Sandiso Phaliso
HOUSING, sanitation and electricity are the pressing issues residents of five Khayelitsha informal settlements want the city to address, says their community leaders.
About 100 residents marched to the Civic Centre yesterday to hand over their memorandum of demands.
The residents, from settlements such as BM section and RR section, called for the urgent intervention of mayor Patricia de Lille.
Community leader Sanele Nkompela read the memorandum before he handed it to city official Wilfred Solomons-Johannes.
“The city is depriving thousands of people of their human rights. We are sick and tired of living in squalid and vulnerable conditions,” he read from the memorandum.
Nkompela said BM section people were in 2007 promised that houses would be built for them, but until now only Temporary Relocation Area (TRA) homes have been built.
“There can be no justification for (the city) failing to spend more than R2 billion in capital budget when our communities urgently need land for houses, water, sanitation, electricity and stormwater network systems,” said Nkompela.
Resident Zandile Mahlathi said she and others have lived in the settlements for more than a decade.
She said, like everyone else in the informal settlements, she did not approve of the “Porta Potti” which she has been provided to relieve herself.
“Living there is disgusting,” said Mahlathi.
Another resident, Mpendulo Ncasa, said he moved to an informal settlement 11 years ago when he could no longer afford the rent he was charged by a landlord.
“I have no electricity, no water and lack toilets, meaning life for me is not as good as it should be,” he said.
He said living in BM section was a health hazard for him and his children.
After receiving the memorandum, Solomons-Johannes told the crowd: “We will give you a response within 21 days. There are already meetings under way, as we had a meeting with councillor Nqulwana last week already.”
The ward councillor in the affected areas, Monde Nqulwana, who had come to the gathering, told the crowd: “The issue of basis services cannot wait until tomorrow, a quick solution to these subjects must be in place.”