Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Hangberg residents seek services
Protesters claim City denies them housing and job opportunities, strew burning debris in road
THE COMMUNITY of Hangberg brought traffic in the area to a standstill yesterday, strewing burning debris on Harbour Road as they made a variety of demands of council including land, housing and basic services.
Led by the Peace and Mediation Forum (PMF), the residents said they were excluded from benefiting from their ancestral land and the City of Cape Town had made it worse by denying them housing and job opportunities. The majority of the residents claim Khoi roots.
The residents told police they would not leave until they were addressed by mayor Patricia de Lille.
At around noon, officials from the mayor’s office, accompanied by Ward 74 councillor, Roberto Quintas, arrived and were met by a hostile crowd, who heckled them as they tried to address the protesters.
The residents accused Quintas of never having met them since his election to the post. He refuted the claim with PMF leader Kevin Davis’s backing.
“We met a week-and-a-half ago and discussed community development, and I promised to return to address them with other City officials from other directorates with tangible information like timelines (for development),” Quintas said.
Davis said the City priworitised Imizamo Yethu, “newcomers in Hout Bay”, ahead of Hangberg residents who had been there “for over 70 years”.
Residents refused to address media as individuals, insisting on being interviewed as a group of comrades.
They said since 2010 there had only been 71 housing units developed in Hangberg.
The City, residents said, had promised the community would own title deeds in Hangberg in 2010, but to this day, none of them owned a title deed.
Hilton Mitchell, a service provider for the premier’s Game Changer after school programme, was blocked from picking up 70 children in Hout Bay. He tried to persuade Roscoe Jacobs, but the ANC Youth League co- ordinator would have none of it.
“I’m obviously disappointed we are blocked. This deprives young people. I understand they raise relevant grievances, but they come at the expense of their children today,” Mitchell said.
It became tense when motorists began driving around the barricade or drove by the seashore. Some of the residents hurried to block them at the sea, but police thwarted the situation by firing two stun grenades to disperse the crowd.
Jacobs said there had not been any implementation to projects proposed as far back as 2007, and residents were fed up.
The residents agreed to call off the protests and clear up the road after the officials managed to call an impromptu meeting with De Lille yesterday afternoon at the Civic Centre. De Lille’s spokesperson Zara Nicholson did not respond to queries relating to the meeting.
Mayco member for Area North, councillor Suzette Little, said: “We condemn the violent protest action as the community only needed to make contact with the City to engage with them as we have been.
“There is no justification for the violence. The councillors for the area and representatives from the mayor’s office went into Hangberg today to defuse the situation and brought some of the community representatives back to the mayor’s office where the mayor and myself engaged with them.
“We asked the residents to list their concerns and we will meet them in a week’s time to provide feedback.”