Hostels must fall, says housing minister

Lindiwe Sisulu wants to tear down South Africa’s notorious hostels – the scene of much of the xenophobic rioting in Joburg last month.

Indunas, the hostel leaders, have warned though that they won’t be part of anything that does not guarantee them proper houses – and they refuse to go into temporary shelters while the government breaks down existing hostels and builds new ones.

On Thursday, at a pre-budget vote, the human settlements minister said told MPs during her budget vote that hostels had to go because they had no place in a reconfigured state.

“Most of them (hostel residents) have spent a great deal of their time in cities. That they may have a holiday home in Mqanduli (in the Eastern Cape) doesn’t make them different from someone with a holiday home in Camps Bay who works in Brakpan,” she said.

Hostel residents would qualify either for a state-subsidised house, or community residential unit. It was time for South Africa to shed lingering legacy of apartheid and deal with the often atrocious living conditions in hostels: “They (hostels) are a very painful relic of our past... They (hostel residents) should live as part of society,” said Sisulu.

But in Alexandra’s Madala hostel, induna Bafowethu Sokhela said on Thursday ight: “What she’s saying has been said for years by many other politicians. Right now, they’re supposed to be developing the hostel as they said they would – but they’re doing nothing.”

He has lived in the hostel since the 1980s.

“The hostel has many people living in it. I don’t think they’ll have enough space to house us all. We won’t allow them to put us in temporary homes. We want houses just like other people in the country.”

Sokhela said the government must house every Madala hostel resident before it shut the place.

“They need to come in and get everyone’s information and move us into houses block by block if they have to. But they can’t close it till we have houses.”

The decision comes on the back of the refusal by residents of some Gauteng hostels to move into upgraded buildings, renovated from the apartheid-era single male accommodation into family units since 2009.

Following the upgrade, residents had to pay R750 a month.

Hostel residents complained they hadn’t been properly consulted and couldn’t afford the monthly rental.

Diepkloof, Soweto, hostel residents took to the streets to protest over housing on Monday.

This was the second protest by the hostel dwellers in Diepkloof following a protest in the area in June last year over lack of housing.

In Parliament, Sisulu said the government would like to “gradually abolish hostels in our towns, and hostel dwellers who have lived in our towns for a number of years would qualify for a Breaking New Ground house, or the CRU (community residential units) subsidy, depending on their specific circumstances”.

She said they had agreed with the mayors that upgraded hostels would be taken over by the Social Housing Regulatory Authority.

“This we will do in every town where we have upgraded hostels and hostel dwellers have not taken up residency.”

She said the government would accommodate hostel dwellers in temporary shelters while it put up permanent houses for them.

These social housing units would be given to young people under the age of 40 and who cannot afford to buy a house.

Sisulu said the recent raids on hostels in Jeppe and Alexandra in Joburg during xenophobic violence were not because they were targeting hostel dwellers.

The army and police raids at the hostels were a result of the violence emanating from those areas.

“We don’t associate them with evil,” she said.

The minister said there was no fixed date for the plan to complete the abolishment of hostels.

Surveys would be done on all the hostels throughout the country.

Subsequently, Gauteng Human Settlements MEC Jacob Mamabolo told The Star the survey had already been undertaken and would finalised by next Friday.

DA MP Makashule Gana said houses built for hostel dwellers in Diepkloof and Mzimhlophe in Soweto were still empty after more than 10 years.

The national Department of Human Settlements is shifting its focus to mega-projects in order to tackle the country’s 1.5 million-unit housing backlog.

About 150 project applications have been received from the public and private sectors.

These would be processed to get under way over the next four years.

Sisulu said 60 percent of work would be done by youth brigades, funded by a ringfenced R159m, in an effort to transfer skills and create employment opportunities for young people.

However, the Human Settlements Department is also undertaking a review of its tender processes, described as its “biggest headache”, to prevent corruption and fraud.

A new procurement system should prevent abuse.

- Political Bureau and The Star

Foreigners here legally need housing too – Sisulu

Cape Town – If South Africa is to heal itself of the long-term effects of xenophobia, it must find a way to ensure that those who are in the country legally have somewhere to live. 

Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu made the comment on Thursday at a news conference at Parliament before her budget speech and debate in the National Assembly. 

She reiterated the promise that she made last year regarding the housing backlog – to build 1.5 million houses and to provide housing opportunities. 

When the department counted the housing backlog, it counted South Africans, said Sisulu. 

“It has become obvious with the unfortunate xenophobic outbreak that there are many people who need housing of all kinds. 

“And if we are to heal over the long-term, we need to find a way to ensure that those people who are here legally have a place to live – either in rented accommodation or community housing units – because there is a tendency to buy houses from our beneficiaries. We must look further than last year, and try to find a measurable way to count our backlog.” 

Sisulu called on people to look after their houses, because they were assets. The value of a low-cost house built by the state is currently R160 000. 

The government was also committed to eradicating hostels – a remnant of the apartheid system. 

“Those who have lived in hostels for several years will qualify for state housing or a subsidy for community dwelling, depending on their specific requirements,” said Sisulu.

- NEWS24

Wallacedene foreign nationals still in limbo

Cape Town - Foreign nationals who fled Wallacedene after their shops were looted have not yet moved back.

Last week, angry Wallacedene residents took to the streets in protest over housing issues and some, described as “opportunistic”, took their anger out on public property and foreign nationals living in the area.

On Wednesday, about 1 000 residents looted Somali and Chinese shops.

The protest is believed to have been fuelled after about 50 illegal structures were removed from the area by city law enforcement officers.

On Sunday, Mohamed Aden of the Somali Association of SA said most of the foreign nationals were still seeking refuge at the nearby police station and were too afraid to go back.

“We had a meeting on Friday and the police advised the Somali’s not to go back until Saturday but they have not yet gone back.”

He said they were waiting for the land issue with the locals to be resolved before they moved back.

“It is not easy for them to return after their shops were looted.

“No shops have been opened and most of the property is still damaged.”

Many foreign nationals – including Zimbabweans, Congolese and Somalians – spent their weekend on a patch of grass in front of the Kraaifontein police station.

A Somali, who asked not to be named, said he was staying at a friend’s home in Brackenfell and would wait for the situation to return to normal before going back.

“Some are still at the police station and some are with friends around the area but no one has moved back.”

He said they would meet on Tuesday to decide what their next moved would be.

He said they would meet where there was a police presence.

“It won’t be a matter of moving back quickly, it is not easy, people were hurt by this.”

- Cape Argus

Foreigners flee in fear

Cape Town - Wallacedene was calmer on Thursday night, but fearful foreign nationals still felt unsafe and resorted to spending the night outside the police station in Kraaifontein, after estimates that more than 200 Somali-owned shops had been looted, and many set alight.

