Cape Town - Ilitha Park residents in Khayelitsha have accused the Red Ants eviction services of harassing the community after it decided to establish a food garden.
The site, in front of Lookout Hill, was cleared of rubble and dirt and turned into a communal food garden three weeks ago.
Ilitha Park Residents Association (Ipra) founder and secretary Lwam Bungane said residents had rejected a proposal for a block of flats to be built on the land which belongs to the provincial government.
Bungane said the process was flawed, with most of the residents not informed and not involved in the process.
During mayor Dan Plato’s visit to the area last year, residents told him they would like to see a netball field, netball court, soccer field, swimming pool, food garden and multipurpose centre built on vacant pockets of land in Ilitha Park. Bungane said this would benefit the entire community.
“All of a sudden we heard that the (flats) project is going to go through and that the say of the community doesn’t matter.”
Bungane said the provincial government was working with people claiming to be community leaders, but the community did not recognise them as such.
He said the garden would provide food security for the community and was not a land grab.
“This section of the community said they were going to clean the field. They hired a bulldozer and fenced the area. Households have been paying R100 and R200 over the past year. It’s a joint effort from people living in this area. We took all that money and cleaned the land. People came out to help, some took leave from work, people from other areas came to help and we did the fencing ourselves.”
Bungane said there were two food kitchens in Ilitha Park that would benefit from the food garden. “People are hungry. This is why we created the food garden. These people need to eat.”
The Red Ants visited the area several times last week, with some members staying overnight, Bungane said. “On Thursday they said they wanted to demolish the garden. They grabbed some of our tools and wanted to demolish our garden. Members of the community came out and that’s when they stopped. They’ve been back and forth.”
Mayoral spokesperson Greg Wagner said: “The executive mayor visited Ilitha Park late last year with Mayco members to engage community leaders on their request for suitable land for development of multi-purpose centres, residential and other uses.
“It was agreed that appropriate land would be identified and a formal process for approval would be followed, with several pieces of land being approved by council at the end of last year.
“The development of sites is subject to proper process, which must be adhered to.”
Cape Argus