Illegal occupations threaten new homes for beneficiaries, conservation land

13 July 2020

The City of Cape Town absolutely condemns the repeated attempts to invade the Bosasa homes earmarked for vulnerable beneficiaries from Mfuleni’s Burundi informal settlement and BM Section in Khayelitsha.

Over the weekend, 150 units of the City’s Bosasa development were invaded by residents claiming to be the beneficiaries of the units. They were removed from the units in terms of the prevention of illegal occupation. They are not the rightful beneficiaries of the units. According to the existing agreement, residents from Mfuleni Ward 16 have already received their units. It is now the turn of other rightful beneficiaries, as per the agreement, from Burundi informal settlement and BM Section. Members of the same group blocked the relocation of the rightful beneficiaries to their new homes again today, 13 July 2020.

The City wants to make the following clear: The weekend’s operation to prevent the illegal occupation at the Bosasa development took place to clear the illegally invaded units.
 
Those who attempted to illegally occupy the units, and continue to do so, are not the rightful beneficiaries. The rightful beneficiaries are from the Burundi informal settlement in Mfuleni and BM Section in Khayelitsha.

Remember the big December fire of 2013? The BM Section beneficiaries are the ones who were primarily affected and to this day have been waiting to be accommodated but due to the various challenges of vandalism, violence and attempted illegal occupation, among others, can’t be.

As for the Burundi beneficiaries, they have again this weekend been severely affected by flooding. And we have not been able to move them to dry homes in the Bosasa development as was the plan for today.

There is an existing Memorandum of Agreement (MOA), and an amended version, which has been agreed to by all parties, including the Ward 16 Mfuleni leadership. The beneficiaries from this ward have already received their units.

To emphasise:

• The rightful beneficiaries as agreed to from Mfuleni (Ward 16) were allocated units already. They received what was promised to them in accordance with the agreement. They want to add more people of their own choosing, at the expense of the other beneficiaries from BM Section and Burundi informal settlement who have not been accommodated yet.
• The rightful beneficiaries from BM Section and Burundi informal settlement are next in line to be accommodated.
• It cannot be that the leadership of Mfuleni Ward 16 in particular now goes against the agreement after the originally identified people of Mfuleni Ward 16 have already been accommodated. What about the rightful beneficiaries from Burundi informal settlement and BM Section, what must happen to them?

The emergency accommodation at Bosasa is being allocated according to the verified beneficiary list, as units are constructed and become available, and in line with the National Housing Emergency Code.

There are allegations that the applicable leadership in Mfuleni have ‘sold’ units to people in Mfuleni – of course these units are not theirs to sell. This is illegal and criminal. The City asks anyone with evidence to please contact the nearest South African Police Service office or to send an anonymous tip off to the City for investigation.

The City will continue to act to prevent the illegal occupation of its land and finished developments as it has a responsibility to the rightful beneficiaries of projects and of ensuring it can cater to the growing needs of the population.

Land invasion attempts on nature conservation land, wetlands
There have also been various attempts to invade nature conservation land over the past week especially. This simply cannot be allowed.

Over the weekend, more nature conservation land was lost despite the City’s best efforts in the sensitive Driftsands Nature Reserve in Mfuleni. This is a biodiversity hotspot. Cape Town’s biodiversity is under constant threat from illegal occupation. Apart from strengthening the resilience of a city and of human beings, biodiversity has a direct and indirect job creation benefit. So it is not a matter of choosing plants over people. It is a matter of people can’t survive without biodiversity.

Earlier in the week further attempts to illegally occupy a section of the False Bay Nature Reserve near Vrygrond were also made. This is a multi-functional nature reserve and is intended to both conserve nature and serve local communities by providing opportunities for recreation and education. The reserve is a Ramsar site as it is recognised nationally and internationally for its contribution to the protection of the Cape’s unique flora and fauna. A Ramsar site is a wetland site designated to be of international importance under the UNESCO Ramsar Convention. It is a wetland and not suitable for housing.

Mau Mau development in Nyanga under threat
The further invasion of completed and incomplete units in the City’s Mau Mau housing development occurred on Friday 10 July 2020. This has now jeopardised the allocation of houses in the project to the rightful beneficiaries, mostly the elderly; and it is unacceptable.

The City is currently developing the Gugulethu Infill housing project, which stretches over two sites in Gugulethu and Nyanga, however continued illegal actions and community struggles are causing challenges in the project.

A further 19 units in total have been invaded by what appears to be younger beneficiaries of this project. This is at the expense of the older beneficiaries who were first in line to receive their units. The younger beneficiaries appear lower down on the project list, and they would only receive their houses later in the project.

The City is currently looking at its legal options and is also engaging security service providers to further enhance security on site to prevent further invasions.

This is not the first time this project has been marred by similar actions:

• Earlier this year, in January 2020, community members gathered on the project site to invade the units and ended up vandalising the units. A total of 57 of the 91 completed units on site were temporarily occupied mostly by young people who are not first in line on the approved project list.
• In December 2019, two rightful elderly beneficiaries, aged 80 and 76, were forced out of their newly completed units and their furniture was left on the street. Their illegal eviction was related to a dispute by the Nyanga Development Forum (NDF) that is disagreeing with the allocation of units to New Crossroads beneficiaries in this project. It should be noted that New Crossroads officially forms part of the project by virtue of an approved Allocation Request Form (ARF) that was signed in June 2016 after extensive public consultation. Interactions with affected groups are still underway to resolve this impasse.

‘The City is mindful of the acute need for housing opportunities across the metro. We are making every effort to address this matter and to provide services within a planned and fair manner wherever possible within the constraints that are being experienced. The City will continue to protect land from attempted illegal occupation because land invasions affect us all.

‘Land invasions hold a severely negative impact for Cape Town and all of its people. The impact of uncontrolled human occupation often on unsuitable land which is prone to flooding, as we can again see across the metro resulting from the storm-related flooding causes great misery. It also impacts on the City’s limited budget and projects in the Integrated Development Plan that cannot proceed due to resources that are constantly being diverted to the provision of basic service in areas that were never intended for residential use, is not sustainable. This is especially serious in light of national government grant transfers to Cape Town for human settlements reducing,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Human Settlements, Councillor Malusi Booi.

Anonymous tip-offs welcomed:
The City will continue to follow the law as it upholds the law. Residents can give anonymous tip offs if they are aware of illegal activity that is taking place; that has happened or is still to happen. Please call 112 from a cell phone (toll free) and 107 from a landline or 021 480 7700 for emergencies.

End

Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office