HELP ZILLE-RAINE HEIGHTS FIGHT EVICTION
FROM BAD TO WORSE…
24 January 2010
On Friday the 29th of January, over 260 women, men, children and elderly will be represented in court for our appeal trial against forceful relocation from Zille Raine Heights informal settlement in Grassy Park to Happy Valley, 35 kms away from Cape Town.
Four years ago, we, the community of Zille Raine Heights, occupied land in Civic Road, Lotus River. Most people lived in overcrowded flats for most of their lives, some were backyarders, and others were facing evictions from their landlords. For approximately fifty years there has been no housing delivery in the LOGRA area (Lotus River, Grassy Park, Ottery and Retreat) and we decided we needed a solution to our housing problem. The following day after we occupied the open field, our places were demolished by the City without any court order.
Mayor Helen Zille arrived on the land that Sunday afternoon and said that the City of Cape Town would relocate us within 0-18 months to our permanent site, and that we would be part of the first pilot housing project in Pelican Park, Zeekoevlei. She said this twice, in front of the community and reporters and in a meeting with the committee members and the Homeless People’s Crisis Committee.
We lived for three weeks in the open and then the council moved us on their trucks to the field we are currently staying on. Seven months later, the City issued our eviction order. The legal trial took a year and a half, and the judgement was passed on the 13th of June 2008 without any of us being present. We found out about the judgment when a journalist came to interview a resident about a fire on the settlement. The judgement said we were to be evicted and had to move to Happy Valley.
We visited Happy Valley, and we saw the living conditions of the people. It is overcrowded, people have poor sanitation and electricity, and they must walk far for water. There is a dumping site off which people eat to survive. There is high unemployment, and there are few jobs in the area for the community. People told us they used to work before moving to Happy Valley, but since had lost their jobs because they were unable to pay for the cost of travelling far to get to work. We were told that even current mayor Dan Plato said “My dog’s kennel is better than the structures that people are living in, in Happy Valley.”
All we ask is not to be moved far away from our support systems. Most of us rely on family and friends who support us. We will be far from our churches, mosques, our workplaces, clinics and schools. We are willing to move from Zille Raine Heights, but we want permanency – not from TRA to TRA (temporary relocation area).
In March we would have been on this land for four years, and during this time we have not been adequately consulted by the Mayor, nor the Council. Not once has Helen Zille kept her promise to visit us again. Where is our councillor, Jan Burger, and why is he getting paid for doing nothing? We have read that so many ward councillors have helped their communities, why not ours? We should keep politicians accountable!
We live in the new South Africa with the right to housing, but the apartheid style of forced removal remains! We are not going to rest until justice is served!
Support us in our struggle to find permanent housing, by joining us at the high court in Cape Town, 09h00 Friday 29th January 2010. You can also support us by sharing this information in your community.
Contact: Eleanor Hoedemaker 074 724 7373 or Gwendolene Botha 084 213 8169