Foreigners said they were threatened with violence by “the Xhosas” in Wallacedene and thought it would be better to take their belongings and sleep outside the police station.

Protests broke out in the area after residents claimed there was corruption with the allocation of RDP houses. They alleged the houses were sold to people from other areas.

At a burnt-out container that was used as a Somali shop some residents rummaged through the rubble in hopes of finding food products that were left after the inferno. Others used grinders and spades to cut up pieces of the container to sell for scrap.

One woman, who was waiting for her boyfriend to bring a trolley to take their loot home, said they were poor and the “free” goods would help them.

“I wasn’t here when the fire started but I got a lot of stuff like I got some rice, Surf and beans.”

Somalis seeking a safe haven camped opposite the Kraaifontein police station. Picture: David Ritchie

Independent Newspapers

She said she would share the goods with the rest of her family.

Michelle Daniels’s thoughts differed. She said the looting was wrong and that this was not about the housing issues anymore.

“They were striking for houses and now they are robbing the shops. It was very wrong what happened here. It was wrong to burn down the shops, I feel for these (Somali) people.”

Despite thinking the looting was wrong, she admitted taking a bag of rice and beans.

A resident in Bloekombos, a few blocks from Wallacedene, said she rented out a room in her house to Somali shopkeepers and was trying to protect the fridges and other valuables left behind.

“It was mostly youngsters that were involved in the looting and the Somalis came back a few days ago and I haven’t seen them since.”

Police spokesman Colonel Andre Traut said the looting was the result of criminals using the volatile situation as an opportunity to carry out criminal acts.

He said 55 people had been arrested on charges of public violence and were due to appear in the Kuils River Magistrates Court on Monday.

“Provincial commissioner of the Western Cape Police Lieutenant-General Arno Lamoer met with community leaders and representatives from Somali-owned businesses and addressed their concerns. Lieutenant-General Lamoer strongly condemned the violence and assured the community that it will not be tolerated.”

There was a heavy police presence in the area and Traut said police would remain there to monitor the situation. Earlier, police described the situation in Wallacedene as being “under control”.

However, looters remained busy on Thursday afternoon. With little left to steal, they resorted to stripping metal and other scrap from containers that had housed shops.

Protests over alleged corruption in the handing over of RDP houses spilled over into xenophobic violence and looting on Wednesday.

Braam Hanekom, director of refugee rights NGO People Against Suffering, Oppression and Poverty, said between 10 and 20 Zimbabweans had been displaced from the RDP houses they were renting by angry residents on Tuesday.

The protesters contend that the houses should have been made available to registered beneficiaries.

Mohammed Aden Osman, co-ordinator for the Somali community in the Western Cape, estimated that more than 200 Somali shops had been looted since the protest was hijacked by “opportunistic criminals”.

While authorities could not confirm this number, every shop the Cape Argus came across in the area had been looted, with many of them set alight.

At the meeting between Lamoer, Osman and Wallacedene community leaders at the station on Thursday, discussion centred on the community’s housing grievances and police protection for Somalis.

Yet, despite police assurances, running battles between police and hundreds of residents on the streets of Wallacedene continued yesterday afternoon.

Residents pelted a police nyala with stones and stripped what remained of the Somali shops of anything that could be sold for scrap.

The embers of fires were still burning in shops that had been torched during the night as residents, often consisting of groups of young children, sifted through the debris.

Hammers and crowbars were used to pry scrap loose - the last of the merchandise had been carried away during the course of Wednesday night.

Rumours that the private residences of Zimbabweans would become the next target led to panic.

Early on Thursday, a group of Zimbabwean men - one armed with an axe and the others carrying knives - inspected a looted and ruined television repair shop owned by one of them.

They said they were were willing to protect their homes by force if the rumours turned out to be true.

Later, the Cape Argus witnessed a number of bakkies transporting loads of furniture out of the area. It could not be confirmed whether these were possessions owned by foreigners.

Linda Masuka, one of a group of Zimbabwean women outside the police station, told the Cape Argus she would not return home while uncertainty over the community’s attitude towards Zimbabweans remained.

Hanekom, however, dispelled the fears as alarmist and maintained that the Zimbabwean community remained largely “integrated” in Wallacedene. He advised them to stay put.

Ali Ahmed, who is living through his third bout of xenophobic violence in Wallacedene since arriving in 2005, said he and most of the other shopkeepers had bunked up with their countrymen in Bellville and Brackenfell on Wednesday night.

- Cape Argus

Wallacedene residents on the rampage

Cape town - Somali shops were looted, tyres were burnt and police and journalists had rocks hurled at them as angry Wallacedene residents went on the rampage over housing and service delivery issues on Wednesday.

Residents said they were angry because they had been waiting for proper housing for years and they claimed that government servants and Somali shop owners were buying and renting RDP houses, allegedly from ward councillor Brenda Hansen.

On Wednesday, about 50 illegal structures were removed from the area by city law enforcement officials, and this seemed to fuel the anger of about 1 000 residents.

Police spokesman Thembinkosi Kinana said police had negotiated with the protesters and five people were arrested.

“On arrival at the scene, the police negotiated with protesters who refused to leave the place,” he said.

“At that moment the police ordered the protesters to disperse. It is estimated that about 15 shops in the area were affected by the violence.”

Residents of Wallacedene took to the streets, barricading roads and throwing stones at police and the media in protests about housing and service delivery issues. Pictures: David Ritchie

Cape Argus

Kinana called on residents to protest peacefully.

“We call upon the people not to use violent acts as a form of resolving their problems. The police respect the rights of the people to protest peacefully. However, where acts of violence which infringe on the rights of people are reported, the police have an obligation to intervene and protect lives and property.”

Hansen said regular meetings had been held with the temporary relocation area (TRA) committee members and were aware that residents were angry about a number of issues, especially housing.

“A meeting was scheduled for Monday at 2pm, as agreed with the TRA committee. However this could not take place as some criminals damaged houses and uprooted trees.”

Earlier in the week, residents protested about the same issues and uprooted trees and burnt tyres before marching to the housing office in Kraaifontein.

Hansen denied the allegations made by protesters, and said she was not aware of RDP houses being sold.

“I would, however, urge anybody with information to please forward that to the SAPS, myself or the mayor.”

Resident Skhumbuzo Mkhize said it was unfair that government employees were able to buy the houses.

“The houses are meant for the poor. Here, if you want a house, you must be able to pay. They cost between R15 000 and R18 000, and that is easy money for a police or a teacher to get.”

Mkhize said they had been living “under uncomfortable circumstances” for more than 15 years and they had had enough, adding that Somali businesses were targeted because their owners were also buying RDP houses.

“Now we are burning stuff and making a mess here in our area, but we will loot in town and even go to Parliament,” he said.

