20200727 cape town

1. singabalapha backyarders
<takethecommonsmedia@lists.riseup.net>
10:28 (Duela 5
minutu)
hartzaileak:
Singabalapha seeks to make interdict against City of Cape Town final
Press Release – 27 July 2020
Today, Monday 27 July 2020, the Singabalapha community at 414 Main Road in
Observatory will be in the Cape High Court in its bid to finalise an interdict to prevent the
City of Cape Town from harassing and evicting us. We have been living at 414 Main Road
since October last year and the City has over the past few months sent Law Enforcement to
harass us, threaten us with eviction and make life even more difficult for us during the
Covid-19 lockdown.
Illegal evictions during lockdown
Instead of helping Cape Town’s poor, the City has been at odds with many people and
organisations which are trying to improve their own living conditions.
During the Covid-19 lockdown, The City has, through agencies such as their so-called "Law
Enforcement", continually harassed and evicted land reoccupations and informal settlements
all around Cape Town. Among these we can mention the following: Hangberg, eMpolweni/
eThembeni (Khayelitsha), Du Noon, Mfuleni, Driftsands, Vryground and many others. Law
Enforcement has been acting in contravention of C-19 regulations banning evictions and in
contempt the Constitution which olds that no one can be evicted without an order of the
court.
Our Case
After evicting us in October, the CPOA demolished the Arcadia Building which stood at 414
Main Road in order to sell half the land to developers and build a new building on the other
half. We ended up moving onto the grass area in front of the building and contructed our
homes there.
In April, the city tried to force us to "relocate" to the concentration camp it has built in
Strandfontein. The same camp which has now been closed after much condemnation by
progressive organisations and homeless inmates of the camp alike. The City of Cape Town is
racist in its approach and does not even acknowledge its wrongdoings. How can we trust a

2. government that is too arrogant to even admit its mistakes?
Despite our homes making up the Singabalapha Informal Settlement, the City sent its Law
Enforcement to fine us R300-R1,000 for imaginary bylaws contraventions that do not even
apply to informal settlements. The City has used very similar harassment tactics against
homeless people in recent years. Only last year, this harassment tactic was found to be illegal
in the Gelderblom v City of Cape Town case.
The City of Cape Town has been receiving a lot of bad press and condemnation from
progressive organisations and poor/working class residents who are the subject of its actions.
But the people who run this city do not seem concerned with any of this. They continue
pushing their agenda of overcrowded segregated settlements far away from the inner city and
wealthy suburbs.
Singabalapha, by occupying housing and land in the suburbs, is a model for what is the
government calls “Integrated Human Settlements”. It is clear that this City is always pushing
the poor to the peripheries. It would rather go to the court and waste lots of money instead of
working to build housing for the poor in the inner city. City of Cape Town is fighting tooth
and nail so that no poor Black people will be accommodated in the CBD and the wealthy
suburbs. They pushing this agenda through JP Smith’s Law Enforcement, an organisation
that the Minister of Police, Bheki Cele, has described as "criminals in uniform".