Joe Slovo residents march to parliament

Celeste Ganga
03 August 2007

The residents of Joe Slovo settlement in Langa marched to parliament on Friday against their pending force removals.

“There are about 6000 residents living in shacks in Joe Slovo,” says Michael Zulu from the Joe Slovo Committee, Anti-Eviction Campaign.

Zulu adds that they have been threatened by the N2 Gateway project with forced removal to Delft and told that this will only take place next month.

“This pending removal will not only disrupt their lives, but will push them further into starvation. Through extra transport costs and more time spent travelling,” says Zulu.

“We are also disgusted that Mayor of Cape Town, Helen Zille, has used the recent floods of shack areas in Cape Town, to say that ‘people settled on low lying areas’ and if they don’t want to be flooded, they must submit to forced removal,” says Zulu.

The Mayors’ office was not available for comment.

“We don’t want to go to Delft as it is quite far from work places, schools, employers, whereby our fellow brothers and sisters will look for job opportunities,” says Joe Slovo resident, Mzwanele Zulu.