Photographers and journalists were subjected to violence and some damage to property.

A Cape Argus photographer was taken into a shack to hide, after threats from protesters. He escaped with a bruise on his leg.

Another photographer was threatened while walking through the area. Three boys chased him and one pulled out a knife.

Residents intervened and escorted the journalists out of the area.

An SABC cameraman was hit on the back of his head by a brick thrown at him.

Kinana said those arrested would be charged with public violence. A strong police presence would remain in the area.

- Cape Argus

Informal settlements a problem: Sexwale

The growth of informal settlements compounded the problem of meeting the demand for housing, Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale said on Tuesday.

He said informal settlements were essentially shanty towns and slums.

This resulted in undesirable urbanisation driven less by economic growth and more by rural-urban migration of the poor and jobless.

This meant South Africa was confronted with a crisis similar to an internal refugee situation, as there was a continuous flow of poor and jobless migrants into the cities.

“The number of informal settlements is growing uncontrollably. Likewise, the populations inside these ghettos is increasing rapidly,” Sexwale said in Port Elizabeth.

“This imposes increased service delivery pressure upon resources like electricity, water, sanitation, health services and housing, all of which were never budgeted for by the perceived affluent municipalities.”

Sexwale was speaking at the establishment of the chair for education in human settlements development management at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth.

He said growing discontent in informal settlements manifested itself in xenophobic incidents and service delivery protests, which were turning increasingly violent.

The solution was a comprehensive approach, represented by the National Development Plan and underpinned by the Presidential Infrastructure Co-ordinating Commission's strategy on infrastructure.

“The NDP further highlights the need to professionalise the public service, including the creation of capacity and competency, particularly at local government level,” he said.

He said the developmental approach advocated in the NDP hinged upon an economy that was performing optimally as opposed to the current low economic growth rate and high unemployment, particularly among young people. 

- Sapa

Mob sets fire to shops

Cape Town - A mob of angry Joe Slovo residents have set fire to several containers, mostly owned by foreigners, accusing them of using their businesses as a front to sell drugs.

Residents said their actions on Sunday were not a xenophobic attack, but an attempt to rid the community of drugs and to claim back land.

Joe Slovo Park, off Koeberg Road in Milnerton, is a small township made up of brick houses and shacks.

Residents blocked roads leading into the area with burning tyres and placed about 10 shipping containers in the area’s main road, then set fire to them.

SA National Civic Organisation (Sanco) chairperson, Mncedisi Jibe, said residents did not understand why houses could not be built on land occupied by the foreign-owned shops.

Jibe claimed residents had proof that people operating their businesses from containers had been dealing in drugs and that this was the reason why they wanted them out.

“We are burning any containers in sight because they are on our land,” Jibe said.

He said the land on which those businesses operated belonged to the people of Joe Slovo and that they wanted it back. “We are burning them because when we put our shacks on here, law enforcement removes them,” he said.

Hairdressers, barbers and mechanics operating from the area were angered by Sunday’s attack.

Dolanti Kamana said that he had returned from church to find that his mother’s salon was among the containers which had been destroyed.

“The police were there but they didn’t do anything. They just watched. I couldn’t believe what was happening,” Kamana said.

“My mom is very upset and angry, but she is trying not to show it,” he added.

Kamana said he was preparing for an engineering exam and was not able to concentrate after his mother’s business container was torched.

“We weren’t there when it happened, but we think they threw something in the window and burnt the container like that. We didn’t have time to get some of the stuff like TVs and hairdryers out,” he said.

Joy McCarthy, a Joe Slovo councillor, said the community had not been protesting over a lack of services.

“This is not a service delivery protest, as we are trying very hard to deliver services and housing to the informal settlements,” McCarthy said.

“However, such unlawful behaviour and damaging of the existing infrastructure by certain individuals within the community is hampering service delivery.”

Late on Sunday, police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Andre Traut said streets in the area had not been re-opened because some containers were still in the road.

“We will monitor and patrol the area to maintain calm and order and we will reopen the roads once we are sure that motorists wont be in any danger,” Traut said.

- Cape Argus

Shops looted as protest turns bad

A service delivery protest by Botrivier residents turned ugly on Monday when six Somali and Chinese shops were looted and police had to use tear gas, rubber bullets and blue dye to try to disperse the crowd.

The police confirmed that 32 men and 12 women were arrested and were expected to appear in the Caledon Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday.

Botrivier police spokesman Cyril Coetzee said police would continue to patrol the area during the night.

The protest started early on Monday morning and continued for most the afternoon. Residents are demanding that the Theewaterskloof municipality deliver on promises of housing, toilets and tarred roads.

It was the second protest in less than a month.

Chen Xi Ynu, who operates one of the looted shops, said she woke up to the sound of rocks landing on her roof. When she heard someone break the door, she ran away while her husband called the police. She said they have been in the area for just more than a year and had lost everything.

Barbara Matomela rented a room in her house to a Somali shopkeeper.

The shop was trashed and looted and Matomela said she did not know where her tenant had run to.

“He was alone in the shop when they (the looters) came, as his brothers were away. They (the brothers) did not even realise they were going to be targeted.

“They also wanted to join the march because we all thought we were marching against the municipality.”

Community leader James Pheiffer said: “The residents are angry with the municipality which made a lot of promises for houses, toilets and tarred roads and never delivered. This is not about the ANC or DA or Cope. People here are unhappy and they came together as a community for the protest,” he said.

- Cape Times

Mob mission: Beat to kill

Nyanga residents are taking the law into their own hands, hunting down youngsters they claim are terrorising their community.

This comes as acts of vigilante necklacing in Khayelitsha and surrounding areas have claimed the lives of eight people so far this year.

Every evening for the past week, a group of men have gone door to door on the streets of Hlazo Village, around the Newlands hostels, searching for young men they accuse of mugging them on their way to work.

The men then beat the youngsters and demolish or sometimes burn their shacks.

Residents say the police have failed them.

“That police station might as well close down. They (police) don’t exist here,” said one resident who preferred not to be named.

“We beat to kill. That’s it, there’s no other way. We don’t want them anywhere here. If they don’t go back to the rural areas, we kill them.”

He said that if they didn’t find the youngsters at home, their families had to account for them because they were protecting them.

“As a parent, you can’t not know where your child is,” he said.

He said beating the culprits to discipline them was not an option.

“If we don’t kill them, they will come back for us with their thug mates. We burn their shacks because we don’t want them to have a place to stay here. We can’t have them influencing the younger ones,” he said.

Young males known to be involved in theft have fled the area. Residents say some of the youngsters have been badly beaten and admitted to hospital, while there are unconfirmed reports of at least one death.

On Friday, one of the youngsters left Cape Town for the Eastern Cape because of the threats made to his family.

