said Makhura.

"Serious planning will stop private-sector, municipal and provincial projects that are not desirable. We are breaking away from the old mode of development of small projects and [will]develop large-scale projects of no less than 15000 units."

Makhura said his administration would deliver 700000 houses in four years, relying on funding of R11.2-billion annually - R6-billion from the Gauteng department of human settlements, R5-billion from the Urban Settlement Development Grant to Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni, and a R200-million grant from the government.

Gauteng, he said, would research the possibility of providing serviced stands to individuals, allowing them to build their own houses.

"We are doing away with poverty-stricken human settlements in which the day [after taking possession of a house] people have nowhere to go. What's called 'RDP houses' is a bad dream. There are no trees, no proper infrastructure and no integration," he said.

Makhura said old-style development was concerned with increasing the number of houses built, with little regard to efficient use of land and sustainable economic activity.

He said that one of the problems with the old approach was that the government built houses without knowing exactly for whom they were intended.

"We have been building houses without properly knowing whom we were building for. We want to make sure that when we build these houses the ownership is beyond dispute."

In place of the "poverty-stricken human settlements" "mega housing projects" will establish residential areas of from 15000 to 60000 units, complete with amenities such as schools, parks, health facilities, infrastructure and "light industry".

Although private developers are being encouraged to take part - 43 companies pledged their support for the projects yesterday - approval of their plans will depend on whether they cater for low-cost housing.

Makhura promised the private sector that all environmental impact assessments would be approved in three months.

- TimesLive

Residents peg out sites after land grab

Cape Town - About 100 residents from TR Section in Khayelitsha invaded a vacant piece of privately owned land near the Nolungile train station in Site C as threats of widespread land invasions were made on Monday.

Resident Rooi Nobatana said the people were taking the land “by force” because they had nowhere to go.

“We are paying rent in our siblings’ small shacks and there’s no space. If there is a fire in one of the shacks, the fire brigade cannot get to us and everything burns down.

“If the government can just provide us with this land then we will build our own houses,” said Nobatana.

Another resident, Nomzamo Nkolisa, said she decided to invade the land because they had not received answers after a seven-year wait for RDP houses.

“The houses that we are living in now are too small, we need basic services such as water, sanitation and electricity.

“We reported the lack of services and rat infestation to our ward councillor but nothing is being done.”

Nkolisa said she runs a crèche from her home and needed the space to run it effectively.

Mayco member for Human Settlements Benedicta van Minnen condemned the threats of a city-wide land invasion by the Ses’khona movement and the EFF.

“We condemn land invasions and the incitement to invade state or privately owned land in the strongest possible terms.

“Political instigators should start taking responsibility for the conditions that arise in settlements that are borne from invasions,” she said.

“I urge our residents not to be duped by organisations who claim to have their best interests at heart, while in reality they are actually driving a political or financial agenda.

“Some land invasions, which occur on a small scale and in an ad hoc manner, are borne purely of need – but others we consider to be orchestrated invasions and part of a general trend to invade both public and private land across Cape Town as part of a politically motivated campaign to make the city ungovernable.”

Van Minnen said authorities were not able to remove the people from the land as it was owned by Denel.

Denel’s spokeswoman, Vuyelwa Qinga, said on Monday: “We are not aware of the incident, but we will do our own investigations and see how to follow up with the situation.”

Ses’khona leader Andile Lili said he was aware that members from his organisation invaded land, adding that they will continue to do so until their demands were responded to.

“We don’t see anything wrong with it. We will take over any open land all over Cape Town, even as far as Atlantis and Grabouw. We have hundreds of thousands of members and the police will not have the capacity to control us.

“The government knows there are fires and floods and yet they don’t do anything.

“Our people need housing and it will be very difficult for them to stop us.

“We will overpower the police if they want to move us.”

The EFF could not be reached for comment.

nabeelah.mohedeen@inl.co.za

yolisa.tswanya@inl.co.za

- Cape Argus

Cape Town cries foul after councillor ‘asked to leave’ human settlements meeting

THE city of Cape Town has cried foul after one of its councillors sent to attend a Department of Human Settlements meeting in Johannesburg this week was asked to leave the meeting venue by Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu.

Ms Sisulu is said to have asked Cape Town mayoral committee member for human settlements Benedicta van Minnen to leave Monday’s meeting arguing that it was only for mayors.

The incident is likely to put further strain on the relationship between the city of Cape Town and Ms Sisulu. Last year the minister and the city clashed over the Lwandle Commission of Inquiry. She also accused the Democratic Alliance-led city of "buying" the title of World Design Capital in 2014.

According to Ms van Minnen, Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille could not attend the meeting because she had a previous long-standing commitment that she could not cancel for a meeting where she was given only three days’ notice.

"She communicated her unavailability to the minister’s office the very next day, but added that she would be sending me as her representative in my capacity as mayoral committee member for human settlements. Considering that the meeting pertained to my directorate, both myself and the mayor felt it apt that I should attend the meeting," Ms van Minnen said.

"This morning (Monday) I proceeded to travel to Johannesburg to attend the meeting. An e-mail was sent from the minister’s office ... when I was already en route to the meeting once more indicating that I was not allowed to attend. Upon my arrival, I entered the meeting.

"About 40 minutes into the discussions, Minister Sisulu arrived and asked me to leave the meeting venue. She personally blocked me from taking part in the discussion that directly impacts my directorate, and service delivery in the city at large," Ms van Minnen said.

She said Ms Sisulu has "once again misused her position as the national minister of human settlements to purposefully block service delivery in the City of Cape Town".

Ms Sisulu’s spokesman, Ndivhuwo Mabaya, said that Ms van Minnen was not an acting mayor and therefore her presence at the meeting "would not have assisted with anything, as she does not have mayoral executive powers — she was just there to take minutes".

"The city was informed that only mayors will attend the meeting. Mayor de Lille issued a number of media statements attacking the national Department of Human Settlements in the past six months; it was only fair for her to attend the meeting herself so that she can explain herself on a number of issues. We suspect she did not attend the meeting to run away from them," Mr Mabaya said.

