ANC joins the fray over Delft dwellers

By Ilhaam Hoosain
06 March 2008

Last month saw the eviction of approximately 1000 illegal backyard dwellers. On Wednesday the ANC came out to talk about this issue at the Cosatu offices in Cape Town.

“We do not accept the conditions that people are living in Delft. The fact that people are now residing on the pavements or on the detention points. If there is rain today or tomorrow then those individuals will be heavily affected,” says Mbulelwo Ncedana the secretary of the Dullah Omar region.

He goes on to say that this matter is no longer a local issue and no longer a national issue, it is an international issue.

The Constitution requires that all people have access to decent or basic services, that is sanitation, water and shelter.

“We are basically saying that those people in Delft must be accommodated in the council facilities in the nearby communities, while they are waiting for the city to find a piece of land that they can develop or they can be housed,” says Ncedana.

Meanwhile the mayor's office has responded by saying that it has made marquees available for the evictees to live in.

“We have provided over a hundred chemical toilets. We have provided eleven stand pipes for water and skips for waste removals,” says Robert Macdonald, Mayor Helen Zille’s spokesperson.

According to Macdonald, the only people who are still living on the pavements are the people who the Anti-Eviction Campaign has pressured to stay out doors as a form of protest in order to pressure government to give them houses.

“The rest of the people are housed in the marquees and in the next few weeks will be moved on to serviced sights, on land nearby so that they can set up homes again,” says Macdonald.

The AEC was unavailable for comment on Wednesday.