“I heard they (the community) don’t even want to beat me. They just want to put a tyre around my neck and set me alight,” he told the Cape Argus.

He was lucky not to have been in his shack when residents arrived with knobkieries, knives and axes last Monday morning.

“They got to my place just before 3am on Monday. They found two of my friends and beat them up. The guy who lives in the shack next door tells me they were looking for me and a DVD player that a friend had asked me to keep for him. I’m scared. I’m also very worried about my family.

“They’re just hitting anyone now. Yes, I’m a thug, I’ve been on tik since 2005. I steal, but I don’t steal from people in my own community. I do my stuff outside the community. I don’t mug my own people.”

He said it was difficult for him to go to the police.

“I have to walk past the residents who are after me when going to the police station. I’m just going to go home and see when I come back whether or not they kill me,” he said.

Families of these youngsters said they fear for their and the young men’s lives.

Theophilus Mangoli, councillor for Ward 37, said he was aware of the problem and had intervened through the police. “The community is very angry. The crime rate is too high and it’s mostly because of these young ones, so I understand their patrols. But they have to be co-ordinated and there has to be accountability.”

Mangoli said he had a meeting with community leaders, police and patrollers at the police station on Thursday. “(Today) we will have another meeting where we will map the way forward regarding the patrols.”

Although he supports the patrols, he does not condone the beatings and burning down of shacks.

Mangoli said many of the children stole to support their drug habits.

“A good plan would be to close down the drug dens in the community. The community is well aware of where these drug dens are,” said Mangoli. “They live here, they see what happens. These youngsters get arrested today and they’re out within the next three days. I can’t dispute (the community) saying that the police don’t do their jobs, but not all police are like that.”

Relatives of the young criminals say they also feel as if they are under attack.

A woman, whose brother is the young man who left for the Eastern Cape on Friday, said she felt like a prisoner in her own home.

“I didn’t even sleep at home on Wednesday night. I went to a friend’s place just to get a little peace of mind.”

A woman who has also sent her son back to the Eastern Cape said she was scared for her life.

“They said they will do to me what they were going to do to him if they find out that I’m hiding him. They said they don’t even want to see a picture of him, I must burn it,” she said.

“I’m not protecting my son, he is a thug. He steals people’s phones. I’m always telling him to return them.

“The police don’t arrest these children, and if they do they are released the very next day.”

Residents seem torn about the mob justice in the area.

One man said the residents were doing the right thing.

“These boys harass us every morning on our way to work. No one is safe. In the middle of the night, sometimes, you hear screams of women being attacked. The police can’t do anything; the community is right in dealing with them,” he said.

One woman understood residents’ frustration, but said police needed to step in.

“The police don’t do their jobs. If they did none of this would be happening. These youngsters are causing trouble, but I don’t agree with the way they’re being beaten,” she said.

Police could not confirm the number of attacks, deaths or people hospitalised, but said they were aware of “acts of vigilantism” in Nyanga, Gugulethu and Khayelitsha.

Police spokesman Lieutenant- Colonel Andre Traut said communities would not be allowed to take the law into their own hands.

“Those who make themselves responsible for punishing members of the community become criminals themselves. They will be dealt with accordingly,” said Traut.

- Cape Argus

South Africans blamed for Alex issues

Residents of Alexandra in Johannesburg who sell their RDP houses,contribute to the cause of the housing debacle, said the Local Government and Housing MEC on Friday.

“The problem is not with foreigners, the problem is with South Africans...foreigners find that they were sold houses by South Africans,” said MEC Humphrey Mmemezi.

“We should rather spot these South Africans that are doing what they should not be doing, because RDP houses are for the poor.”

He said people were only allowed to sell their RDP houses after eight years and when they have been given title deeds.

The MEC emphasised that rental stock was a “free for all” and that both South Africans and foreign nationals were allowed to rent RDP houses.

Six officials have been suspended on charges of corruption.

He said they were being investigated for allegedly having sold RDP houses and in some cases renting them.

The minister said after he met with the Alexandra stakeholders, it was agreed that people who applied for RDP houses in 1996, would be given first priority.

He said the elderly, disasbled and child headed homes would also get preference.

The MEC said by the end of 2012, the department hope it would have housed all the 1996 applicants.

Mmemezi was briefing journalists on the outcome of his meeting with Alexandra stakeholders.

- Sapa

Sexwale's silence

BHEKI Cele recently justified his new R4 million house in Pretoria on the grounds that “If the head of Interpol visits me I don’t want him to find me living in a shack.” He’s not the only one of us who would prefer not to be living in a shack irrespective of who’s likely to be popping around for a cup of coffee. But the money spent on his house could have paid for houses for hundreds of shack dwellers and neither the incredible inequalities in our society, nor the ever more predatory and extravagant excesses of the politicians elected to ameliorate those inequalities, are passing unnoticed.

Along with unemployment, the housing crisis is one of the major social fractures producing the unstable and diverse political ferment at the base of our society. An increase in the housing subsidy was a central demand in the recent strike by public sector workers, housing has been a major issue in many of the local rebellions, the demand for decent housing is central to the struggles of most of the major poor people’s movements and it was often a key factor in the xenophobic pogroms of May 2008.

The African National Congress has built a lot of houses in South Africa. This fact is usually among the first to be deployed in defence of its record, but we shouldn’t be blind to the reality that states often build houses as part of a project of social control rather than social justice.

In the 1970s, the military dictatorships in Brazil and Chile found huge house-building programmes to be crucial strategies for securing their rule by simultaneously achieving the spatial exclusion and fragmentation of the poor and their precarious economic inclusion via home ownership. And, of course, we should recall that there was a time when the apartheid state was building houses at one of the most frenzied rates in the world.

These authoritarian projects couldn’t be more different to, say, the housing co-operative movements that developed out of radical political movements in parts of Europe and have produced collectively owned and managed as well as well located and designed housing projects.

One of the many reasons the anti-political language of “delivery” is so damaging to any attempt to think about the human realities of society is that it masks the fact that housing is an inherently political question. What constitutes a decent house, its location, its design, the mode of its construction, the nature of the space in which it is set, who gets to access the house and on what basis, and who gets to decide all of this are all deeply political questions.

The evasion of the politics of housing by the ANC in favour of the convenient fiction that resolving the housing crisis is solely a technical question of efficient “delivery” from above has largely resulted in very small and often badly constructed houses on the peripheries of cities. In many cases RDP houses have been built on land that the apartheid state had first acquired to build new townships and the immediate visible difference between apartheid and post-apartheid townships is often the sobering fact that houses built after apartheid are a lot smaller. The allocation of houses and of the contracts to build them has routinely been driven by political patronage rather than considerations of justice or efficiency.

