Blikkiesdorp residents long for dignity

Giovanna Gerbi | EWN

Some residents of the temporary relocation area Blikkiesdorp in Cape Town on Tuesday said their human rights are in tatters because their living conditions are appalling.

Eyewitness News visited the tin shanty town outside Delft while the country commemorated Human Rights Day on Monday.

The first residents moved to the Symphony Way Temporary Relocation Area – later dubbed ’Blikkiesdorp’ – in 2008. It was supposed to a short-term housing solution.

Press: Kicked Out for the Cup?

Watch Christopher Werth’s multimedia report from South Africa: “Out of Bounds? Cape Town’s Cleanup for the World Cup.”

Kicked Out for the Cup?

South Africa is accused of clearing Cape Town slums to clean up for the big event

Newsweek Magazine, 4 June 2010

by Christhoper Werth

Victor Gumbi sits pensively beside a smoldering fire in a newly cleared lot, literally in the shadow of the recently renovated Ellis Park Stadium, one of the many venues where South Africa will host the World Cup football tournament, which kicks off this week. South Africa billed the world’s most popular sporting event as a boon to development that would help lift millions out of poverty, but Gumbi, a 35-year-old day laborer, says things are only getting worse. Not long after South Africa was awarded the tournament, an entire city block in the neighborhood where he lives was slated for destruction as part of a larger urban-regeneration scheme around the stadium, as Johannesburg began preparing for the throngs of tourists expected to come pouring in over the next few weeks. Late last year, the run-down building where Gumbi was squatting was torn down, leaving him in a small, jerry-built shack in the middle of a block of half-demolished houses that local residents have nicknamed “Baghdad.” Now many residents who’d been living in the area’s abandoned buildings for well more than a decade feel they’re being forced out because of the World Cup. “They want to hide us. They don’t want the Europeans seeing the people living here, so they demolished these dirty houses,” says Gumbi, who’s convinced he’ll be removed once and for all before the games actually begin.

Eviction Tomorrow of HIV Positive Resident of Blikkiesdorp

Tomorrow in L block (L38) of Blikkiesdorp in Delft, an HIV-positive mother of four is facing eviction by the City of Cape Town. The eviction will be happening from 8am onward. The city claims that she is illegally occupying a place in Blikkiesdorp and have issued eviction notices. The woman was part of the first evictions in Delft in the houses along Symphony Way. She then was put into D block of Blikkiesdorp by the city with another resident. The community committee then agreed she was to move into an abandoned shack in L block as she was in dire need of a home to raise her family and care for her self. The shack she is living in now was not being used and was in damaged condition. The same city that evicted her from a home and moved her to a shack is now evicting her and providing no alternative or help. The city is denying its own citizens a place to live and encouraging disregard for the health and safety of its own people. An openly HIV positive citizen is being ignored and denied proper care in the form of a home to care for her self and her family.

All press are encouraged to come to the evictions tomorrow as we act in solidarity and support for people being forced out of their homes and those living with HIV.

For more information please contact Jerome Daniels 0730850940, Willy Heyn 0731443619, Fatima 0780840116

Evictions in Blikkiesdorp TRAs in Delft Happening Now

50 people have been evicted from Blikkiesdorp “O” Block today, November 6, 2009, and are now living and sleeping on the pavement at the entrance to Blikkiesdorp in Delft. “My child is one year and six months old – I am not going to sleep outside again” said community resident, Iris Davids, who was part of the eviction. Another resident, Sadica Abrahams stated “The people are cruel to make us sleep outside like this.”

The community was originally living in Beacon Valley in a tunnel under the R300 bridge. Three weeks ago, they were moved by the City and Law Enforcement from the Beacon Valley tunnel and relocated to Blikkiesdorp Temporary Relocation Area, but were never given papers regarding their move. When the city put them in Blikkiesdorp TRAs there were 8 families moved into 1 shack, although there are a number of empty shacks in Blikkiesdorp. “We were under these bridges and they put us in temporary accommodation – now temporary is throwing us out” says affected resident Iris Davids.

Today the Land Invasions Unit, a unit of Law Enforcement, decided to evict them from Blikkiesdorp illegally. The evictions from Blikkiesdorp did not happen under a court order and are therefore illegal.

Many people are sick and were never warned about the eviction. The Williams family (contact Clement Williams 0764076692) – one family affected by the eviction – was initially illegally evicted from the N2 Gateway house they were renting. The family then went to live in Beacon Valley underneath the bridge. They moved to Blikkiesdorp by the city and now are being evicted again. They say they have lodged three cases of fraud and illegal eviction with the provincial housing department with regards to the N2 Gateway house of which they were evicted. Each time they had gone to check on the case, it had been closed without an investigation happening. The N2 Gateway House where they were evicted from is still standing empty because the owner they were renting from has a second home.

The community of Blikkiesdorp is mobilizing to support the evicted residents. The community will try to put them back into the Blikkiesdorp TRAs.

For more information please contact Jerome 0730850940, Auntie Jane 0784031302, Auntie Badru 0728228109 and/or Stephen Malo 0730621309.

