Delft evictions under way
2008-02-19 11:39
Cape Town - Evictions have begun at the housing development in Delft illegally occupied by backyard dwellers, the Western Cape Anti-Eviction campaign said on Tuesday morning.
A Cape High Court judge on Monday refused the more than 1 000 squatters leave to appeal against an earlier eviction order.
The houses are meant for residents of an informal settlement being cleared to make way for the government's flagship Gateway housing project alongside the N2 highway.
Anti-eviction campaign spokesperson Pamela Beukes said security officials and police began moving furniture out of the Delft houses at about 06:30 on Tuesday and loading it onto waiting trucks.
"They've taken a couple of people's stuff away on the trucks already and we don't know where to," she said.
"The people are being very peaceful: they're asking 'where are you taking our stuff to?' - and they can't give us any reply."
She said that after the first few evictions, people further down the line were removing their more valuable possessions from the houses and caching them on a nearby field.
They were then going back to stand in front of "their" houses to wait for the eviction.
Beukes said police were setting up razor wire around the houses that had already been cleared.
The campaign earlier appealed to Delft residents not to resort to violence.
It said it was exploring petitioning the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein against the High Court ruling.
- SAPA