COVID-19: A TALE OF TWO CITIES
What about us, ask informal settlement residents in Khayelitsha rebuilding demolished shacks
WHILE the Sea Point Central Improvement District (CID) hailed the City’s weeks-long disinfecting and spraying of the leafy suburb’s empty pavements and streets, Empolweni informal residents in Khayelitsha were expected to start rebuilding their shacks, which were demolished by law enforcement and the City’s anti-land invasion unit.
The Sea Point CID posted an image of a City worker cleaning the pavements with a caption: “Throughout the weeks our pavements and streets have been sprayed down and disinfected by COCT (City of Cape Town). Thank you to these and all our other essential services.”
The post has since been removed from Facebook following a backlash.
The CID promised to respond to queries today.
Khayelitsha Development Forum’s (KDF) Ndithini Tyhido said: “The KDF notes in disbelief the boasting by the Sea Point Improvement District about the City disinfecting empty pavements in that area, while it demolishes shacks in Empolweni, Makhaza.
“We are calling on the City to develop and publish disaster anticipation plans that must include mass disinfection of all the informal settlements in Khayelitsha.
“We also call on the City to provide sanitisers, gloves and face masks to all the residents of Khayelitsha.”
The City said there was nothing new about cleaning and disinfecting the area.
“This is a standard cleaning service being provided that is not new, and not Covid-19 related.
“As part of this standard sanitising programme, the City has specialised services with water tankers, scrubbers and street-sweeper services specifically for cleaning public roads in CBDs and main roads in areas, including places such as Mitchells Plain and Athlone etc.”
The specialised services were mainly done at night, but during the lockdown the services were done during the day. Non-potable water was used,” said water and sanitation Mayco member Xanthea Limberg. She said they also cleaned hotspot areas to remove urine odours, stains and illegal dumping.
Asked about the City’s plan of disinfecting densely populated areas highly at risk of spreading Covid-19, Limberg said: “The City has implemented the rollout of water trucks and tanks to enhance access to water in informal settlements where access is constrained. The City always strives to provide the highest possible level of access to water, but this is sometimes constrained by factors beyond its control, such as settlements being established on railway lines, on sand dunes or in a wetland. These settlements are generally relatively small pockets separate from the established settlements.”
She said janitorial services had been asked to increase cleaning of all regularly touched surfaces like door handles, flush buttons, and taps.
“Janitors will also be issued with hand sanitisers to ensure that users’ hands are sanitised before and after the use of toilet facilities,” Limberg said.
Empolweni residents, with children as young as 2-years old, had been sleeping out in the cold before the Western Cape High Court found that the City’s actions were unlawful, according to the lawyers representing the 49 families.
THE court ordered that the City return the applicants’ building materials that it confiscated between April 9 and 11.
The City’s handling of the Empolweni demolitions during the Covid-19 national local down has come under scrutiny, with activists saying that it was clear who the City prioritised.
Social Justice Coalition general secretary Axolile Notywala said their call was for the poor working class and the most vulnerable in communities to be prioritised in any Covid-19 intervention.
“We are seeing that in Cape Town this has not been the case, instead there has been repression of the poor and working class who are trying to find ways to survive. We’re seeing this through the Strandfontein case, through the Empolweni evictions and through people not being given enough information and food in many places in need. This is an issue across other municipalities in the country.”
Yesterday, Water and Sanitation Minister Lindiwe Sisulu distributed food parcels, tanks and sanitisers to curb the spread of covid-19 in the informal settlement.
“I have decided that if they are given permission by the court to come and live here, we will assist them to put up decent structures, and this what we want to do right through the country, to use this period to see if we can not hastily upgrade our informal settlements and give them all the necessary requirements that will protect them against Covid-19,” she said.
Human Settlement mayco member Malusi Booi said shortly after Sisulu left the site, that new attempts to invade the land were under way.
“According to the judge who gave the interim order in the Khayelitsha illegal land invasion case, the City is entitled to protect its land. The judge made an interim ruling on humanitarian grounds due to the Covid-19 crisis, and without considering the merits of the application is allowing 49 occupiers to re-erect structures. The merits of the application will be decided after the lockdown ends,” said Booi.
He said the City was allowed to remove any new illegally erected structures with immediate effect.
“In fact, the Legal Resources Centre wanted 300 people to be ‘returned’ to the land. The judge made it clear that 49 may return in the interim until the merits of the case are heard,” said Booi.