- BDLive

‘Deadly’ E.coli levels found in Cape river

Cape Town - A river flowing into scenic Gordon’s Bay has been found to contain potentially deadly levels of E.coli bacteria. It has sparked calls from the ANC for City of Cape Town officials to take immediate action and prevent life-threatening infections, especially among people with low immune systems and those living with HIV.

The Sir Lowry’s Pass River was found on October 23 to have an E.coli count of 130 000 per 100ml at the point where it flows into Gordon’s Bay.

The test was confirmed by the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS).

This count is four times that found by a DA health fact-finding mission into borehole water at the poor community of Mokopane in Limpopo, where the E.coli count was 40 000 per 100ml.

DA health spokesman Dr Wilmot James described a count this high as “highly pathogenic and unfit for human or animal consumption”.

But he pointed out that some of the water at Mokopane was for drinking, whereas the water in the Sir Lowry’s Pass River was not intended for human consumption.

The results on the Sir Lowry’s Pass River show the E.coli count increases dramatically as the river winds down to the ocean after passing through an informal settlement 6km upstream.

The information comes two weeks after a False Bay fish exporter revealed he found dangerously high levels of E.coli in harders (mullet) tested in July.

E.coli, or Escherichia coli, is normally found in the intestines of people and animals. Most E.coli is harmless, but its presence indicates the presence of pathogenic (illness-causing) compounds.

The young, elderly, pregnant and those with weakened immune systems, such as people with HIV, are particularly vulnerable.

“This could be devastating,” said the ANC’s acting spokesman Cobus Grobler. “An E.coli count that high is a potential killer, especially if you have TB or are HIV-positive, because you are then more prone to be infected.

“It can have severe, if not fatal, consequences. The city may not think it is serious but to the poor it is life-threatening,” said Grobler.

“The city seems to know there is a problem in that area, yet they are doing nothing. If this escalates they could find themselves legally liable.”

But mayoral committee member for health Benedicta Van Minnen said there was no need to be alarmed.

“The City of Cape Town cannot comment on these results as they were not analysed in the city’s laboratory and it is unclear how the samples were taken, stored and transported to the laboratory.”

She acknowledged that the count was over the limit for recreational water use as set by the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry’s SA Water Quality Guidelines.

A single sample result should give an E.coli count of equal to or less than 1 000 per 100ml or it is unsafe for bathers and other water users. “However, the appropriate manner of testing is to weigh each single sample result against a number of fortnightly samples collected over three months.

“A single sample result does not really provide adequate information to draw any specific conclusions,” said Van Minnen.

Rivers passing through urbanised areas often had “background” pollution owing to contamination on hard surfaces that was washed into the river by rain. Blocked or overflowing sewers could also cause a problem.

“The water quality in the Sir Lowry’s River is therefore impacted to varying degrees at various locations. However, it does not impact on the overall water quality along the coastline. Bikini Beach is a Blue Flag-accredited beach and the water quality there is fine,” said Van Minnen.

“The water in the Sir Lowry’s River would be considered non-potable – it is not for consumption.”

The SABS report comes just three months after the DA embarked on a four-province water-testing tour in ANC municipalities.

The DA’s James, along with Kevin Mileham and Leon Basson, travelled across Limpopo, North West, Mpumalanga and the Eastern Cape investigating the quality of drinking water and water supplies.

This was sparked by an outbreak of diarrhoea in Brits in North West that affected more than 500 people and led to the deaths of at least three babies.

James described an E.coli count of 40 000 per 100ml in boreholes in the community of Mokopane in Limpopo as highly pathogenic and unfit for human or animal consumption. “That will kill you if you drink it.”

The count at Gordon’s Bay is more than three times higher than found at Mokopane.

The DA vowed to take legal action against the ANC-run municipalities where high E.coli counts were discovered.

But on Wednesday, James told the Cape Argus the Gordon’s Bay results needed to be tested over a period by the National Health Laboratory before confirmed as reliable.

“Our oversight visits to the provinces examined E.coli levels in drinking water. The Gordon Bay tests were of non-potable river water not intended for human consumption.

“It appears as if the river in question is polluted as a result of dumping and contamination practices of civilians and possibly businesses.”

He said the city ran educational programmes to promote public health.

“We can always do more – including post warnings – and I give you our assurance we will do whatever is appropriate under the circumstances.”

elliott.sylvester@inl.co.za

- Cape Argus

Lindiwe Sisulu and the New Denialism

In 2005, early in her in her first term as Minister of Housing, Lindiwe Sisulu announced that the state had resolved to 'eradicate slums' by 2014. This was a time when the technocratic ideal had more credibility than it did now and officials and politicians often spoke, with genuine conviction, as if it were an established fact that this aspiration would translate into reality.

It was not unusual for people trying to engage the state around questions of urban land and housing to be rebuffed as troublemakers, either ignorant or malicious, on the grounds that it was an established fact that there would be no more shacks by 2014.

As we head towards the end of 2014 there are considerably more people living in shacks than there were in 2005, in 1994 or at any point in our history. The gulf between the state's aspirations to shape society and what actually happens in society have also been starkly illustrated at the more local level. Sisulu's flagship housing project, the N2 Gateway project in Cape Town, resulted in acute conflict and remains in various kinds of crisis to this day.

One of the lessons to be learnt from the denialism around the nature and scale of the urban crisis that characterised Thabo Mbeki's Presidency is that although the state is certainly a powerful actor, it has often been profoundly wrong about its capacity to understand and to shape social reality.

But Sisulu's first term as the Minister of Housing is not only remembered for her failure to grasp either the scale of the demand for urban land and housing or the limits of the state's response. There was also a marked authoritarianism to her approach. She did not oppose the escalating and consistently unlawful violence with which municipalities across the country were attempting to contain the physical manifestation of the urban crisis via land occupations.

