Vrygrond protesters want to meet De Lille
VRYGROND residents have vowed to continue protesting until Mayor Patricia de Lille meets with them.
De Lille yesterday told the ward councillor in the area she would meet with them today, after a second day of violent protests over housing. Yesterday, police maintained a strong presence in the area as protesters continued to burn tyres and other debris.
“We are struggling. We use our Sassa money to pay our rent and we still need to buy food. We can’t cope,” resident Deborah Brant said.
Brant is a backyard dweller and lives in a shack with her four children.
“I’ve been living here for 20 years and I have been asking for a house for a long time,” she said.
At the centre of the protest is a piece of land known as Xakabantu that residents want to occupy. “People need a place to put their shacks up because there is not enough space; the place is over-crowded,” said resident Daniel Nomavila.
Nomavila is also a backyard dweller, living with six others. “It doesn’t make me feel good. Black and coloured people of this country are suffering. The only thing we want to achieve is we want the ward councillor to come and address us,” he said.
Residents say they were told by the City of Cape Town that the Xakabantu land falls within a nature reserve.
Ward councillor Gerry Gordon eventually addressed the group of protesters late yesterday afternoon. “As far as I know and the information that I have received is that the land in question, there is currently a court case about that land. At the present moment we are waiting for the outcome of that court case,” Gordon said.
That explanation was marred by heckles from residents, who accused Gordon of lying.
“She is lying. She has failed us as a councillor. Where does this court case come from? We were told that the City wants evidence,” Vrygrond community development forum secretary Nonkosi Fodo said.
Gordon promised to sit in with the residents until she got hold of De Lille to set up a meeting. “Because we have requested for a type of resolution and this is it,” Gordon said.