The housing policy of the first post-apartheid government was negotiated in 1993 and drew on the subsidy system pioneered by the confluence of local fascism and American imperialism that brought the Pinochet dictatorship to power in Chile. A decade after the end of apartheid there was some recognition that the subsidy system was resulting in a replication of apartheid-style townships in peripheral ghettos and in 2004, a better policy framework was introduced in the form of Breaking New Ground. However, across the country there was a systematic failure to implement the substantive content of the new policy that recommends and makes financial provision for participatory and collective in-situ upgrades, instead of forced removals to peripheral dumping grounds.

It’s not just policy that was ignored. In some parts of the country municipalities have routinely acted towards the poor in ways that are unlawful and, in strict legal terms, criminal. This has included unlawful and often violent evictions, demolitions, forced removals and repression of poor people’s organisations.

One of the reasons for the contradiction between the law and formal policy positions on the one hand, and the altogether more grim reality of state action on the other, was that for some years key figures in the national political elite promoted an anti-poor discourse about “clearing” or “eradicating slums” that had, in practice, considerably more influence on state officials and much of civil society than the formal policy and legal commitments to which the state is bound in principle.

The date by which the slums would be cleared was first set at 2010 and then moved to 2014. This was a denialist fantasy on a grand scale but the eradication agenda, led by Lindiwe Sisulu and backed by both Thabo Mbeki and the Polokwane Resolutions, had very real costs. It resulted in the state increasingly responding to squatting as a security issue rather than a popular and entirely rational response to the housing crisis. Evictions escalated and considerable force was deployed to stop new land occupations and the expansion of existing shack settlements.

Another reason for the contradiction between the reality of state action and its formal legal and policy commitments is that while elite interests were well organised to pressure the party, from inside and from outside, there was no organised national popular movement that could, as was possible in the 1980s, exert a countervailing pressure from below.

The eradication agenda came to a head with the KwaZulu-Natal Slums Act, which sought to give it legal sanction and was supposed to be replicated around the country. It was overturned in the Constitutional Court in October 2009 and within months there was a clear shift in the discourse of the state away from eradication and towards an acceptance of the real scale of the urban crisis.

Unlike Lindiwe Sisulu, Tokyo Sexwale’s Ministry openly acknowledges that at the current rate at which it is building houses the state simply has no prospect of moving all shack dwellers into formal housing. The eradication agenda is over. This is progress. Facing the reality of a situation is obviously much better than denying it and then using state violence to try to keep it at bay.

But we also need to take concrete steps to resolve the housing crisis and Sexwale has shown no real willingness to get to the heart of the matter. On the contrary, his recently announced “radical plans” to “change the face of housing delivery” amount to little more than trying to cut out some of the corruption in the existing system, adding police stations and clinics to the peripheral ghettos that he is still building and creating still more space for state-backed civil society to substitute itself for genuinely popular participation in housing.

Sexwale is silent on the real issues that could make a real difference. He is silent on the urgent need to put the social value of urban land before its commercial value. He is silent on the equally urgent need to channel resources away from elite projects and towards basic needs. He is silent on the need to democratise housing and to wrench it, firmly, from the hands of the party’s patronage networks. He is also silent on the need to support people to occupy land and to develop services and build for themselves when the state cannot meet their housing needs.

And, while he cozies up to big business and state-backed civil society, he remains culpably silent on the political repression faced by the independent shack dwellers’ movements that have been trying to build a national network of poor people’s movements that are accountable to no one but their members and that could, in the words of the Landless People’s Movement, “use the weapon of mass struggle to rediscipline the parliamentarians”.

Sexwale is clearly an improvement on Sisulu and the end of state support for the fantasy that the eradication of shack settlements is imminent, is a good thing. But an adequate response to the housing crisis requires a lot more than this and, by any serious measure, he has failed his apprenticeship in this job.

• Richard Pithouse teaches politics at Rhodes University. This article first appeared on the website of the South African Civil Society Information Service (sacsis.org.za).

- The Witness

Radar report picks out worst disasters

Twelve "significant" disaster events between March 2003 and November 2008 have cost the province more than R2.6-billion in damage, and affected tens of thousands of people.

Most of these were caused by severe weather, but they also included the xenophobic attacks of May 2008.

This is according to the findings of a new study that is a collaborative work by UCT researchers for the provincial Department of Local Government's disaster management centre.

The worst disaster in terms of monetary cost was the severe weather event of November 2007, when a cut-off low swept through the Cape Winelands, Overberg, Central Karoo and Eden municipal districts, causing direct damage of R830.9-million (adjusted for inflation to 2005 values).

There were two deaths, and more than 300 people were evacuated or provided with relief during this event.

But the worst in terms of human cost was the xenophobia, or "social violence", that broke out in May 2008 in the City of Cape Town and Eden district municipalities, where between 20,000 and 22,000 people were displaced.

According to the researchers, the attacks caused between two and four deaths, and cost about R200m.

Also of major human cost was the severe weather event of August 2004, when two large cold fronts, preceded by gale-force winds and a severe rain storm, swept through Cape Town, adversely affecting about 20 000 residents of informal settlements.

The March 2003 disaster caused by a cut-off low pressure weather system resulted in three deaths in Hermanus and Knysna.

The second biggest disaster in terms of direct damage was the R791m cost caused by a cut-off low in November 2008 that inundated parts of the Overberg, Cape Winelands and Eden districts.

These figures are found in the "Radar" 2010 report (Radar is an acronym for Risk and Development Annual Review) that was released yesterday by Local Government MEC Anton Bredell, to coincide with the annual disaster risk seminar at UWC.

The report was developed for Bredell's department by the Disaster Mitigation for Sustainable Livelihoods Programme at UCT, where 35 researchers and post-graduate students also collaborated with the national Department of Co-operative Governance, the National Disaster Management Centre and the Cape Higher Education Consortium, among others.

Two major disasters in the province - the 1981 Laingsburg floods, which claimed more than 100 lives, and the "Manenberg tornado", which left 5,000 people homeless - fell outside the review period.

Bredell said the report was the first of its kind to detail disaster events and critical risk-reduction issues in the province, and that it provided insight into the complexity of managing risks.

"I'm hoping this publication will emphasise the importance of investing in the proactive side of disaster management, like research |and awareness campaigns," he said.

Some of the key lessons of the report included shedding light on economic losses incurred.

These losses provided an incentive for proactive risk reduction, which could reduce future financial losses.

It was also necessary to adopt a proactive approach to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

"This is an excellent example of pioneering work, and sets the trend for enhancing all aspects of disaster risk reduction initiatives in South Africa," Bredell said.

"This initiative foresees a phased collaborative process from 2009 to 2012 that progressively engages the province's higher education institutions in disaster risk reduction."

This first edition of the Radar report focused on the province's changing risk profile, with emphasis on severe weather events and their consequences, and linked it to climate change.

