Tygerburger recently reported that all refugees were to be moved from community halls by 3 September, so that community members could regain the use of their community facilities, specifically in the Bothasig area.

Pieter Cronjé, Director of Communication for the City of Cape Town, speaking on behalf of the joint provincial and local government task team, said that the 55 people living in the Bothasig community hall have, to his knowledge, already been moved. A group of 30 refugees was moved from the hall originally. Those that were at work during the time of the first removals, were moved during the weekend.

The task team’s plan includes moving the refugees to the Harmony Park safety site in Strand.

All services that had been offerred to the refugees while living in the halls will now be provided at the new safety site.

“Some people reintegrated into communities without our help or knowledge,” says Cronjé, which makes it difficult for the task team to say exactly how many people were moved from the hall.

Cronjé also says that the plan to reopen the halls in September had been made known, but Yvonne van der Westhuizen, chairperson for the Bothasig Seniors Club, says that they have received no indication as to when they will have the use of their hall again.

Van der Westhuizen has had to seek an alternative venue for the club’s meetings, despite having paid for the hall a year in advance. She was promised that the club would be reimbursed for the alternative arrangements.

“Since June I haven’t heard a word,” she says.

Ward councillor for the area, Mr James Vos, says that it is important to have the hall recomissioned as soon as possible, in order to restore normality in the community.

Vos recently held a meeting with all community representitives and orginisations that make use of the hall. A plan was discussed to ensure that the full use of the hall be recovered as soon as possible.

Vos has also appealed to the Department of Sports and Recreation, the department responsible for the maintainance of community halls, to clean and fix the hall as soon as possible. He says there should be no reason for further delays.

Once the task team has indicated that the process of rehabilitating the halls for community use can begin, an assesment will be done to determine the extent of damage to the hall. Hereafter the “clean-up” process can start.

Currently the hall is officially closed for the time being.

(Also read: Moved to Safety in this section.)