Cape Town - Where some adjusted to life with more hand-washing, mask-wearing and social distancing, other residents saw as an opportunity to name their living areas after new catchphrases that came along with Covid-19.
Driving up the Mew Way offramp from the N2 from the Cape Town CBD on your left across Old Faure Road all the way to Mfuleni is the new informal settlement called Covid.
Covid is divided into different sections because of its size and one section is aptly-named Sanitiser.
Social distancing is on the corner of Mew Way and Spine Road in Khayelitsha.
Level 2 is across the road from the Khayelitsha District Hospital, Sassa and Home Affairs office and the Khayelitsha Magistrate’s Court.
Spokesperson for the Intlungu yaseMatyotyombeni Movement, which represents the residents, Shuz Nikani said they lost their livelihoods because of the lockdown and named their areas with these phrases to remind those in power why they occupied the land.
“Some of the areas are named after the lockdown regulations, but to be honest we do not follow some of them because of the way we live.
“For instance, there is no social distancing and we do not wash our hands regularly because we don’t have water and we can’t waste what we have on washing our hands,” said Nikani.
He said they just saw open land and only heard what were the plans for the lands after they had occupied them.
Occupying vacant land illegally means living without any form of services.
Nikani said they have been trying all avenues to get those services.
He said water is the most important basic service many settlements are without.
“We cross busy roads to get water which is not safe, also when we want to relieve ourselves which is not safe especially for women because we must go to the bush and also there are people who take medication here,” said Nikani.
He said they have protested to make their voice heard and now they are planning on taking the City of Cape Town to court.
Khayelitsha Development Forum chairperson Ndithini Tyhido said they do feel for the people who do not have a place to stay and those that have lost their jobs.
“The problem is the deliberate occupation of lands earmarked for housing projects for the very same backyarders occupying the lands,” he said.
Tyhido added that Khayelitsha is not meant to be all shacks especially when there are lands earmarked for housing.
Mayco member for Human Settlements, Malusi Booi, said the extreme increase in mostly large-scale organised unlawful land occupations, often with the involvement of so-called shack-farming syndicates over the Covid-19 lockdown period have led to the establishment of new settlements in many parts of the metro.
“More than 70% of all recent occupations have happened on land that is not suitable for human settlements and.
“There have been 54 new settlements established, on state- and city-owned land, primarily on unsuitable land,” said Booi.
He said most of the land is earmarked for development or preservation, and the national Covid-19 disaster regulations that were implemented last year also impacted on mandates and legal powers to prevent evictions.
“Noting that the far greatest majority of the settlements have been established on unsuitable land or land with great constraints for service delivery and land where the installation of bulk services for servicing was never planned,” he added.
Weekend Argus