Yazeed Kamaldien and Sapa
Nov 18, 2008
Source: The Times
A MAN was killed and eight people were injured during a protest in the Breede River Valley yesterday, Western Cape police said.
Residents of the Stofland informal settlement, and surrounding townships near De Doorns, were protesting on the N1 at 10am when the man was killed. Read the rest of this entry »
Squatter camp dwellers in Gugulethu have accused their ward councillor of evicting them from a community centre where they were sheltered after heavy rains flooded their shacks.
Most residents of Thambo Square squatter camp, who were sheltered in the Ikwezi community centre after their shacks were flooded in heavy rains two weeks ago, have returned home after claiming they were forcibly evicted from the centre.
The residents alleged that ward councillor Belinda Landingwe had forced them to go back to unhealthy conditions in their shacks. Read the rest of this entry »
By Nomangesi Mbiza
September 25 2008 at 12:37PMThambo Square informal settlement residents in Gugulethu, whose shacks were flooded in recent rains, received blankets and food parcels from the International Islamic Relief organisation on Wednesday.
The plight of the residents came to light after they occupied the social services building in Gugulethu on Tuesday, seeking building materials and plastics for their shacks, as well as blankets and temporary accommodation. Read the rest of this entry »
Gugulethu — About 50 residents from Thambo Square informal settlement have been displaced from their homes to a local community hall as a result of flooding in their shacks (Cape Town’s heavy rain this winter has left a lot of people homeless in the City.
The devastated group early this morning marched to the office of their local Department of Social Development seeking immediate relief or intervention such as building material for their shacks, plastic to put over their roof, blankets and a temporary sleeping place. However all they were able to get from Social Development was an unpleasing response. People were told that the ANC government had nothing to do with their situation and they must go to DA. When trying to question the unpleasing response by government, instead of receiving a proper report, the police were called to intimidate and threaten the residents. Residents then went back to their flooded homes in Thambo Square informal settlement.
‘We don’t want their soup and bread we are not hungry maybe the reason why they ill treat us they think that we are here to demand food, we only need alternatives such as relocation to better suitable land or BNG houses, not desperate for food as they think’ said frustrated Libo Meyi (). Read the rest of this entry »
September 9, 2008
Gugulethu AEC Press Statement
CAPE TOWN - The Gugulethu Anti-Eviction Campaign marched on Helen Zille’s office at noon today.
We are angered that backyard dwellers in Gugulethu continue to live in overcrowded, inhumane conditions. Despite the fact that we have carried out an exhaustive audit of Gugulethu backyard residents who have been on the waiting list for housing for more than 20 years, we have yet to be offered housing.
We live in backyards, with up to 8 families in one backyard. We always get flooded out every time it rains but the city and province do not provide us with any relief because they seem to see us as private tenants.
We are demanding the same food parcels, blankets and building materials that are supplied to residents in informal settlements.
We also want back the building materials that the metro police stole from us on the weekend. This was when we identified an empty piece of land and tried to move on to it. We have every right to do this because the government has failed for 20 years to provide us with houses.
for more information contact Mncedisi Twalo on
Those living in The Backyards of Gugulethu, Langa and Nyanga have accused the government of not doing enough to help them.
The backyard-dwellers feel that government only help those involved in high profile cases and ignores the plight of people living in the backyard.
Read the rest of this entry »
Scores of Guguletu’s back-yard dwellers protested outside the municipal buildings yesterday in a bid to highlight their winter plight.
They said that elderly backyard dwellers and children had become very ill during the recent floods and had been overlooked during the city’s relief efforts.
“We are not happy that we don’t get blankets and medicines during the winter floods even though we are also flooded on a yearly basis,” the group’s representative, Mncedisi Twalo, said.
Cape Town mayoral committee member Dan Plato said it was “a tall order to provide everyone with blankets and medicines every year”.
Twalo estimated that there are almost 10 000 back-yard dwellers in Guguletu. He said there are up to three shacks in most back yards, and up to eight people living in each of these shacks.
Read the rest of this entry »
Gugulethu — The Backyards of Gugulethu, Langa and Nyanga have been crying for help for the past fourteen years. Informal settlements are not the only places in Cape Town affected by the rain each winter. The backyard-dwellers in the townships are also flood victims. Still, all levels of government show that they only help high-profile cases; they ignore the plight of people living in the backyards.
The ruling parties and the media are always promote all the ‘good work’ they do ’saving’ flood victims in informal settlements. The City of Cape Town and the provincial government claim to be working around the clock to help the flood victims of informal settlements with blankets, medical supplies, food parcels, and other materials which are given to a select few high profile cases. But while giving minimal support to newsworthy incidents, they have provided no help to the unseen masses living in Kapa’s backyards.
And so, later today, the 14th of July, the backyards will embark on their first mass protest demanding disaster flood relief in front of the Fezeka Municipality Building in Gugulethu.
Time: 11h00
Date: Monday, 14th July, 2008
Location: Fezeka Municipality Building, Gugulethu
For more information, please contact Anti-Eviction coordinator Mncedisi Twalo at
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