Public protector called in as protests roil Cape Town

24 May 2018 - 17:13 By Aron Hyman
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An officer searches men in Parkwood on the Cape Flats on Wednesday, when Cape Town Metro Police conducted operations in the area.
An officer searches men in Parkwood on the Cape Flats on Wednesday, when Cape Town Metro Police conducted operations in the area.
Image: ESA ALEXANDER

The South African Human Rights Commission has written to the public protector over alleged “corruption” in the allocation of government housing‚ a key issue driving protests across Cape Town.

Commissioner Chris Nissen addressed media and community members in pouring rain under a small tin roof on a resident’s stoep in Parkwood on Thursday.

Storm water washed dozens of spent shotgun cartridges into a cluster in the gutter as a few sentries kept a barricade fire going with whatever flammable rubbish they could find.

Nissen said residents’ demands for decent housing were reasonable‚ although he condemned “violence and illegal activity”.

He said: “We are there to say that people have the right to housing‚ sanitation and water‚ and particularly these communities that have been neglected. These people need to be heard.”

Nissen said the commission noted protests across Cape Town and the Overstrand Municipality over access to housing and land.

“It’s not only here‚ it’s all over the Western Cape‚” he said. “We have it in Scottsdene‚ Kraaifontein‚ Macassar‚ Ocean View‚ Mount Pleasant‚ and in Gansbaai this morning people are marching as well. As the commission‚ we are very concerned about what’s happening.”

Missing from his list was Mitchells Plain‚ but land occupations have spread across virtually all of Cape Town’s significant indigent communities‚ and always result in clashes with law enforcement authorities and escalation in violence.

In Parkwood this week‚ hundreds of residents who have been living in shacks in the backyards of rental housing units started occupying an open field next to the M5 highway.

Parkwood Backyarders Association leader Dominic Booysen said many of them had been living in backyards for decades after forced removals by the apartheid government displaced non-whites from economic hubs and affluent neighbourhoods.

Since then they have been on waiting lists for government housing units.

“At the moment while it’s raining we have to look at the circumstances of backyarders in Parkwood. In some structures there are five to seven families‚” he said.

Booysen said their fight was for housing for backyarders. “For us the waiting lists are a corruption. At the moment I have proof of people who were on the waiting lists for two or three years and who got houses.

“If the city has one waiting list‚ how can it be that I am on the waiting list for 17 years‚ and you who are on the list for five years got a house in Pelican Park? It doesn’t make sense‚” he said.

Residents also expressed anger at the way law enforcement officers and riot police dealt with the protests.

However‚ law enforcement authorities and some residents claimed a “criminal element” mingled with protesters on Wednesday.

The Rev Barry Isaacs‚ from Concerned Clergy Western Cape‚ has observed protests in Grassy Park and Parkwood first hand‚ and although he endorsed people’s the broader protest he also condemned violence and destruction of property.

He said he was concerned about gangsters and politicians. “There was a big criminal element here yesterday‚ they are using the situation to spread their territory.

“The politicians are doing the same thing‚ trying to score political points‚” he said‚ referring to the ANC caucus leader in the City of Cape Town‚ Xolani Sotashe‚ who addressed a swelling crowd on the open field next to the M5.

Sotashe called on people to demand answers from the city. “I’m here to say to the people of Parkwood‚ there is nothing wrong for them to stand up and demand for their rights. I mean‚ people are staying in the backyards here‚ you can see for yourself the conditions‚” he said.

As the politicians and cameras left‚ young men and women were gathering for the next clashes with police.

Community youth leader Chad Crowley went around the group of people asking for money for petrol. “We are shutting down the M5‚ ons gat hulle sakke slat [we are going to hit their pockets]‚” he said.

Moments later the crowd had occupied the M5 and were clashing with police again. It was a small taste things to come‚ said Isaacs. “If we don’t have radical transformation‚ we’ll go over the cliff.”


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