Sisulu also offered her full support to the failed attempt, first proposed in the Polokwane Resolutions, and then taken forward in the KwaZulu-Natal parliament in the form of the Slums Act in 2007, to roll back some of the limited rights that had been conceded in the early years of democracy to people occupying land without the consent of the state or private land owners.

At the same time she also earned some notoriety for her unilateral, and clearly unlawful, declaration in 2007 that residents of the Joe Slovo settlement in Cape Town would be permanently removed from the (entirely mythical) 'housing list' for opposing forced removal. She was also silent in the face of the violence marshalled through party structures against shack dwellers who had had the temerity to organise around issues of urban land and housing independently of the ANC in both Durban and on the East Rand in 2009 and 2010.

Her second term as Minister, in a portfolio now termed Human Settlements, has been marked by a similar silence in response to the even more brazen forms of repression, including assassination, now visited on people organised outside of the ANC in shack settlements in Durban. But there have been some important shifts in her position.

One is that like her predecessor Tokyo Sexwale, she no longer speaks as if the 'eradication of slums' is imminent. In this regard the state has developed a more realistic understanding of the situation it confronts. Another shift is Sisulu's opposition to unlawful evictions in Cape Town. This is, given her on-going silence in response to violent and unlawful evictions elsewhere in the country, clearly an expedient rather than a principled position. But in a context where land occupations are routinely misrepresented through the lens of criminality or political conspiracy her framing of her opposition to eviction in Cape Town in the language of justice may open some space in elite publics to politicise the contestation over urban land, something that is relentlessly expelled from the terrain of the political by a variety of elite actors.

But it is Sisulu's recent declaration that the state intends to do away with the provision of free housing and that people under forty will no longer be eligible for public housing that has been particularly controversial. Both aspects of this comment position her in direct contradiction to the law and the policies to which the government is, at least in principle, committed.

This is nothing new. When it comes to its response to the urban land occupation the state routinely speaks and acts in direct contradiction to both law and policy. What is significant here is the indication that the state, increasingly short of cash, intends to step back from some of its commitments to sustain some forms of public welfare.

Sisulu is presenting the state's public housing programme as if it were a temporary state response to apartheid, which now that things have been normalised, can be abandoned. Both parts of this equation are seriously problematic.

The ANC, in a posture that these days is simply farcical given that it is Putin rather than Lenin that restores the sparkle to Zuma's eyes in tough times, likes to pretend to itself that it is a revolutionary organisation. But public housing, far from being some kind of unique and temporary South African exception to the general status quo, is a standard part of even basic social democratic programmes.

Countries in the South like Bolivia, Brazil and Venezuela all have public housing programmes of various kinds. These programmes all have serious flaws, but the fact that they exist and that other states are committed to public housing as a principle, should not be denied. In Venezuela the public housing programme includes housing that is entirely free for entirely impoverished people. There are also governments in the South that have actively sought to legalise land occupations and support the improvement of conditions in shack settlements.

Sisulu's assertion that people under forty "have lost nothing [to apartheid]" is one of the most extraordinary statements to have escaped from the mouth of a cabinet minister since 1994. The pretence that apartheid's consequences came to an end in 1994 is the sort of denialism that is so out of touch with reality - and in a way that works to naturalise inequalities inherited from a long history of brutal oppression that turned race into class - that it's almost obscene to even engage it as if it were a serious proposition.

In a situation in which millions of people cannot access housing through the market the state should recognise the social value of land occupations, offer all the support that it can to improve conditions in shack settlements and develop the best and most extensive public housing programme possible.

But if the state continues to see most land occupations as criminal and to curtail its own public housing programme, it will place millions of people in a situation that is just not viable. The inevitable consequence of the state committing itself to an urban agenda that simply has no place for millions of people will be a radical escalation of the already intense conflict in our cities. To put it plainly guns will become even more central to how our cities are governed. Sisulu's comments amount to a declaration of war.

Dr. Pithouse teaches politics at Rhodes University.

- allAfrica

Dear Lindiwe Sisulu

Dear Lindiwe Sisulu

by Biko Monyatsi @bikomfident on twitter

Daughter of the struggle, flower of the relentless revolution of Azania, when the rainbow masses drafted the Freedom Charter in Kliptown, they weren't in some shebeen under the influence of opium. When the Likes of Tambo and Tata Sisulu declared that ‘there shall be houses, security and comfort’, they didn’t leave out an age-restriction clause by some mistake. This was done with sheer sobriety understanding the socio-economics of this country.  They understood that challenges the old were confronted were the same the youth were faced with. The struggle in general was not age specific. In fact, the youth were affected the most.

I must admit, I was not only taken aback by your utterances, being appalled is an understatement. I was disappointed beyond words, not exactly by your testament but by the fact that these painful words were spewed by you mama. I could simply not believe that such immeasurable and inexplicable ignorance coupled with arrogance is coming from you, you mama,a liberation fighter who had a first-hand experience of apartheid. 

You, who understands what, being black, desperate, oppressed and destitute means. Could this selective amnesia be so culminated that you can forget where you left us before you ascended ranks of government? Could you be so well-cushioned in your expensive suburban house that you've forgotten that our young people are still (like in the past) squashed in shacks with hopes of one day occupying 50 square meter RDPs?

Have you forgotten that Langa, Dieplsloot and other informal settlements aren’t old age homes but places were young people are squeezed in perpetual suffering hoping for a better tomorrow?

Lest you forget mama, a 39 year old South African was born in 1975. Lest you forget 11 million children getting child grants aren't getting them as freebies or gifts but because their parents are unemployed and cannot afford basic needs. Parents of these children happen to be these under 40s you are referring to. 8 million young people (under 40s you are referring to) are unemployed, not because they are lazy but because some could not finish school, some could afford to go to varsities and some cannot (even after studying) find jobs, all because of the socio-economic conditions of this country , all as a result of apartheid.

To then turn a blind eye of our plight with such confidence is worrying. The apparent conscience sclerosis you have is very concerning. 

