By Nadia Samie10 September 2007
More than a thousand residents of the Joe Slovo informal settlement blockaded the N2 highway in Cape Town this morning in protest over the City’s plan to move them to Delft, 30 kilometres away.
Only the bus lane on the N2 incoming is open to traffic, while the outgoing lanes remain closed.
According to Mzwanele Zulu, a spokesperson for the residents, the protesters have been on the N2 since 3AM. Police opened fire with rubber bullets and 30 residents were reportedly injured and taken to the Bonteheuwel Day Hospital. Zulu says that the protestors will remain until their issues are addressed.
"We are angry. We want RDP house in Joe Slovo. We want the Department of Housing to stop moving our people to Delft. We refuse to be moved there. It is far from our workplaces and also from places where we look for work. We can't and won't move. The government took this decision without consulting us and now they must change it," says Zulu from the Joe Slovo Task Team.
The protestors say they want the Minister of Housing Lindiwe Sisulu to come down and respond to their memorandum. They have also been told that Dan Plato, City Director of Housing is coming to meet with them.
The police's Western Cape media centre was not immediately able to comment on the situation.
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