Delft backyard dwellers returns to court

By Rhodé Marshall
14 January 2008

Hundreds of Delft-Symphony backyard dwellers are to return to the Cape Town High Court Tuesday in a bid to block their imminent eviction.

The case was due in court last Friday but was postponed following an urgent application to evict the residents by the MEC for Local Government and Housing Richard Dyantyi, Thubelisha Homes, Seakay Construction and two other companies.

“We are going to court to make it a point of opposing the intended application brought by the provincial minister for housing and others that wants to evict the people of Delft-Symphony,” says Western Cape Anti – Eviction Campaign Legal Co-ordinator Ashraf Cassiem.

Cassiem says that the illegal occupants will be at court along with the support of other communities.

“Joe Slovo and others will join us to point out that we have nowhere to go and that we’ve been on the waiting list and we need to be normalised (given homes),” says Cassiem.

The group will gather at Kaizergracht early the on Tuesday morning and march to the High Court.

The department for Local Government and Housing as well as Thubelisha Homes could not be reached for comment.