- Cape Argus

Foreigners are 'scapegoats'

A failure of leadership and local government structures has created a fertile ground for the breeding of xenophobic violence in the Cape's informal settlements.

While a prompt show of force by law enforcement authorities - with the hardcore back-up of military armoured vehicles in risk areas such as Du Noon, Khayelitsha and Masiphumelele - appears to have headed off a threatened cycle of violence that erupted at the weekend, few think the problem is going to go away.

At the conclusion of the World Cup on Sunday, a sudden spike in attacks on foreigners in informal settlements around the Cape peninsula raised fears that a new cycle of xenophobic violence - like the conflagration that raged in 2008, when more than 60 people were killed - was about to be unleashed.

Nearly a dozen incidents of violence against foreigners - most of them Somali shopkeepers - were recorded between Sunday, the day of the World Cup final between Spain and the Netherlands, and yesterday morning.

After the weekend's attacks, scores of Somalis have taken refuge in police stations and community halls around the Cape.

Zimbabweans continued to flee for their lives from informal settlements to congregate at makeshift places of refuge around highway truckstops and filling stations on the N1, seeking transport back to their country.

In their official responses, police dismissed the sudden spike in xenophobic violence as unconnected crimes.

However, the attacks have come in the midst of a whispering campaign in townships and informal settlements around the country, warning foreigners to leave South Africa before the end of the World Cup - or face the consequences.

In at least one instance, in Blikkiesdorp, this threat was conveyed via a meeting of the local community apparently convened by local leaders.

But in most cases the threat of violence has been voiced anonymously in the impersonal environment of taxis, trains and shebeens.

According to social conflict analyst Stef Snel, the tension can be traced back to basic economic circumstances and to a competition by communities for scarce resources.

"There isn't enough to go around, it is that simple - not enough housing, not enough jobs, not enough food," Snel said.

"And most of what there is comes in the form of government handouts, to be administered by often corrupt and unaccountable councillors and civic officials.

"Control over these resources is not only power, it is also profit. And the problem is that everything - from positions on housing lists to job creation programmes to food distribution initiatives - gets sold, and rather than alleviating the social problems, often exacerbates them.

"Then, when the community loses patience, the foreigners get blamed. They are the convenient scapegoats," he said.

The problem is not new. After the 2008 xenophobic attacks, the focus fell particularly on two elements in the social dynamic as breeding grounds for xenophobic violence: migrant workers at informal settlements; and a largely opportunistic leadership that had established itself in the ANC's onetime struggle alliance partner, the SA National Civics Organisation (Sanco).

In 2008, several Sanco leaders overtly supported the drive to expel foreigners from the country, and, in some cases were suspected of being behind the violence directed against them.

Chris Stali, Sanco provincial secretary, said threats against foreigners reflected "political immaturity and a lack of understanding of the issues".

"We have a new leadership now. The old leadership stole services and projects and when the community asked about jobs, they said they must ask the foreigners. Our leadership is different, we don't have our own political and financial interests."

But the new Sanco leadership is not having it all its own way.

In areas such as Du Noon, the former Sanco leadership - though suspended by Sanco nationally, and though last elected in 1997 (ostensibly for a single year term) - is refusing to stand down.

The chairperson of the "other" Sanco - who has also been named as fomenting xenophobic violence in the area - continues to administer a feeding programme in the area, which one youth league leader in the area said had never fed the hungry of Du Noon.

The youth leader, wanting to remain anonymous for fear of her safety, said the suspended Sanco leadership also continued to control the provision of RDP housing in the area.

- Cape Argus

Heavy police presence in Cape townships

A heavy police and military presence has been deployed in Western Cape townships following sporadic xenophobic violence, police said on Monday.

Provincial authorities said scores of foreigners had sought refuge at police stations in the region.

Police spokesperson Captain Frederick van Wyk said that on Sunday night there were "sporadic incidents of looting" at shops belonging to foreigners.

Areas where this occurred included Nyanga, Philippi East and Khayelitsha on the Cape Flats, Wellington, Paarl East, Mbekweni (a Paarl township), Franschhoek and Klapmuts.

"Police responded and a heavy police contingency was deployed in conjunction with Metro Police and SANDF [the defence force] in all these areas," Van Wyk said.

He said seven men, aged between 19 and 30, had been arrested in the Nyanga area.

They were charged with public violence and would appear in the Phillipi Magistrates' Court on Monday.

"SAPS [the police] will continue to deploy in high numbers to maintain law and order in the mentioned areas," he said.

"Tranquillity has been restored and no further reports of violence have been reported."

Spokesperson for provincial disaster management Daniella Ebenezer said earlier that 70 foreigners had sought refuge overnight at Mbekweni police station in Paarl and 22 at Wellington.

There were smaller numbers at police stations in Franschhoek, and Langa and Harare on the Cape Flats.

They had gone to the stations "mainly because they were fearful", but in some instances following attacks on shops.

Ebenezer said there were "sporadic" attacks on shops on Saturday in the region, and "some incidents of looting" on Sunday.

No-one had been seriously injured.

She said that according to reports from police, on Sunday spaza shops and containers also used as shops were "damaged" in Mbekweni, Paarl East, Wellington and Nyanga.

The province and municipalities were ready with contingency plans, she said.

Die Burger newspaper reported on Monday that shortly before midnight on Sunday, police advised foreigners, mainly Somalis, to leave the Cape Flats township of Nyanga, and escorted numbers of them out of the area.

The newspaper carried a photograph of Somali spaza shops in flames in Philippi, also on the Cape Flats. - Sapa

Cops move to protect foreign nationals

Police have been deployed in several townships on the Western Cape province of South Africa to protect foreign nationals after escalating threats of violence against them, a police spokesperson said on Monday.

Signs of social instability could potentially harm South Africa's image and investor sentiment, undoing the gains of hosting a successful soccer World Cup tournament that ended on Sunday.

Police said the situation in the Western Cape province was tense but there have not been injuries so far.

"There were two shacks that were burned in separate areas and there's been sporadic incidents of looting and threats have been made on foreign nationals," said Western Cape police spokesperson Frederick van Wyk.

"Police have responded. At this moment there is a heavy police contingent (in several areas) which also includes Metro police and SANDF (South African National Defence Force)," he added.

The biggest economy in Africa has attracted millions of workers from across the continent and further afield, but their presence is not always welcomed by those locals who compete with them for scarce jobs and resources.

Two years ago more than 60 people were killed during anti-foreigner attacks.

Police in Gauteng said there had not been incidents against foreigners in the economic hub of South Africa.

- Reuters

Army moves in amid xenophobia rumours

The army was deployed to back up police in Du Noon on Tuesday in a joint anti-crime operation residents said had to do with persistent rumours of an outbreak of xenophobic violence after the World Cup.