Symphony Way Mediations Postponed – Will Resume Tomorrow at 9h00

Mediations were postponed today, but will resume tomorrow at 9h00 with the same focus:

On Tuesday, Symphony Way pavement dwellers of the Delft Anti-Eviction Campaign met with the city to begin the mediation process regarding the pending evictions of the community from Symphony Way. The community appeared in the Cape Town High Court on Wednesday, October 7^th, 2009. The judge ordered that there must be a mediation process to end with a solution.

The Symphony Way pavement dwellers engaged with the city and asked for alternatives to the “Blikkiesdorp” Temporary Relocation Area where they are refusing to move based on its inhumane conditions. But the only option the city is offering is Blikkiesdorp.

The Mediations were to resume today, but were postponed and will continue tomorrow at 9am at the Council Depot in Delft. The Symphony Way community is going back to meet with the city to see what can be done and to discuss further alternatives to Blikkiesdorp.

Any mediators are invited to attend and assist with the process. All media is invited to attend.

For more information please contact: Ashraf Cassiem 0761861408 and Evelyn 072-748-6864

Symphony Way Mediations Continue Tomorrow – 9h00

Mediation process continues tomorrow – 9h00 at the Council Depot in Delft

This afternoon, Symphony Way pavement dwellers of the Delft Anti-Eviction Campaign met with the city to begin the mediation process regarding the pending evictions of the community from Symphony Way. The community appeared in the Cape Town High Court on Wednesday, October 7^th, 2009. The judge ordered that there must be a mediation process to end with a solution.

Today the Symphony Way pavement dwellers engaged with the city and asked for alternatives to the “Blikkiesdorp” Temporary Relocation Area where they are refusing to move based on its inhumane conditions. But the only option the city is offering is Blikkiesdorp.

Tomorrow at 9am at the Council Depot in Delft, the Symphony Way community is going back to meet with the city to see what can be done and to discuss further alternatives to Blikkiesdorp.

Any mediators are invited to attend and assist with the process.

For more information please contact: Ashraf Cassiem 0761861408 and Evelyn 072-748-6864

Symphony Way Mediation Process Begins Today 13h00 – Mediators Invited to Assist

The Symphony Way Anti-Eviction Campaign is attending a meeting today at 13h00 at the Council Depot in Delft to start the process of mediation with the city per the court order.

Symphony Way pavement dwellers appeared in the Cape Town High Court on Wednesday, October 7^th, 2009. The order by the judge was that there must be a mediation process that needs to end with a solution. This week the Symphony Way Anti-Eviction Campaign will engage with the city as the community is standing strong on opposing to be moved to the “Blikkiesdorp” Temporary Relocation Area.

All mediators who will be helpful to the process are invited to attend today and assist with the forthcoming solution.

For more information please contact: Ashraf Cassiem 0761861408 or Evelyn 072-748-6864

Media: Joe Slovo residents defy move to Delft

21 June 2009, 13:32

By Nwabisa Msutwana-Stemela

Source: Mercury

Tension is mounting in Langa near Cape Town as informal settlers from Joe Slovo slowly fill up every available piece of open land in the more established areas.

Build homes now, Delft protesters demand

May 21, 2009 Edition 1
Niémah Davids

Source: Cape Argus

Dozens of disgruntled residents from another Delft informal settlement have burnt tyres and put up cordons across the entrance and exit points of Symphony Way to protest against a lack of service delivery in the area.

The demonstration was the latest in a series of such protests to have hit Cape Town in recent weeks.

Around 100 residents of the Blikkiesdorp informal settlement, a temporary relocation area in Delft, protested for around two hours from 8am yesterday, demanding that the provincial government give them proper housing.

Symphony Way residents commemorate 1 year on the road

Delft Anti-Eviction Campaign Press Release

19th of February 2009

For an update of the event, click here

Today, the residents of Symphony Way will be commemorating last years evictions on the 19th of February 2008.  We have now lived a full year on Symphony Way and have, in protest, blocked traffic on this major road the entire time.  Residents have nowhere else to go and refused to go to Blikkiesdorp TRA which they see as a refugee camp.  This may be the longest and most difficult protest undertaken by any community in the history of South Africa.

The event will be both a time of mourning and protest as well as a celebration.  We are protesting the fact that we still do not have land or houses and that the government continues to lie to us and oppress us.  However, we are also celebrating the wonderful friendships we have made on the road.  We have built a community here.

We are a silver lining in the dark cloud that is this oppressive society we live in today.  We are nurturing the culture of rebellion that saved us from Apartheid and this culture of rebellion provides us with hope that change is both possible and necessary.

We are joined in solidarity with a group of Danish students.

The agenda for today’s festivities are as follows (we are starting at 4am exactly when the police first began to evict us):

4am-5am = Prayer

5am-6am = Lighting of candles

6am-8am = Actions

10am-12pm = A slide show of the evictions and life on the road

12pm-1pm = Time of discussion

1pm-3pm = A participatory children’s play about the struggle on the road

3pm-4pm = Further time of discussion with the children

4pm-5pm = A community mass meeting to discuss the way forward

No Land! No House! No Vote!

For more information, contact:

Mncedisi Plaatjies at 079 3051 066

Kareemah Linneveldt at 078 4920 943

Ashraf Cassiem at 076 1861 408