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The Cape Town city demolished about 30 land occupying shacks on Thursday in the informal settlement of Empolweni, Khayelitsha.
When GroundUp arrived on the scene, beds, paraffin stoves, blankets, and other personal belongings were scattered. The land is owned by the city.
He appears to have been busy last week, reports GroundUp.
Community leader Ntembeko Moyeni said the former robbers moved to land because they have been deprived of their livelihoods.
“Residents no longer earn money to pay rent because their workplaces are closed due to closure,” he said.
Moyeni said residents of the municipality, without jobs, are no longer hiring people to do laundry, construction work and housework. “Township residents cannot hire backyarders to perform piecemeal work because they themselves do not work due to the closure,” he said.
“The City has ordered some of them to stop selling braai meat, emoticons, vetkoek, and potato chips, so now they can’t earn money to pay the rent.”
Former backyarders were stranded on vacant land after demolition, he said. “Even if they want to go to the places of their family or friends, they cannot do it because taxis do not run.” (While taxis can circulate, they do so at limited hours and none were serving the area while GroundUp was there.)
About 30 shacks were demolished on Thursday in the Empolweni informal settlement. Photo: Vincent Lali
Land occupant Nolitha Melaphi said a friend telephoned her about the demolition while she was shopping for essential items at the Makhaza Mall in Khayelitsha.
“When I saw my construction materials scattered, my heart ached,” he said.
Melaphi said she used to work serving tea at a market at the Observatory before closing. “I no longer earn money to support my family and pay the rent because the closing rules have forced my bosses to close their businesses,” he said.
Melaphi rented a backyard cabin for R500 a month in Section 43, Makhaza, where she was cramped with her mother and four children.
“Before getting ready to go to work, I had to wake up my children to sleep on the floor to have room to move around. I had to put the clothes on the bed when I took a bath because the hut was tight,” Melaphi said. .
Nkosikhona Swaartbooi, from the housing activist group Ndifuna Ukwazi, visited the evicted ex-combatants and expressed his outrage.
“This is illegal. The law does not allow the City to evict residents while they are locked up,” he said. “How will people distance themselves when their huts are demolished?”
The head of the Social Justice Coalition, Axolile Notywala, also condemned the City.
“There are already cases of coronavirus infections here in Khayelitsha. Now residents must get together and risk getting an infection,” he said.
But Mayco member for Human Settlements Malusi Booi denied that this was an eviction. He said the court had issued an order to the City to remove “vacant and unfinished structures in accordance with the provisions of the law and based on the advice of legal professionals.”
“These structures were illegally erected on land owned by the city. The land invasions are illegal,” he said.
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