Cape Town: Massive Land Occupations
Tension filled the streets in the township of Khayelitsha, Cape Town, on Monday when residents openly disregarded the interdicts prohibiting the occupation of open land at a few sites.
The illegal land occupations in the township are said to be the largest in Cape Town in recent years and are a sign that the people’s patience has run out.
Scores of township residents have lived my majority of their lives sharing a crowded space on someone else’s land. Thando Mtombo, one of these numerous backyarders shared her frustration.
‘We are fed up with empty promises. We have to take action,’ he said. Giving context to the protests that occurred yesterday, the Two Two backyarder, said that people mistakenly think of the protesters as criminals rather than people who are sacrificing their work for that day to exert pressure on the government.
‘When we talk we aren’t taken seriously,’ Mtombo said.
The illegal land occupation began on May 15, on one of the pieces of open land is next to the Khayelitsha Magistrate’s Court. Having laid empty for years, backyarders in Town Two took action, demarcating hundreds of sites.
According to Zola Booi, a community leader, similar occupations occurred in Makhaya and Kuyasa (other areas within the township).
The Khayelitsha Community Trust (KCT) is the body tasked with developing the illegally occupied land in Town Two but delays have been abundant. We have been unable to establish whether or not these delays are intentional or not.
Ndithini Tyhido, the chairperson of Khayelitsha Development Forum (KDF) said that while he does ‘feel for the backyard dwellers’ their method can ‘never be the correct’ one.
Image: Photo of protest Residents in Town 2 protest during an illegal land occupation in Khayelitsha. [online image] (Ashraf Hendricks, 2017) sourced on 24 May 2017 from http://www.groundup.org.za/article/biggest-land-occupation-cape-town-recent-times-taking-place/
