Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign

SAMWU Cape Metro Branch office, 8 Beverley Street, Athlone, 7760. Tel: 021 6971147.

To:The Western Province Council of Churches
Fax: [Tel: 6962810]
From:The Steering Committee of the Cape Town Anti-Privatisation Forum
Date:9th October 2001
Re:Funding assistance for Cape Town APF for the National Exploratory Workshop

Dear Friends,

The Anti-Privatisation Forums and Concerned Citizens Groups that have mushroomed all over the country in the past two years will be convening a National Exploratory Workshop in Johannesburg from the 26th – 29th October 2001. This Workshop seeks to co-ordinate the activities of all the various Anti-Privatisation Forums operating in the country at the moment. As you are aware, the community groups with the welcome support of the Church at many times, have been fighting for services for the poor and marginalised across the country. The NEW will consolidate this and more importantly, come up with concrete proposals for sharing the limited resources that each Group has at the moment. Cape Town has an Anti-Privatisation Forum that has been actively supported over the past year by over 20 trade unions, religious groups, youth and unemployed movements, environmental groups and community structures who have been fighting evictions and water cut offs.

At a preparatory meeting held on October 6th 2001, it was decided to raise funds for between 28 to 33 representatives of the Cape Town APF to attend. These representatives will be drawn from participating unions, community groups, religious organisations, NGO’s, and political organisations.

The delegation is intending to travel by road and be accommodated in basic, hostel style accommodation at Shaft 17 Training Centre in Johannesburg.

The budget for the trip will be approximately
l 3 microbuses (R252.00 per microbus per day at 2 days) = R1512.00
l Approximately R1700 per microbus petrol = R5100.00
l Charge of R0.86 per kilometre per microbus = R4128.00
l Accommodation has been costed at R95 per person for four nights = R10 722 (with discount)

The APF is trying to raise a grand total of R10 740 (transport) + R10 722 (accommodation) = R21 462
We have already applied to SAMWU, UNISON (public sector union in Britain), Water Pressure Group (New Zealand), SEIU (America), and the German unions for funding but have not yet received a positive response. Each of the APF participating organisations is now trying to raise money but we are very under-resourced. We are therefore humbly requesting all religious organisations who have an interest in seeing a decent standard of living for the poor and marginalised achieved in the next few years, to make a donation of R1000 towards the costs of the workshop travel.

Please liaise with me if this is going to be possible [Anna Weekes 083 7141899/ 6971153] or Peter Meyer [7613181] – we are the fundraisers for the Steering Committee. It would assist the APF a great deal if you could indicate whether you think it will be possible for you to contribute or raise any money at all.

Yours in Christ,
Anna Weekes
Cape Town Anti Privatisation Forum

Elsies River Anti-Eviction Campaign [Western Cape]
Press Alert
Friday October 5th 2001
4pm

The Elsies River Anti-Eviction Campaign hereby requests the press to pay a visit to the council flats No 4 and No 10 Oakdale Court in Clarke Estate, Elsies River.

The Campaign has been busy for more than a week now trying to alleviate the plight of the families living in these two flats. The children of the families have become seriously ill because the council will not unblock the drains shared by the block.

What has happened is that because the council has not done any maintenance for years on the block despite repeated and regular requests, every time anybody in the block of flats flushes the toilet, the drains immediately outside Flats 4 and 10 overflow, with the toilet matter flooding into the
flats themselves.

What is making life worse for the families is that there are boards instead of windows in the flats so there is no ventilation.

The Elsies River AEC has been putting pressure on the council intensively to fix this but nothing has happened. The 16 year old son of the Davids family in Flat 4 is now sick with a disease that seems like an intense form of diarrohea. He is constantly taking rehydration, anti-diarrohea and other
medication.

The Elsies River AEC invites the SABC and ETV to come to Clarke Estate as soon as possible to expose the complete squalor of slum life that these unfortunate families are being subjected to.

…/ends

For comment please contact Mary Petersen on 021 9322692 or after 5pm on 021
9337018.

SAMWU Cape Metro Branch office, 8 Beverley Street, Athlone, 7760. Tel: 021 6971147.

To:The Part
From:The Steering Committee of the Cape Town Anti-Privatisation Forum
Date:3rd October 2001
Re:Funding assistance for Cape Town APF for the National Exploratory Workshop

Dear Comrade,

Please find attached details of a National Exploratory Workshop to be held in Johannesburg from the 26th – 29th October 2001. This Workshop seeks to co-ordinate the activities of all the various Anti-Privatisation Forums operating in the country at the moment. As you know, the Cape Town Anti-Privatisation Forum has a very strong public sector union presence with participation from nearly all the SAMWU Cape Metro Branch fulltime shopstewards, office bearers and organisers. Nehawu and Communications Workers Union provincial office bearers and shopstewards are also key participants. The Cape Town APF has embarked on a number of initiatives beneficial to SAMWU’s campaigns – such as the community consultations in Delft, Mitchells Plein and Khayelitsha which have consolidated community support against the Cape Town Unicity’s drive to corporatise services.

We thus feel that it is vital that we send a strong delegation from the Cape Town APF to this National Workshop. The APF Plenary has decided that 40 comrades should go. We are intending to travel by road.

The budget for the road travel will be approximately
l 3 microbuses (R252.00 per microbus per day at 2 days) = R1512.00
l Approximately R1700 per microbus petrol = R5100.00
l Charge of R0.86 per kilometre per microbus = R4128.00
TOTAL = R10 740

We would like to humbly request SAMWU to cover this amount, or part of the amount. The Steering Committee is applying to other sources for funding too, but we would need any extra funds to cover accommodation and food. Please note that we are intending to stay in a church hall or the NUM accommodation – Shaft 17 in order to cut our costs to the minimum.

Alternatively, if SAMWU could pay for the microbuses, the Cape Town APF could undertake to fundraise after the workshop to re-imburse at least part of this cost before the union gets billed by Diners Club.

We hope that the union receives this request favourably.

Yours in the struggle against privatisation,

Archie Hearne
SAMWU full-time shopsteward
On behalf of the Cape Town Anti-Privatisation Forum Steering Committee