'We have nowhere to go'

2008-02-20 13:15

A traumatised toddler sits around after residents in Delft, Cape Town, were evicted from homes they were occupying illegally. (Neil Baynes, Die Burger)

Verashni Pillay

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Cape Town - More than a thousand evicted Delft residents sitting on the side of the road on Wednesday morning had nowhere to go to and authorities had no alternative accommodation for them.

"We have been here all night," said chairperson of the Western Cape anti-eviction campaign, Ashraf Cassiem. "We slept under the stars in the sand dunes."

Cassiem said no one had offered to help them besides one humanitarian organisation: Islam Relief Worldwide's Western Cape branch.

Housing minister, Lindiwe Sisulu, said in a statement on February 6 after the Cape High Court's decision to evict the illegal dwellers that she had instructed building company, Thubelisha Homes, to help the people move back to their previous places of accommodation and to provide them with transport as well as a temporary advice centre.

Nothing provided

Cassiem said nothing of the sort had been provided.

Prince Xhanti, project manager for Thubelisha Homes disavowed any such responsibility when News24 contacted him.

Housing department spokesperson, Ndivhuwo Mabaya, told News24 on Wednesday that help would have been offered had the occupants moved out on the day by which they had been told to vacate the premises.

He said no alternative accommodation had been made available.

"We believe that these people came from somewhere else and they can go back there," said Mabaya.

However Cassiem said the majority of the evicted occupants had stayed on the streets precisely because they had nowhere else to go.

"The community has nowhere else to go since all those who occupied the houses in the first place were backyard dwellers with no security of tenure in the backyards they were renting, or homeless," the Western Cape anti-eviction campaign said in a statement.

No court specifications

Vusi Tshose, provincial local government and housing spokesperson said the court order had not specified that alternative accommodation be made available.

"The provincial government of the Western Cape has no alternative accommodation for anybody who illegally occupied the houses," said Tshose.

Cassiem the evicted occupants would not reoccupy the houses but wanted alternative accommodation.

The evicted occupants still planned to appeal their case at the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein.

- News24