Your statement is not only glaringly preposterous but seeks to inform us (as young people) that you are not there in our interest, which is self-defeating since we form more that 70% of the population in this country. If we can’t afford education or get jobs, how are we supposed to afford shelter? RDPs aren’t for the old aged but for the disadvantaged and indigents, a category we happen to be part of.

Mama, it is in your own interest to retract what you said and apologise to us young people.

- Opinion24

The twin scourge of promise and legacy

Minister of Human Settlements Lindiwe Sisulu thinks that if you’re under 40 years of age, you’re not affected by apartheid’s consequences. Don’t be lazy, then, and expect a free house. Housing from the state is strictly intended to “right the wrongs of the past”, and therefore under forties should be excluded.

This is a shocking argument, and although it has generated discussion, the minister deserves further engagement on the multiple ways in which her viewpoint is ahistorical, and even unconstitutional.

Minister Sisulu went on to say (addressing anyone under 40): “None of you are ever going to get a house free from me while I live.” What incredible arrogance, based on a poor understanding of history’s reach into our democracy, and a poor understanding of the government’s constitutional duties.

First, let’s engage the most compelling defence of the minister that some have offered on her clumsy behalf. Some argue that, actually, the minister has a point when you take into account the fact that the state necessarily has limited resources to provide housing, and so must prioritise older people, and only young people with special needs like those from child-headed households.

This is justified, so the argument goes, because young people are too entitled, and at any rate have a lifetime of opportunity ahead of them still, if only they used their energy to get ahead in life rather than waiting for the state to give them everything they need.

Is this defence of Sisulu fair, and convincing?

Not really, for the simple reason that the various ANC governments of the past 20 years are mostly responsible for any culture of entitlement that South Africans have become addicted to. So the state doesn’t have the moral authority to lecture any lazy or demotivated or entitled citizens. Instead, the state should take the biggest slice of the blame for engendering this culture of expectation.

This, of course, doesn’t mean it is false to say many under forties are wrongly waiting for the government to do everything for them. But who makes that argument matters. If you are responsible, in large part, for my entitlement attitude, then it’s not clear to me that you should be the first to tell me, in the name of newly discovered tough love, that I should now pull myself together.

This message would be far less controversial, divisive and worthy of scorn had the minister – or even better the president – delivered a major speech first in which they apologised for the state consistently raising false expectations among citizens over the past 20 years that they would deliver a better life for all.

The very use of phrases like “service delivery” and the size of our welfare budget engendered a culture of expectation. A confession that it was wrong, unrealistic and not sustainable would be a good start from the state.

If the state were to take responsibility for this culture, and took citizens into its confidence about what, realistically, it can do to help citizens, and what it can’t do, then the tough-love message would resonate with many more than was the case when Sisulu shouted from the rooftops recently.

However, even if the minister did have the moral authority to tell young people where to get off, the tough-love viewpoint isn’t entirely convincing. It is premised on the false belief that the past does not affect someone under the age of 40. That is ahistorical and based on patently false beliefs about the nature of apartheid

It is a viewpoint I’d expect from AfriForum, determined to pretend that in 1994 we all started on an equal footing and with a blank slate.

That is not historical reality. Apartheid didn’t just affect my grandparents and my parents. It has affected me too, and materially so, although I am only 35, as a result of being born into a family that was affected by the evil of apartheid.

If, in 1979, I was born into a white family, for example, the statistical and empirical truth is that I would have a much better chance of being a professional, educated and employed 35-year-old in 2014 than if I had been born in a shack.

That is because the intergenerational consequences of poverty, and state-sponsored anti-black racism, have far-reaching structural consequences that cannot be wiped out in one or two generations. Some of us born in 1979 did, of course, escape our cycle of poverty in poor black townships. But we were lucky, beating the odds, and know the face of structural poverty when we go home. It still exists.

Sisulu ought to know better, and yes particularly so as a black South African coming from a family that was deeply steeped in the fight against the structural impact of apartheid.

Perhaps what her comments highlight are two uncomfortable truths about democratic South Africa: politicians who have always been, or have become, privileged (regardless of skin colour) suffer from convenient amnesia about the structural nature of apartheid and exclusion; second, if the state runs out of excuses for poor delivery, it could try to shift the conversation away from its track record towards citizen attitudes. Yet, if we are honest, very few South Africans under 40 would demand houses from the state if they had been given adequate opportunities from the state to excel and become self-sufficient.

So unless the state wants to also argue it never had a political and constitutional duty to progressively realise the rights of citizens to education, healthcare and housing, then it must be embarrassed that many citizens who are under 40 actually don’t desire to be dependent on the state. They simply don’t have opportunities to become educated, and many who are don’t have opportunities to find work as a result of the low economic growth we’re experiencing, and barriers to becoming entrepreneurs such as a risk-averse banking sector not about to give a loan to asset-less Eusebius.

How can Sisulu be so oblivious to her government’s role over the past 20 years in not generating enough opportunities for young people to escape the consequences of the past? It is baffling. But maybe not, if you take into account that acknowledging this narrative is the equivalent of admitting that you’ve been less awesome in the driving seat of state power than you often proclaim.

Sadly for the minister, while she can choose to be politically arrogant, she cannot ignore the constitution. The constitution doesn’t say every citizen must get a house. But it does say the state has a duty, within its available resources, to realise the right to housing, progressively. As with Aids drugs, it would have to show that the state has rational grounds for not providing housing, within its budgetary constraints, for all citizens that need it, and not just over forties.

The constitution doesn’t distinguish between under forties and over forties. I would love to see the minister try to convert that viewpoint into a successful constitutional argument for discriminating against citizens younger than 40.

Must we stop being reliant on the state as young South Africans? Absolutely. But then the state, in turn, must stop making empty promises that worsen a sense of entitlement among young people.

Better still, jack up the education system, reduce barriers to entrepreneurship and make the economic climate exciting enough for local business to invest more in the local economy, while also attracting further foreign investment. I bet my left kidney that fewer under forties would demand housing if the state performed better than it currently does.

