Zille: Protests will continue

2009-07-31 22:01

Cape Town - Western Cape Premier said on Friday that so-called "service delivery protests" would inevitably continue in the years ahead.

Writing in her weekly newsletter, the Democratic Alliance leader said, like most other labels, the phrase "service delivery protests" often disguised more than it clarified.

Citing as an example this week's "service delivery protest" which turned violent in Masiphumelele near Kommetjie in the Peninsula, she said the protest was not about "poor service delivery" or "broken promises", but about demands that could not be met.

Invasion

"The irony in Masiphumelele is that the protests are a direct result of the recent escalation of 'service delivery'.

"The injection of resources in a poor community inevitably generates conflict because not everyone can benefit equally," she said.

Masiphumelele started as a series of dispersed sporadic land invasions during the late 1980s and early 1990s, and about ten years ago, the about   1 500 families were consolidated onto the present location, and given serviced sites of between 100 and 150 square meters each.

Some families opted for the free "RDP" houses on their sites, others chose to take the subsidy and build their own homes.

Before the subsidies were approved, each site owner allowed up to six additional families to squat on their site, and charged them rent.

Subsidies

Today, there were an additional 4 000 families living as "backyarders" on the sites provided for 1 500 families.

Many of the new residents were relatively recent migrants to Cape Town, and municipal authorities were unable to prevent this facilitated "invasion" on privately owned sites.

Now that the site owners had received their subsidies and could start building, they were evicting the "backyarders".

Zille said: "We must continue the home-building programme, spending every cent efficiently and effectively.

Compromises

"We will also have to continue upgrading settlements, where they presently are, and find new land for those who must move to enable upgrading to occur.

"We must learn how to consult effectively, how to reach agreements that are as fair as possible, and how to deal with the resultant anger from those who refuse to accept the necessary compromises.

"This will inevitably result in 'service delivery protests' in the years ahead."

- SAPA