Kensington residents take to the streets to protest mushrooming shacks and increasing crime in the community
|Published
Cape Town - A marked increase in crime was the main reason Kensington residents held a protest yesterday afternoon.
The community said the mushrooming of shacks in Wingfield has caused a lot of problems.
Councillor Cheslyn Steenberg said they had decided to meet up with Gate 7 informal settlement residents and demonstrate their frustration on Voortrekker Road.
They held placards which read: “Why must we beg, when foreigners get it free?”
More than 50 people gathered outside the Maitland Cemetery.
“The plan was to hand over the memorandum to the land owners, the Ndabeni Trust and the Mayco member for human settlements, to assist us to relocate the people living on the land.
“The three informal settlements have now expanded, they have tripled in the last year. We need the land closed up.
“We want to find out how the City can help with this. We know the City and Home Affairs are in the process of preparing an eviction order application.”
Kensington community policing forum chairperson Jameelah Lideman said a new crime trend since the expansion of the squatter camps included robbers throwing sharp objects on Voortrekker Road for motorists to stop.
“We get reports of obstructions put on the road, people having punctures because that is their modus operandi to get the motorists to stop and then rob them.
“We very often have cases of people robbed on their way to work in the mornings.
“Even the graveyard is not safe anymore for people going to visit or clean the graves of their loved ones. That is an issue because this is our community and we want everyone to be safe.”
She said the other trend is that people would set fires on the field and when the fire is extinguished a new shack would be built.
“We don’t know where these people are from and the municipality can’t do anything about it because the land is privately owned.”
Gate 7 resident Phindiswa Tombela said they want toilets and running water.
“Next to us we have a shelter which houses refugees who have water and toilets. I think as South Africans who voted, we need to have basic services, our kids are suffering.
“We use the bushes to relieve ourselves.”
The memorandum states they want the land owners to create and maintain a register of who is currently occupying the land, including children.
“Feedback on these demands are dated for June 1 whereby comprehensive feedback will be received from both the City of Cape Town and Ndabeni Trust. Failure to do so, the recipients understand that legal action can be taken to force them into action.”
Cape Argus