While the country commemorated Human Rights Day yesterday (21 March) a group of people, who have set up a tent in an open field in Hanover Street, District Six, since March last year, claim their human rights are being violated.
More than year ago, on Saturday 20 March, the group embarked on a peaceful protest demanding protection of their rights (“We have had enough”, People’s Post, 22 April 2021).
To date 20 of the 63 families are still living at the site. Many say they were evicted from their places of residence due to circumstances beyond their control. Most of them hail from areas such as Mitchell’s Plain, Hanover Park, Manenberg, Eerste River and Grassy Park.
They say all they want is for government to respond to their housing needs. “All we want is our basic human right: our own homes,” says Kariema Damons, a committee member for the group.
She says many of them have been on the City’s housing data base for more than 10 years. “Nothing has changed in the last year. How do we celebrate human rights when we are living in inhumane conditions? City officials came here and took down our names. They verified that all of us are on the housing data list.”
According to Damons, the City offered them temporary accommodation at its Bosasa housing project in Mfuleni. An offer she says they refused because it was not what they were promised.
“Some of us went there to go and check out the place. It was just an open plan structure deep in the bush.”
Damons claims that housing in Cape Town is being improperly allocated to people who have been on the waiting list for a short period. She says she is currently unemployed and living with her children and grandchild in a tent.
“We just want to know what is the way forward. We are not moving from here until we receive homes,” she says.
Toufiqa Dass says her partner has been on the housing data base for 12 years. “We want answers. We are not violent. All we want is a roof over our heads. When it rains we get wet. When the wind blows then our tents are unstable. We have to walk to the mountain to go get water.”
Ragshanah Larney has been dreaming of moving into her own home for the past 16 years.
“We just want them to help us because we are on the data base for years, we have been shunted from landlords and we have no other place to go to. All we need is our basic human rights; to get a house.”
According to Malusi Booi, Mayco member for human settlements, there is no specific timeframe which residents must wait before they are allocated a housing opportunity.
“It depends on the availability of housing opportunities and whether applicants qualify when the opportunities do become available and also whether beneficiaries accept an opportunity in a particular project when it comes up. The housing need is acute. As beneficiaries are assisted, others are added to the database.”
He says beneficiaries of all city housing projects are allocated in accordance with the City’s Allocation Policy and the Housing Needs Register to ensure that housing opportunities are provided to qualifying applicants in a fair, transparent and equal manner, and to prevent queue-jumping.
Booi says all housing projects have different dynamics in terms of the size of the project, the number of applicants who may qualify and the application date range for that project.
“Applicants will be selected for housing opportunities based on the date that they registered on the Register – in general it is first come, first served.
“The cut-off date reached in the source areas selected for a project depends on the project size and applicants are considered in date order.”
He adds: “There are many residents who await a housing opportunity who do not unlawfully occupy land. Unlawful occupation hurts us all. The city cannot prioritise illegal occupiers at the cost of other registered applicants.”
Booi encouraged residents who are waiting for their housing opportunity ensure that their contact details are updated on the Housing Needs Register.