"At the moment, we cannot tell the public what the operation is about, but we can confirm that the army has been deployed," national police spokeswoman Sally de Beer said.

Du Noon was the epicentre of xenophobic violence in the Western Cape in 2008.

In a show of force, the army and police went into Du Noon with Casspirs and searched house-to-house.

Residents said they had been told the show of force was to demonstrate that the authorities would not stand for any xenophobic violence in the area or anywhere else in the country.

A Casspir was stationed at Du Noon overnight to monitor the area.

This came as the Nelson Mandela Foundation said on Tuesday that it was concerned by the rumours of xenophobic violence.

"We cannot blame other people for our troubles. We are not victims of the influx of foreign people into South Africa.

"We must remember that it was mainly due to the aggressive and hostile policies of the apartheid regime that the economic development of our neighbours was undermined," Achmat Dangor, the chief executive officer of the foundation, said.

Earlier police said two South African shop owners at Bloekombos were arrested on suspicion of instigating attacks on rival Somali shopkeepers in the informal settlement near Kraaifontein, which also bore the brunt of the 2008 xenophobic violence.

Police spokesman Andre Traut confirmed that the two men and three other suspects were arrested last week on three charges of attempted murder, two charges of arson and one charge of conspiracy to commit crimes.

On Tuesday the Daily Voice reported that there was xenophobic violence in Bloekombos after four men were arrested. The suspects claimed they had been paid by local shop owners to attack the Somalis.

Gavin Silber, of the Social Justice Coalition, said: "We are discouraging xenophobia through education. The state has to take this seriously. Society has a short memory; this is how it started two years ago. The city and province must step in and be ready."

Police Ministry spokeswoman Joy Motubatsi confirmed that the interministerial committee for xenophobic violence set up by the cabinet and headed by Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa was still to meet.

Mayoral committee member for Safety and Security councillor JP Smith said the provincial government was the lead agency against xenophobic violence and would take care of pre-emptive work in the Western Cape.

"The city is ready to react. Attacking other people incurs costs and the city paid R147 million to house, feed and protect dispossessed people in 2008. We had to use rates money to cover those costs," Smith said.

The city and province had heard about the rumours four months ago and had decided to act.

Hildegard Fast, from disaster management in the provincial government, was heading the anti-xenophobia campaign.

Fast said the provincial disaster management plan for 2010 took into account possible xenophobic violence.

"The main strategy is to investigate, verify and confirm the rumours of xenophobic violence. We can only act on verified reports and we are in constant contact with SAPS," she said.

Police would take preventtive action where necessary.

Xenophobia was not only a government issue but involved the whole of society.

"We need regular engagement with civil society and (the community). Government needs help and people should not panic," she said.

- Cape Times

Foreigners threatened with violence

There were a spate of xenophobic threats and attempted attacks in Khayelitsha last week following Bafana Bafana's exit from the World Cup, say worried staff of projects operating in the area.

Gavin Silber, a co-ordinator at the Social Justice Coalition branch in Khayelitsha, said they had received reports last week, mainly from the Somalian community, who had been warned of violence if they did not leave South Africa after the World Cup.

The Social Justice Coalition was established by individuals and NGOs around Cape Town in response to the xenophobia crisis that hit South Africa in May 2008.

"We are very concerned that it could spiral into the kind of violence that we experienced two years ago. That can't happen again and we would like the city and province to be prepared."

Silber said they had received affidavits from residents as well as Somali shopkeepers who had been threatened with violence or faced attempted attacks after the Bafana first-round exit.

"There have been threats of attacks on shop owners in the past few months, but they seem to have escalated since the start of the World Cup," said Silber.

But some residents are protective of the shopkeepers.

Siad Ali Arte, a Somalian shopkeeper in Makhaza, Khayelitsha, said a group of 10 men tried to attack his shop last week, but they were stopped by police and other residents.

"They said that after the World Cup they would rob Somalian shops and take everything. I am afraid because if I leave this place I don't know where to go."

He said the men blew vuvuzelas in front of his store and told him to leave after the World Cup. A customer warned him to close the security gates.

"Other community members stood in front of my store until it was time to close. Without the community we would have been attacked," said Arte.

Nomathemba Mdudu said she saw a group of eight teenagers throwing stones at her foreign neighbour's house and trying to break into a foreign-owned shop using a crowbar, and called the police.

Silber said the police did not arrest the teenagers.

"They released them back into the community and asked community leaders to find a suitable punishment, which was to clear rubbish in front of the shop."

Silber said the response from the police, city and provincial government had been poor during the last spate of attacks two years ago and they needed to be better prepared.

"Some of the causes of the xenophobic violence in 2008 included desperation, frustration, poverty and poor service delivery. Instead of confronting the government, the communities attacked the most vulnerable people in their community - foreigners."

He said most issues they had been angry about had still not been resolved in Khayelitsha. The toilet protests in Makhaza highlighted this.

Christina Henda, director of the Cape Town Refugee Centre in Wynberg, said women had volunteered to patrol the streets of Khayelitsha after the 2008 attacks.

"They said you people are not going to touch our Noor (the Somalian shopkeepers)."

Henda said that after the attacks some of the people who had been responsible for the violence in the area went to the shop as customers, but the women chased them away and told them to shop elsewhere.

"They were teaching them a lesson that if they don't protect the Somalians, they're the ones who will suffer in future."

Henda said research done after the 2008 attacks showed some of the causes of the violence included lawlessness, poverty and opportunism.

Police spokesman Colonel Billy Jones said they had not received any reports of acts of xenophobia, nor had Richard Bosman, executive director for Safety and Security at the city.

- Cape Argus

DU NOON TOWNSHIP, CAPE TOWN—The World Cup din doesn’t penetrate here.

There’s no glitter, no hoopla, no fan jols — the large screen public viewing areas where South Africans without tickets watch matches together and celebrate the joyous phenomenon of hosting a glamorous global sports spectacle.

That would require both electricity and televisions. The former is sporadic and obtained only by theft, tapping the illegal power lines that criss-cross dangerously overhead. The latter can be found in some households, but are invariably squint-teensy in size, with blurry images in black and white.

“I have been trying to follow the games because I know this is an important occasion for my country,” says Gerra Swartz, who is 63 and almost completely immobile from arthritis, needing help to get out of the single chair that comprises all of her furniture.

“But you can see how hard it is.”

Her grown daughter is rinsing dishes in a basin, the water hauled from a communal stand-pipe. Two young grandchildren live here as well, in a corrugated tin shack lit by paraffin lamps and candles, reached down a long muck-oozing alley that meanders through hundreds of similarly bleak sheds.