* Eusebius McKaiser is the best-selling author of A Bantu In My Bathroom and Could I Vote DA? A Voter’s Dilemma. He is currently working on his third book, Searching For Sello Duiker.

** The views expressed here do not necessarily represent those of Independent Media.

- The Star

Minister Sisulu, politicking doesn't improve living conditions

Note to Editors: This is an extract of a speech delivered by the DA Shadow Minister of Human Settlements, Makashule Gana MP, during a sitting of the National Assembly in Parliament today. 

Honourable Speaker,

Honourable Members,

Now more than ever, we need a constructive debate on how to make our cities welcoming for all people moving there. We cannot deny that urbanisation is placing enormous pressure on our local governments. We must work together to make our cities work for everyone. 

Honourable Speaker, 

The City of Cape Town tried to engage with Sanral as early as 2010 to install services to the shacks on their land, resulting in several warnings from the City about the untenable living conditions. Sanral's inaction formed part of its plans to bring e-tolls to the Western Cape.

After the evictions took place the City of Cape Town made available community facilities to assist those affected by Sanral's legal action. 

The matter is currently handled by the Housing Development Agency (HDA) which coordinated the move of the residents back to Lwandle and assisted in the set-up of temporary structures. The City of Cape Town has provided all the material.

The City is prohibited by law from providing services on land owned by another sphere of government or private land owner. The City is awaiting permission from SANRAL to provide toilets. Eskom wants to install electricity but they too are waiting on SANRAL to approve.

But let us be clear, this is not a Cape Town issue, this is a nationwide issue, affecting many municipalities, especially metropolitan municipalities. 

Honourable Speaker, 

I am happy to hear that the Minister agrees with the DA that any illegal occupation of land should be discouraged. 

I am sure that she is also in agreement that we cannot incentivise illegal land invasion by providing alternative accommodation to the detriment of others who have been waiting on housing lists for almost 20 years. 

Perhaps one of the most disturbing elements of this whole situation is that fact that Ses'Khona - the network includes several ANC councillors and aspirant councillors - scored R330 000 from Lwandle plot-selling. Evidence suggests that a total of 660 sites were pegged out on SANRAL land for shacks to be built at a minimum price of R500 each. 

Taking advantage of vulnerable people is deplorable and should be condemned. I would call on the Minister to condemn Ses'Khona for these illegal activities. 

Honourable Speaker, 

Instead of confining the investigation to one DA-run province, the Minister should have launched a nationwide investigation into evictions, which occur all too often.

The Minister's spokesperson tried to justify to journalists why the Department did not investigate other evictions in the country: "When a Mayor and a Premier, on a cold winter day, abandon its citizens, the national department must intervene. In other provinces the mayors and premiers never abandon their people." 

This is an insult to South Africans.

The true story is that on a very cold winter's day in June this year more than 200 Zandspruit residents in Johannesburg were forcefully removed and on day two SAPS fired rubber bullets at protesting residents.

In the same month in the eThekwini Municipality, 100 shacks in Cato Crest's Marikana Land Occupation and Lamontville's Madlala Village were destroyed and left about 300 people homeless. 

What about the Uitenhage Demolitions in the Eastern Cape, Mogale City, Alexandra and Belgravia evictions in Gauteng and the Umzimkulu municipality demolitions in Kwa-Zulu Natal?

There is much work to be done to deliver adequate land and housing to our people. The Report tabled today should be scrutinised by the committee to see how we can move forward on the issue of evictions. 

In the meantime I would encourage the Minister to work harder to solve the underperformance of provincial departments and municipalities - including actually spending the Rural Infrastructure Grant Funding, upgrading informal settlements and providing recreational facilities in informal settlements so people can build communities. 

Honourable Speaker, 

Section 26 of the Bill of Rights states that "Everyone has the right to adequate housing" and further that the State must make the necessary arrangements to provide for citizens who cannot provide adequate housing for themselves.

Instead of focusing on preventing illegal evictions, land must be made available closer to urban centres - especially land owned by state entities that is sitting idle - for the development of human settlements. 

Minister let us not forget that Human Settlements plays an important role in redressing some of the imbalances of apartheid spatial development, and providing dignity and land ownership to many South African citizens must be a task we all take up without playing petting politics. 

Let's make our cities welcoming to all people.

- Ndza khensa. DA

- Politicsweb

Human Settlements Minister Receives Lwandle Report

Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu says she will study the findings and recommendations of the report of the Ministerial Commission of Inquiry that probed the inhumane evictions of families in Lwandle, Cape Town.

The Commission of Inquiry chairman, Advocate Denzil Potgieter, and other members of the commission handed over a 296-page report to the Minister during a media briefing at the Imbizo Centre in Cape Town on Wednesday.

The inquiry was concluded at the end of September after public hearings in mid-July.

During a cold winter night in June, 800 families in Lwandle were evicted from an illegally-occupied land.

"I intend to take time to study this report and thereafter I intend to ensure that it is given to the various Ministers who are affected and all those parties that are affected, including the Minister of Human Settlements in the Western Cape, the Cape Town Mayor and SANRAL CEO.

"It will take me one day to study 296 pages of the report. To apply my mind, it takes me one week.

"After one week, I will then forward the report to the Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements," she said.

Advocate Denzil Potgieter said while the inquiry enjoyed great public support, the Western Cape Provincial Government and the City of Cape Town did not cooperate.

"... It is to be noted, however, that the refusal by the government of the Western Cape - the Provincial Department of Human Settlements and the City of Cape Town in particular - to participate in the public hearings has hampered the work of the inquiry.

"We are nevertheless more than convinced at this juncture that having had public hearings, where parties were allowed to make oral presentations and allowed meaningful engagement with the members, has enriched the work [of the inqiry]."

Some of the recommendations that Potgieter highlighted were that amendments needed to be made to legislation that dealt with evictions and illegally occupied land, and the role of all officials in the chain of evictions.

