Calm returns, but residents to keep up fight

PEACE has momentarily been restored to parts of Khayelitsha following one of the largest land invasions in Cape Town’s recent history.

But desperate residents said they would not give up their attempt to stake a claim to the land.

Last week, hundreds of angry people from Makhaza, Town Two and Kuyasa burnt tyres and torched and stoned buses as tensions boiled over. They also carried corrugated-iron sheets and other materials and streamed onto vacant land with the hope of building new homes.

By early yesterday morning, a small group of people had gathered on Griffiths Mxenge Road, opposite one of the pieces of land they had been attempting to invade. Pegs were still visible on the field indicating the piece of land each person would occupy.

Speaking to Weekend Argus, a group of would-beland invaders said they were backyarders in Khayelitsha and had been “promised access to vacant land by community leaders”. They said though they had been stopped in their tracks now, they would “not give up because we need homes and renting in people’s backyards is very costly”.

The 34-year-old township is divided into 22 sections of formal and informal areas. A survey done by Stats SA from 20122015 shows that there has been a steady growth in the number of people moving into the city. The Western Cape grew by about 1.7 million people in three years. However, the survey does not specify by how much Khayelitsha had grown in relation to the rest of the province.

Distressed residents of Makhaza, Town Two and Kuyasa, which all consist of both formal and informal structures, embarked on a massive land grab action last week. It resulted in at least one Golden Arrow bus being burnt, a MyCiTi bus being stoned and Solomon Mahlangu community hall being vandalised.

The violence led to Golden Arrow officials suspending services to the areas out of fear for their drivers.

City director for safety and security Richard Bosman said last Saturday that they had obtained interdicts for the three areas. He said 106 structures were dismantled.

Mayoral committee member for safety and security and social services JP Smith confirmed the vandalism, saying: “This action was thought to be in reaction to the dismantling of illegal structures which were built on various public open spaces in the area.”

He added that, “after the Land Invasion Unit and SAPS had left the area, a group of people set the rear canopy of a bakkie alight inside the foyer of the hall in an attempt to burn down the building. Over the weekend, the city also received additional threats regarding the burning down of the newly opened Kuyasa Regional Library,” he said.

The Khayelitsha Development Forum’s chairman, Ndithini Tyhido, had also attempted to calm the invaders, but when Weekend Argus spoke to the residents they expressed distrust in the forum.

“We told Ndithini we don’t need their intervention, we know who our leaders are and we know how we are going to deal with this problem,” they said.

Tyhido had written to mayor Patricia de Lille to intervene. He wrote: “It beats the mind how the City of Cape Town, through the manager of Sub- Council 10 ( Clifford Sithonga), hasn’t co-ordinated a strategy to stop the land invasion in that black township’s central business district, (which we) hoped when fully developed would uplift Khayelitsha and its people.”

Reports in other media cited Sindile Gaji as one of the leaders of the invasion in Kuyasa near the train station. Gaji reportedly had said the invasion was a result of being frustrated with the city’s slow response to the housing issue in the area.

According to MEC for Human Settlements Bonginkosi Madikizela, “the department has spent over a billion rand in Khayelitsha since 2009”.

Last month, Madikizela announced his R2.2bn 2017/18 housing budget. Human settlements has allocated R663m to the upgrading of informal settlements, the building of new houses and other projects. The City of Cape Town has allocated R621m for 4 075 housing opportunities. He said only 18 000 of the 526 000 families on the provincial housing waiting list may get houses this financial year.

Madikizela also indicated in his latest budget vote that the department is “one of only two departments nationally that has performed well”.

“We have to ensure that people living in informal settlements have infrastructure like roads, water, refuse removal and electricity.”

Madikizela suggested in his report that the informal settlements upgrade near the airport would provide “huge transformation potential” in areas including Kanana, Gxa Gxa in Gugulethu, Barcelona, Vukuzenzele, Kosovo, Thabo Mbeki in Philippi and Tsunami, Lusaka and Europe informal settlements in Nyanga. There was no mention of informal settlements in Khayelitsha.

Madikizela said the second phase of the Bardale Project in Mfuleni would “yield 2 000 housing opportunities to the value of R246 million” when completed. “This is the second phase of housing development in the area since 2015,” he said.

asanda.sokanyile@inl.co.za

PICTURES: PHANDO JIKELO A group of land invaders in Makhaza Khayelitsha argue with police after their shacks were demolished and materials taken.

Shacks were demolished and materials taken by Law Enforcement in Makhaza after backyarders invaded vacant land.They have been building on the land since Wednesday.