The shacks — and there are at least 27,000 of them slapped together in this settlement — are called “wendy houses,” built illegally behind other, slightly more solid houses of wood and brick. Those lucky enough to own an RDP house, government-subsidized dwellings with free-title deeds, typically charge $27 (Cdn.) to the shack tenants. The waiting list for an RDP house in Du Noon Township has more than 100,000 names on it and hopefuls at the top of the list have been waiting for 15 years.

That’s just about as long as Du Noon has been in existence. It is the newest of the “formal” settlements that encircle Cape Town.

Du Noon is also the fastest growing settlement in the Western Cape region, leaping from 100,000 to 300,000 in less than a decade. It has one high school, three elementary schools, a clinic, a clutter of raggedy little stores and other businesses, and dozens of shebeens — tawdry bars largely owned by local gangsters, the reviled “foreigners,” meaning Zimbabweans and Angolans, Somalis and, most detested of all, the Nigerians.

“They’ve brought all the drugs into Du Noon,” complains Nombuyiselo Ngali, a 47-year-old volunteer community worker who has lived here for eight years with her four children, eking out a meager income by raising chickens. She also works, without pay, as a reserve police constable, which mostly involves keeping a beady eye on the traffic in stolen merchandise.

“Foreigners will rob you blind in this place. When I get information about stolen goods in somebody’s house, I gather a group together and we march over there to demand it back.”

“There are women in Du Noon who work as domestics in the city,” continues Ngali. “When they come back in the evening, the foreigners are waiting to steal their money.”

Du Noon seethes with grinding poverty and bitter xenophobia.

That’s the underbelly of post-apartheid South Africa that hasn’t been put on display during the World Cup, the shame of a wealthy nation where much of the population still lives in townships as wretched as this one.

On the other side of the highway, behind high walls, there’s a vast horse-breeding enterprise whose sweeping green pastures occupy more space than all of Du Noon. But in the township settlement, each stinking outdoor toilet is shared by an average of 10 families. For most residents, there’s no running water, no sewage facilities, no power, no heat beyond wood fires.

White South Africa turned the lights out on apartheid two decades ago, yet nobody ever turned the lights on in hellholes like Du Noon.

The word travesty comes to mind.

Cape Town is a tourist mecca, with fine hotels and sleek boats in the pretty harbour, expensive shops in the Victoria & Albert Waterfront mall, so much of the recent development glistening bright. Green Point Stadium is a jewel — $610 million to construct — just one of half a dozen football venues built from scratch for the World Cup at a total cost of nearly $2 billion, a further $2 billion poured in improving infrastructure and security.

Not an iota of benefit will accrue to Du Noon.

“They can build a giant stadium in months and we’ve been waiting 15 years for housing,” huffs Ngali.

“All South Africa is sad now because our team didn’t win. Oh, they’re crying, waah-waah. I have to worry about how to feed my children tonight.”

The worst off in Du Noon are the squatters, shunted off to a hardscrabble tract of land alongside the railway tracks. As utter outcasts, they don’t even exist officially.

“Three times in the last five years, the authorities have pulled down my shack,” says Dinilysizwe Libala, a 32-year-old husband and father who earns about $2 an hour as a forklift operator. “Each time, I’ve rebuilt. Where else am I to go?”

Libala’s family pays to siphon off some electricity from a nearby house owner. Yet they don’t have access even to one of the outdoor shared toilets. They use buckets or relieve themselves in the scrubland along the tracks.

“The world has come to my country to watch football. And I’m a fan, too! But I’m not getting anything out of it. We were fools to believe anything would change. Even the construction jobs from building the stadiums and the new roads — they’ve gone now, finished. The only ones I see from around here who have profited are the foreigners.”

There it is again, that loathing for the outsider, this belief that others, undeserving as non-South Africans, are gaining while those who were always here fall ever further behind.

There exists a strange double-edged hatred of these fellow continental Africans. Many critics allege the foreigners don’t work, are parasitic layabouts. Yet at the same time, they are resented for taking menial jobs for wages as low as 67 cents an hour.

“We can’t survive on those wages,” says Libala. “But they’ll take them, so why should an employer hire us?”

The mass influx of migrants who have poured over South Africa’s borders have turned townships like Du Noon into emotional tinderboxes. Everyone fears an outbreak like the violence that tore Du Noon in May 2008, when Somali and Nigerian businesses, in particular, were torched and nearly 19,000 foreigners displaced as they fled the mobs.

“I’ve been warned that’s going to happen again,” says Sumaila Mahmah, 43, as he lies across a stack of mattresses. This is his business. He sells used mattresses in Du Noon and has been doing so for seven years, since arriving from Ghana.

“The foreigners are the ones who are actually trying to make something out of South Africa. But they don’t like us. We’ve replaced whites as the people they blame for all their problems.”

What’s weird, sad and funny at the same time, is that for himself and other Ghanaians, the World Cup has produced a kind of moratorium.

“Once South Africa is out of the competition, my neighbours say they’ll all be cheering for Ghana because that’s an African team. They hate Nigerians and Angolans even more.

“But they say, after the World Cup is over and everybody goes home, I better go, too. They promise they’ll come after me then.”

- thestar.com

Khayelitsha toilets war in court

KHAYELTSHA residents will ask the court to force the Cape Town Municipality to rebuild open air toilets – they have been described as a throwback top apartheid – they demolished on Monday.

Advocate Themba Langa, who is representing the 61 people whose toilets were taken by the council on Monday, says he will plead with the court to get the metro to engage the affected parties.

The court challenge comes after the city’s ANC Youth League secretary Loyiso Nkohla and 23 other people have spent two nights in Pollsmoor Prison, accused of inciting riots in protest against ’s open-air toilets.

They were arrested early on Tuesday morning after they organised a blockade of the busy N2 highway in protest against the city’s removal of the toilets.

Another group of 11 people, arrested on Tuesday afternoon, appeared in the Khayelitsha magistrate’s court yesterday . Dozens of ANCYL supporters gathered at the court yesterday in a show of solidarity.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Alliance’s toilet troubles are spreading north of Cape Town, 140km up the N1 highway to De Doorns.

This time a refugee rights group has accused Western Cape Premier Helen Zille of leaving 300 displaced Zimbabweans in a camp without a single toilet.

A bitter squabble broke out yesterday between provincial officials and Braam Hanekom, spokesperson for People Against Suffering, Suppression, Oppression and Poverty (Passop).

The provincial government is poised to close down the displaced people’s camp in De Doorns, which sprung up last November when about 2000 Zimbabweans sought refuge there .

In an open letter, Hanekom lashed out at Zille after the metro allegedly removed all the toilets from the area on Tuesday.

But Ashraf Kafaar, a regional coordinator in the provincial department of local government and housing, claimed that the camp had 90 toilets, and that only 27 had been removed.

-Sowetan