Potgieter also recommended that the Minister take a look at the housing waiting list and consider launching a forensic investigation to probe all the challenges and shortcomings that came with the list.

He said the affected parties, who were invited to make presentations at public hearings, included institutions like the SA National Roads Agency Limited (SANRAL), SAPS, The Sheriff of the Strand, Western Cape Human Settlements Department, City of Cape Town, the Lwandle and Nomzamo evictees and NGOs.

- AllAfrica

Report on Lwandle evictions completed

Cape Town - The ministerial inquiry's report into the Lwandle, Cape Town, evictions has been completed and will be handed over to Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, her office said on Thursday.

“The Minister of Human Settlements Lindiwe Sisulu has been informed by the chairperson of the ministerial (inquiry) on the eviction of Lwandle/Nomzamo residents advocate Denzil Potgieter SC, that the (inquiry) has completed its task,” spokesman Ndivhuwo Mabaya said in a statement.

The report would be handed over to Sisulu in Cape Town next Wednesday.

Sisulu set up the inquiry to probe the forced removals from the SA National Roads Agency Limited road reserve on June 2 and 3.

“At the time of the establishment of the (inquiry) the minister indicated that her main concern is that no citizens must ever be evicted without temporary accommodation,” Mabaya said.

- Sapa

‘Something smelly about loo audit’

Cape Town - The Social Justice Coalition has given the City of Cape Town four weeks to respond to its damning social audit and demand for a city-wide sanitation plan, or it will take legal action against the metro.

According to the findings of the SJC’s social audit of toilets in Khayelitsha, released on Wednesday, more than half of the 500 communal flush toilets inspected were dirty outside and almost half were so filthy inside that they could not be used.

This meant that toilet pans were blocked with excrement or rubbish, or that seats were so dirty that they could not used.

The SJC has repeatedly asked the city to provide an implementation plan for the janitorial programme which it said is costing ratepayers R60 million.

But the city has hit back, accusing the SJC of refusing to work directly with it to improve conditions in informal settlements.

“Why does the SJC not report faults when they occur, but rather wait to compile ‘dossiers’ with out-of-date data for maximum self-serving publicity?” said Ernest Sonnenberg, the mayoral committee member for utility services.

According to the SJC, one in four of the toilets inspected during the week-long audit in July were not working.

Out of these, 15 percent were blocked, 12 percent had no water and six percent no longer had a sewage pipe.

Although janitors are responsible for fixing minor problems, the social audit found that most of the toilets needed major or minor repairs. These included problems such as broken cistern covers, missing or broken toilet handles, missing water pipes or toilet pans and 76 of the 528 toilets had a broken or missing door.

The SJC reported that most of the janitors employed by the city had a contract and worked regular hours. Almost all of the 31 janitors interviewed lived in the section in which they worked.

However, the SJC found that the janitors lacked the equipment they needed to do an effective job.

None of the 31 had water pliers and only six had toilet brushes.

The audit also raised serious concerns about the safety of the janitors working in the area. Only four had received any health and safety training, while six had not had any training.

Most of the janitors - 87 percent - were not being inoculated against diseases.

“This would indicate that the (city) has not prioritised inoculation and that the vast majority of janitors have been exposed to the risk of disease.”

Some residents clean the toilets themselves, because of the random cleaning done by some of the janitors.

The SJC contended that, in the absence of a clear plan, the city’s janitorial service had been “haphazard, poorly implemented and regularly ineffective”.

SJC project manager Axolile Notywala said residents were not consulted when the city started the service in 2012, and many now believed that it was not operating effectively.

Notywala said the SJC has asked the city to release its janitorial service plan within the next four weeks, and also respond to the recommendations of the SA Human Rights Commission’s sanitation report that highlighted gross shortcomings in the provision of basic services in informal areas.

Responding to the city’s accusations that the SJC was targeting the metro, which provides residents with universal access to water and “adequate” sanitation, Notywala said: “We know the issues exist elsewhere, but our people are in Khayelitsha”. He said a sanitation plan could be used as a model in informal settlements in other areas.

Notywala said the SJC was still willing to work with the city on finding solutions.

But Sonnenberg said the SJC had yet to apologise for the “inaccurate” information circulated at a previous audit on area cleaning. Given the SJC’s “past disingenuous conduct and fundamental lack of understanding of the programme”, it would not be included in the city’s own assessment of its janitorial service that would determine the future of this pilot project.

anel.lewis@inl.co.za

- Cape Argus

‘Treat Lwandle evictees with respect’

Cape Town - The spotlight at the Lwandle ministerial commission of inquiry has fallen on the dignity of evictees, with NGOs and the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) calling for changes to the law.

Commissioner Mohamed Ameermia said: “Sheriffs of the court and assisting police should treat evictees with dignity and respect at all times.

There should also be no unreasonable damage to property. We have got to look at evictions in a humane way.”

Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu set up the inquiry to probe the forced removals from a SA National Roads Agency Limited road reserve on June 2 and 3.

The road reserve has to be kept clear for the possible rerouting of the N2 national freeway.

NGOs and rights group have until Monday to make written submissions.

The SAHRC submitted a report with its recommendations to the inquiry. It said it was occupied with its own inquiry and reserved its rights.

Of the few recommendations screened at a presentation, the SAHRC said communities should be evicted only on the grounds of a court order that considered “all relevant” circumstances at the planned time of the eviction.

To the sheriffs, the SAHRC recommended:

- That they act within their code of conduct.

- Should at all times treat people with dignity and respect, and prevent causing damage to property.

- Be more accessible to the public.

Ameermia said evictions could only take place on the basis of a court order and had to abide by the Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act.

Evictees should be given the opportunity to be involved in the resolution of the dispute.

“Plans should be made for alternative accommodation,” he said.

Lwandle evictees were forced to find shelter in the Nomzamo community hall.

Just over 300 people were still living in the hall three months after the eviction, inquiry chairman Denzil Potgieter said on Wednesday.

