Cape Town must develop housing plan - court

Fatima Schroeder
March 29 2005

The Cape High Court has ordered the City of Cape Town to develop a comprehensive and co-ordinated housing programme.

It also ordered the city to restore building materials belonging to residents of the Bonnytoun informal settlement in Wynberg that were taken from them when city officials and law enforcement officers tore down their shacks on March 22.

The city has also been interdicted from demolishing any of the structures they build there in the future.

The urgent application was lodged in the Cape High Court after between 20 and 30 families were left homeless when the City of Cape Town's squatter control unit and law enforcement officials removed their shelters.



About 100 people live in Bonnytoun
About 100 people live in Bonnytoun, including eight children - one of them only seven months old.

Seven structures that had been registered with the city were left standing, but some of them were partly damaged when officials tore down extensions to them that the city claimed were unauthorised.

The Cape Times visited Bonnytoun on Monday and saw the conditions in which people are living there.

Two portable toilets are available for the entire Bonnytoun population.

Most of the people whose homes had been demolished were sleeping in the open.

Most community members are unaware of their rights
Some said they had been living there for more than 10 years. A spokesperson for the community, Lucien Noah, a Bonnytoun resident for 13 years, said many residents suffered from tuberculosis, but were left to face the cold nights without shelter.

He said most members of the community were unaware of their rights and they did not realise that the city was not permitted to evict them unless other accommodation could be provided.

Lizzie Khoma, her partner Charles Hansen and her daughters, Abigail, seven months, and Emelicia, 2, have had to walk from door to door in search of food.

It was not possible to cook inside the dwelling she now calls home since the solid structure the family had lived in for about eight years was demolished last week.

Commenting on Sunday's wet weather conditions, Khoma said: "The Lord helped us.

"It didn't rain that hard and water did not seep through."

Kouta Andrews used to live in a wendy house in Bonnytoun before his home was demolished by the city.

Since then, he has had to spend R70 on black plastic sheeting to cover his possessions and to serve as shelter for himself and his wife.

He has lived in Bonnytoun for more than three years.

The residents, assisted by the Homeless People's Crisis Committee, obtained legal advice and an urgent application was lodged on Thursday.

Justice Shanaaz Meer granted an interim interdict.

The city was ordered to return to court on April 22 to show cause why the order should not be made final.


o This article was originally published on page 3 of Cape Times on March 29, 2005