Calm has returned to Hout Bay after a tense few days as rival groups clashed over plans by the City to reblock Imizamo Yethu’s informal settlement where a fire earlier this year razed 5 000 shacks.
Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille’s spokesperson, Zara Nicholson, said the City’s contractors were ready to go into Imizamo Yethu after violent protests last week forced them to withdraw.
A 19-year-old man, Siyamthanda Betana, was shot dead in the violence.
Nicholson was responding to reports yesterday that one of the community leaders in Imizamo Yethu had seemingly reneged on the agreement reached with De Lille.
Nicholson said claims that one of the community leaders wanted the re-blocking stopped because he had benefited from renting out shacks to foreigners had to be investigated.
“As soon as there’s proof of illegality we will ask the SAPS to step in,” said Nicholson.
On Sunday, Police Minister Fikile Mbalula announced that extra police would be stationed in Imizamo Yethu, and condemned the criminal act which saw two homes being torched along with an ANC constituency office.
“The main problem in Hout Bay is the challenge of human settlement. I’ve listened to community leaders; the in-fighting here rises out of a difference in relation to the approach that has been agreed to by the majority of the people who serve on the steering committee,” said Mbalula.
The majority agreed with the City of Cape Town’s approach of reblocking the informal settlement, and open it up for “decent human settlement”, he said.
Mbalula in a met community leaders at the Hout Bay police station on Sunday night.
“There is a dissenting view, and that view is the one we listened to in the meeting. We’ve advised community leaders to go back and continue to listen to each other,” said Mbalula.
He would talk to Human Settlements’ Minister Lindiwe Sisulu to work with the community of Imizamo Yethu, and the City to resolve issues.
“At least the community here (in Imizamo Yethu) is well organised. We’re not talking to bandits, we are talking to people who have organised themselves in terms of resolving issues,” said Mbalula.