‘Move them to Salt River’
Bromwell St eviction case continues
THE ADVOCATE representing the 27 people who are facing eviction from Bromwell Street in Woodstock asked that the residents be relocated to Salt River where the City of Cape Town is planning to build transitional housing. He also likened their possible relocation to Wolwerivier to that of forced removals.
The case resumed in the Western Cape High Court yesterday. The court previously ruled that it was the City of Cape Town’s responsibility to provide the residents with alternative accommodation.
Advocate Sheldon Magardie, arguing for the applicants, said they had asked the City of Cape Town for alternative accommodation. He said the alternative accommodation had to be near to the applicants’ places of worship, work and children’s schools.
“The City of Cape Town did not act reasonably in response to the residents, saying it was too costly to provide alternative accommodation. A table of available land for temporary housing and vacant buildings was provided to the City of Cape Town for emergency housing,” he said.
Magardie said another fundamental point was that “there is no emergency housing near where Bromwell residents live. The City of Cape Town keeps referring to high costs.
“The Pine Road property in Woodstock belongs to the City of Cape Town. The City is inflexible in its policy and programme, and that leaves out a substantial category of people. This is not an issue of providing land to people, but of temporary emergency housing as the applicants will only receive materials for housing,” he said.
He explained that the City planned to build transitional housing in Pickwick Street, Salt River, which will be available in 18 months.
“This is transitional housing in an area close to where they are residing,” he said. Magardie also said that the residents feared for their safety in Wolwerivier (near Atlantis) and that the area had no schools and clinics.
Judge Mark Sher said, in reference to a case pertaining to housing in Johannesburg, that dormitories had been used for emergency housing. “You can’t keep dumping people out of the city,” he said.