Open Letter to the mayor of City of Cape Town Helen Zille

Abahlali baseMjondolo of the Western Cape
No 28 Ramaphosa Street
Site B Khayelitsha
7784
email address: abmwesterncape@abahlali.org www.khayelitshastruggles.com

City of Cape Town

RE: Letter to the Mayor

Dear Madam Mayor

This letter follows the meeting that you have schedule for the 22nd November 2008 with ABM Western Cape 'Khayelitsha' which took place at Site B Community Hall,
and the meeting followed the Memorandum which was submitted to you on the 23rd October 2008.

The meeting for the 22nd November 2008 was organized by Bonginkosi Madikizela who is a communication officer for City of Cape Town and he was acting on your mandate and he liaised with Mzonke Poni who is the Chairperson for Western Cape ABM, who acted on behalf of the Khayelitsha shack dwellers who signed the memorandum that was submitted on the 23rd of October 2008 to your office.

The reason why Abahlali baseMjondolo agreed to meet with you is because they were under the impression that you will give them a detailed report, responding from the Memorandum that was submitted to you at above mentioned date.

The ABM WC was not impressed with your visit at Khayelitsha at above mentioned date. We regret to tell you that your presence at the meeting was very useless and fruitless as you failed to respond at our demands.

Abahlali would like to clarify it's stance for next years elections, the movement has declared that No Land! No House! No Vote! And the movement does not have alliance with any political party and does not have any working relationship wit any political party. The ABM Western Cape will not work with you as a leader of the DA as it also opposed to DA policies as well.

The movement would like also to urge you not use it's members for your political campaigns and to conduct your political campaign as far as possible from the movements activities and when the movement engage with you it expect you to engage with it's members as the mayor of the City of Cape Town not as the leader of the Democratic Alliance and the movement was not happy at all with the meeting that you have called which you have chose to use it as a platform to campaign for Democratic Alliance for next years elections, and where you have also urged the members of the movement to work with you as a leader of Democratic Alliance to better their conditions.

We would like to make it clear that we do not have any interest of working with you as a Democratic Leader and we will not work with you as a party leader, where it is possible we will only work with you not as a DA leader but as a Mayor of City of Cape Town.

In Conclusion

The Movement is still waiting for the detailed response of the memorandum which was submitted to you as the Mayor of City of Cape Town on the above mentioned date and we would like to give you 21 days to prepare a detailed report.

When giving a response we would like you to give it to the movement and stop your dirty games of trying to divide and rule the movement using old apartheid style by co-opting leaders from different communities and invite them to your office as individuals and give them false hope with a view to detached them from the movement.

On behalf of the movement

Kwanele Mto

Secretary ABM Western Cape

073 368 0152

City installs 420 flush toilets in Khayelitsha

City installs 420 flush toilets in KhayelitshaABOUT 5 000 residents of the BM informal settlement in Khayelitsha will soon enjoy access to flush toilets. After consulting with the community, the City of Cape Town installed the first 280 toilets in the BMM section. If all goes well, the contractor plans to install the next 140 toilets by March next year. Ms Nokuzola Nedala, a volunteer at the local soup kitchen, was very happy that she and her family could now use a proper flush toilet. This single mother has been living in a shack with her four children for the past eight years. "Because the area is very densely occupied, it was not possible to install sewage pipes in the middle. So the BM community agreed that the City should place the toilets on the outside boundary," says Blommie Hendricks, the City’s Director of Development Services. At the City’s report-back meeting, the City’s water and sanitation officials urged the community not to place large objects in the toilets as this would cause them to block and overflow. Executive Mayor of Cape Town, Helen Zille, told residents that BM Section was one of five informal settlements where the City is to apply its new approach of providing a comprehensive raft of basic services, one step at a time. She asked the community to co-operate with the City officials so that service delivery can happen quicker. Malcolm Salida of Electricity Services said that the City of Cape Town had given Eskom land next to the Mew Way centre to start building a substation next year. "BM Section is part of the Eskom area and the City has arranged with Eskom to provide electricity to residents," says Salida. According to Hendricks, the City is to launch a survey of all informal settlement households in February, so that it can plan together with the community to put in roads, water, electricity, toilets and rubbish removal.EndsIssued by the City of Cape TownMedia queries: Blommie Hendricks, Director of Development Services, City of Cape Town, Tel: 021 400 3934 or Cell: 084 615 887______________________________________________

Police, residents clash over illegal electricity connections

Source west cape news

Nov.24, 2008 in Development, Human Rights, Politics

Metrorail’s attempts to remove illegal electricity connections laid under and over its tracks resulted in a violent clash between about 100 Khayelitsha residents and police on Thursday. The clash, which occurred adjacent to the Nolungile station in Site C, resulted in police having to fire rubber bullets at the protestors after stones were thrown at moving trains and the police, and a police car was damaged.

One Khayelitsha resident was arrested and briefly appeared in the Khayelitsha Magistrate’s Court on Friday on a charge of malicious damage to state property, but not before residents of the Island informal settlement had marched to the police demanding his release, which was refused.

The drama began on Thursday morning after Metrorail employees attempted to remove illegal electricity connections running from electrified houses on one side of the railway line to the informal settlement.

The myriad wires ran both under the tracks where people had dug into the gravel rail bed, and hung over the electrical cables running above the rails.

Angry residents, who saw their electricity being cut off, came out in force and started throwing stones at the Metrorail employees.

Informal settlement resident Asanda Mgwebile said some residents sustained minor injuries after they slipped and fell on the gravel when police opened fire with rubber bullets.

While police continued to patrol the area on Friday, Mgwebile said residents would reconnect their wires as soon as police had left the area as they needed electricity for cooking, boiling water for washing, and some small businesses needed to conduct their operations.

Resident Mawethu Nkonga, 40, said the government needed to address the root of the problem by providing decent houses and electricity.

“If they continue disconnecting our electricity then they must move us out of here. We cannot live in the dark, but we voted. Wherever they say we must go, we are not going to resist that move. Enough is enough,” Nkonga said.

Khayelitsha’s Site-B police station communications officer Mthokozisi Gama confirmed the incident.
“After police were called in to resolve the stand-off (between Metrorail officials and residents), arguments between residents, Metrorail officials and police blew up and the crowd became uncontrollable,” Gama said.

“The residents began to throw stones at the police, damaging one police vehicle with a brick.”

Enquiries sent to Metrorail communications manger Riana Scott remained unanswered before going to press.

* Reporting by Sandiso Phaliso and Yugendree Naidoo. Published in City Press, 23 November 2008.