Cape Town - Hout Bay activists have accused the City of Cape Town of using law enforcement officers to intimidate and instil fear in Hangberg residents.
They said the City deployed law enforcement officials to threaten residents that they would demolish their structures, and that they were wasting resources that could be used to help other communities.
This after close to 20 vehicles, including Casspirs and trucks, were deployed in the area on Wednesday and officers removed a fence around a structure.
Community leaders Jeffery Jonkers and (chief) Reagan James were arrested and charged with public violence. Police spokesperson Joseph Swartbooi said two men, aged 32 and 36, were expected to appear in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court once charged.
Activist Roscoe Jacobs said the victimisation of residents started in 2010, and still continued.
“The City must make land available in Hout Bay Valley for integrated human settlements as there is enough land. We have a crisis in our community yet the City fails to address these challenges, and the community houses themselves.
“Hangberg is being target because the DA-led government want to protect the apartheid-style town planning and status quo of Hout Bay.
“We are not invading, but expropriating, as our government fails to do so. The resources should have been deployed to communities where taxi and gang violence was rife, however they were deployed to remove only a fence,” he said.
City spokesperson Luthando Thyalibhongo said the City’s Law Enforcement Department acted on an illegal land occupation complaint from a member of the community.
He said four vehicles were utilised to transport staff to the site, and that building material was found at an excavation site on the sand dunes. Thyalibhongo said no arrests were made during the operation.
Another activist, Lee Smith, said there were instances in which residents had their structures demolished while they were still inside.
“The City does not give Hangberg residents a break at all. People have been trying to house themselves because there has been a lack of housing in the area for decades. The poor in this case are forced to house themselves when there is no will from officials or municipalities to house them.
“It's very easy to condemn their actions as criminal, but in Hangberg we have a view that what is more criminal is creating homelessness by breaking down people's houses while occupied,” he said.