Land Party hands over list of demands
ABOUT 500 supporters of the Land Party marched to Parliament to hand over memoranda of demands and grievances yesterday.
The party’s provincial and national leaders and marchers chanted slogans, sang protest songs and displayed placards with messages of their grievances and demands.
Land Party national organiser Buntu Gwija and the Western Cape chairperson Vanessa Adriaanse and other speakers addressed the marchers before handing the memoranda to National Assembly procedural advisor Victor Ngaleka.
Ngaleka promised marchers that he would “ensure the memoranda landed in the hands of the right people – those who are in charge (of the relevant government departments).”
A grievance addressed to mayor Dan Plato from the Backyarders and Informal Settlements organisation, demanded that the Blueberry Hills integrated housing project steering committee be dismantled and recreated. The project has 3 500 residential sites. Another demand was that the waiting period for people on the people’s housing project (PHP)/RDP/ service sites lists be one financial year, and that the housing office in Mfuleni, which was out of order for two years, be fixed. They also demanded that excess water near a Khayelitsha sewer plant which they said posed a health risk to residents should be rectified immediately.
Speakers also complained that minibus taxis were impounded from taxi owners who couldn’t get permits from municipalities.
“All traffic fines should be scrapped because if our licences expire, you will not get a new one. What are you going to do to put bread on the table? Our licences are our bread and butter.”
Adriaanse said: “We cannot have informal settlements without water and toilets. In Heideveld, we have a squatter camp without water and toilets. By the end of this week, we must have toilets and water,” she said.
Her party identified 44 000 pieces of vacant land suitable for housing, she said.
What are you going to do to put bread on the table? Our licences are our bread and butter
Vanessa Adriaanse
Land Party Western Cape chairperson