South Africa: Shackdwellers invite Cape mayor to meet them

As leaders of Abahlali baseMjondolo Western Cape, a social movement representing shackdwellers, we are the delegates elected from our poor communities. We have followed all the required government channels trying to have these grievances resolved - from sanitation, to toilets, to housing allocation, to lack of electricity, to evictions. However, we have never had our issues adequately engaged with and very rarely have even received even a response from government officials.

Hence, our movement has decided to take the initiative to write to the Mayor of the City of Cape Town, once again, and request that she personally come down to our communities and address us directly. Specifically, you are requested to come to Langa Temporary Relocation Area where there is a crisis of corruption and misallocation of government built shacks. Rightful residents are being evicted (such as in the documented case of Thandeka Ngcelwane) and political party connected individuals are being allocated multiple shacks and RDP homes in the N2 Gateway project.

We expect your visit within the coming month. As you and your predecessors have ignored our previous requests for engagement, we expect you to respond within seven days with your suggested date of attendance.

If you do not attend to our grievances personally, we will decide collectively on what alternative action we should take to have our voices heard and our grievances address.

Yours in the struggle of the poor,

Thembelani Maqwazimo (General Secretary) – 0712604119
Mbongeni Mkhaliphi (Chairperson) – 0769816945
Cindy Ketani (Abahlali baseLanga TRA) – 0760866690

Abahlali baseMjondolo of the Western Cape
Address: QQ 305 ~ Site B ~ Khayelitsha, 7784
E-mail: [email][email protected]
Website: http//www.abahlali.org