The inquiry previously heard that people would be moved back to the land they were evicted from.

Sanitation and basic services were being provided.

After visiting the land recently, the inquiry found that 483 temporary structures had been erected and the majority were occupied.

Meanwhile, National Association of Democratic Law-yers chairman Joey Moses told the inquiry the court order that Sanral used to remove people and structures from its land was unconstitutional. He said the order obtained on January 24 was addressed to people intending to occupy the land, clearly excluding those who had already established their homes there.

jason.felix@inl.co.za

- Cape Times

Evictions put Lwandle on map

Cape Town - The Lwandle township in Cape Town was “off the map” until people and structures were violently removed from there recently, the Lwandle Migrant Labour Museum said on Wednesday.

Acting chairwoman of the museum's board, Noeleen Murray, said although media coverage had thrust the area into the spotlight since the removals on June 2 and 3, it remained dislocated and invisible.

She said the name of the affected informal settlement within the area, Siyanyanzela, had rarely been used.

“The Google car had not even been into Lwandle,” she told an inquiry investigating the removals, showing the search engine's largely sparse map of the area.

She asked how many inquiry members had visited the museum and was met with one or two raised hands.

Inquiry chairman Denzil Potgieter smiled and said her invite had been noted.

Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu set up the inquiry to probe the forced removals from the SA National Roads Agency Limited road reserve.

Murray said the area had a history of marginalisation since its establishment in 1958 as a site for migrant labourers in single-sex hostels.

In the late 1980s, residents in nearby Strand petitioned for the removal of Lwandle, considering its residents an “uncontrolled social problem”.

When a democratic government was elected in the 1990s, hostels were turned into family housing and solar water heaters were installed on the roofs.

“In 2014, soon after the evictions, they 1/8the heaters 3/8 started to disappear from rooftops as they were sold off for scrap metal,” Murray said.

She said there was a housing market emerging in Lwandle, and that this was accompanied by increased calls for fencing, closed off spaces and security.

The inquiry heard submissions from legal and policy research institutions on Wednesday, including the SA Human Rights Commission, which was conducting its own investigation into the removals.

SAHRC commissioner Mohamed Ameermia said evictions should be done humanely and abide by the Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act.

“In conclusion, we have got to look at evictions in a humane way in the spirit of ubuntu 1/8African concept of humanity 3/8,” he said.

Plans should also be made for alternative accommodation and municipalities should be joined to any eviction order to facilitate these contingency plans.

Lwandle evictees were forced to find shelter in the Nomzamo community hall.

Potgieter said more than 300 people were still living in the hall three months after the eviction.

“We are not sure what the developments around that are going to be but we are keeping an eye on that aspect,” Potgieter said.

The inquiry previously heard that people would be moved back to the land they were evicted from. Sanitation and basic services were being provided.

After visiting the land on Tuesday, the inquiry found that 483 temporary structures had been erected and occupied.

Relevant parties, such as non-governmental organisations, political parties and ordinary people, were invited to make final submissions by next Monday. The inquiry could schedule further oral hearings after considering these submissions.

- Sapa

Lwandle eviction order ‘unconstitutional’

Cape Town - The court order that Sanral used to remove people and structures off its land is unconstitutional, the National Association of Democratic Lawyers (Nadel) said on Wednesday.

“This court order is actually, in accordance with general constitutional principles, unconstitutional and unenforceable,” said Nadel's Western Cape chairman Joey Moses.

“It could never serve as any legal basis to evict people from Lwandle and on the face of it, it does not authorise any such evictions.”

Moses was presenting to an inquiry investigating the removals off a SA National Roads Agency Limited road reserve in Lwandle, Cape Town, on June 2 and June 3.

He said the order obtained on January 24 was addressed to people intending to occupy the land, clearly excluding those who had already established their homes.

Where such an interim court order effectively served as an eviction order, certain eviction protections applied.

“If those eviction protections are not considered by a court of law before issuing a court order, that order falls to be set aside.”

The association made 10 recommendations to the inquiry on how land removals could be better dealt with in future.

One of these was to amend the Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act (PIE) Act, to include a report from a probation officer before evictions took place.

This report would need to provide information such as the availability of suitable alternative accommodation, how the eviction would affect constitutional rights and measures that would be put in place to prevent further land invasions.

Another recommendation was to provide judges and magistrates with comprehensive training in respect of the PIE act and other land tenure regulations.

- Sapa

Evictions must include ubuntu: SAHRC

Cape Town - Evictions of illegal land dwellers must be done humanely, the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) said in Cape Town on Wednesday.

Sheriffs of the court and assisting police should treat evictees with dignity and respect at all times, SAHRC commissioner Mohamed Ameermia said at the inquiry investigating the removal of people and structures from private land in Lwandle, Cape Town.

There should also be no unreasonable damage to property.

“In conclusion, we have got to look at evictions in a humane way in the spirit of Ubuntu 1/8African concept of humanity 3/8,” he said.

Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu set up the inquiry to probe the forced removals off the SA National Roads Agency Limited road reserve on June 2 and 3.

The SAHRC had submitted a report with its recommendations to the inquiry. It indicated it was busy with its own inquiry on the removals and reserved its rights.

Ameermia said evictions could only take place on the basis of a court order and had to abide by the Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act.

Evictees should be given the opportunity to be involved in the resolution of the dispute, and not be seen as an afterthought.

Plans should be made for alternative accommodation. Municipalities should be joined to any eviction order to facilitate these contingency plans.

Lwandle evictees were forced to find shelter in the Nomzamo community hall. Just over 300 people were still living in the hall three months after the eviction, inquiry chair Denzil Potgieter said on Wednesday.

“We are not sure what the developments around that are going to be but we are keeping an eye on that aspect,” he said.

The inquiry previously heard that people would be moved back to the land they were evicted from. Sanitation and basic services were being provided.

After visiting the land on Tuesday, the inquiry found that 483 temporary structures had been erected and the majority were occupied.

- Sapa

Cape battles land grabbers

Cape Town - As she watched her shack being demolished, Nosiphiwe Mthathi, looking tired after spending the night erecting the little dwelling, said: “I had no other choice but to build here”.

It is a statement echoed by many of the thousands who have decided to grab private or city land near the Cape’s townships. It’s last-ditch effort to escape from expensive rent, dirty conditions and overcrowding, adds the Enkanini resident.

Land invasions have become a common sight. In the past year alone, the city’s department of human settlements has documented 21 invasions in nine areas, including Philippi, Strand, Dunoon, Khayelitsha, Mitchells Plain, Wallacedene, Browns Farm, Lwandle and Lavender Hill.

The land grab has sparked violence as authorities clashed with residents.

Rocks, stun grenades, rubber bullets, hammers and even spades have become the ammunition of a back-and-forth conflict.

Authorities say they need to uphold the constitution and protect the land owners. But squatters say they just need a roof over their heads, something which local government has “failed to provide”.

In Marikana, a sprawling informal settlement that grew from just a few shacks erected on private land in Philippi back in 2003, tensions have been mounting.

For weeks authorities have moved into the township to demolish “uninhabited” shacks, with residents quickly gathering materials and rebuilding the dwellings overnight.

There have been riots and there have even been unconfirmed reports that police used live ammunition. Some residents have been evicted as many as a dozen times, says Tumi Ramahlele.

When asked why people continued to risk their livelihoods to grab land, the Marikana resident and community leader said they had “no other choice”.

“These people are coming from rural areas. There is poverty there and facilities are non-existent. Coming to the Western Cape is a chance for a job, to provide for the people back home.”

Ramahlele said on arrival they struggled. Social grants were swallowed up by hungry families and renting backyard dwellings cost too much.

“It is not our first choice to move onto this land,” he added. “But when we have tried everything, marching to Parliament with no result, and we see that this land is vacant, we decide to govern ourselves.

“We will not move,” he warned.

“It would seem that people are coming mainly from backyards where they say they are paying exorbitant rent,” said mayoral committee member for human settlements Siyabulela Mamkeli.

“(But) there is no excuse for illegal actions. The city will continue to uphold the values contained in the constitution. This includes respect for the dignity of all, compliance with the rule of law at all times, and preventing queue jumping by those who illegally invade land,” he wrote in an email.

He added that at times squatters had invaded land set aside for housing.

The city established the anti-land invasion unit in 2009 to prevent illegal occupation of city and provincial land. The unit has been closely involved in the recent Marikana evictions after it was brought in to assist police execute a court order to demolish “uninhabited” dwellings on private land.

Mayoral committee member for safety and security JP Smith said a structure was only deemed inhabited after furniture had been moved inside and the family had slept overnight. He said that in most areas, land invasions were spearheaded by “opportunists”. However, in Marikana, he has frequently claimed the most recent land grab was politically motivated.

“Blaming a third force is a pretty common accusation from politicians, whether DA or ANC,” said Children of South Africa founder Jared Sacks.

“Every time there is a land occupation or large protests or roads being blocked, Smith and others in the city immediately claim they are politically motivated. It is a way of delegitimising the actions of poor people who are desperate for something better. It also has the effect of maintaining the widespread belief that poor people can’t think and act logically for themselves.”

Sacks has worked closely with residents in Marikana and has been a vocal critic of the way the city has handled evictions in the past.

He said the occupation of the land had nothing to do with the ANC or Ses’Khona People’s Rights Movement.

“They’re desperate. They don’t need to be instigated or manipulated.”

Sacks said the city had failed to address the housing crisis in Cape Town.

“Yes, legally the right to property is enshrined in the constitution. However, the right to housing and various other rights such as dignity are also enshrined in the constitution and legally take precedence over the right to property.”

He suggested the city should purchase the land and formalise such settlements or make other land available.

The land where Marikana first began to develop was bought for around R5m in 2003. The owner, Oscar Saunderson - a spokesman for many of the property owners in Philippi East who are battling with squatters - said his plan was to turn the land into an economic hub.

But invasions had turned it into a “time bomb”, he said.

“Every neighbourhood needs a mall, industrial park, residential and social developments. Without that you can not achieve healthy growth,” Saunderson said.

Invasions had turned Philippi into an even more unstable and fragile destination for any industrial warehousing, he said.

“The land was worth around R5m, and today it is not worth much. I am still liable for rates and taxes, I am the legal owner, but I can’t set foot on my own land.”

He and other private landowners in Philippi have an interdict from the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court preventing illegal occupation or trespassing on the land.

However, Saunderson said: “Eviction orders, interdicts and who knows what is not stopping the masses doing what they want. The police came to the party, but in many cases too late. Earlier reaction times would have helped.”

“What does the future hold for Philippi? Housing? I don’t know. As experts on this area, we know that jobs are pivotal to changing the neighbourhood for good.”

We’ll grab any open land - Ses’khona

Ses’Khona People’s Rights Movement leader Andile Lili has warned that his members would grab “any empty land they could find” if the city did not address the housing crisis.

The city has repeatedly linked the organisation to recent land invasions, primarily in Marikana, Philippi and Lwandle, where they accused its leadership of inciting violence and selling off private land to squatters.

Lili has denied these accusations.

He said mayor Patricia de Lille was panicking: “She can see we are growing more powerful. We are going to make sure the government of the DA is taken out of power. They have every right to panic.”

Last month, responding to assertions made by De Lille that the organisation was just an ANC proxy, Lili said, “This is a blatant lie.”

He claimed the organisation had strongholds in KwaZulu-Natal and Port Elizabeth.

He said he was tempted to tell his members to grab any open land they could find and start building shacks.

“The number of people we have right now will be uncontrollable for police and law enforcement? I am this close to making that call.”

At the Barry Streek memorial lecture last week De Lille accused Ses’Khona of being a front for the ANC.

kieran.legg@inl.co.za

- Cape Argus