With the recent events surrounding the forced removal of settlers at the Fire-break on the Sentinel out at Hout Bay, one is left with some very interesting questions.
The land ivaders moved in without any permit from the City and without giving any notice and illegally occupied a area of the lower stretches of the mountain. They claim to be representing the local indigenous peoples of the Western Cape, though there is no proof of this claim nor do any of the participants belong to any of the Griqua or Khoi-San Tribes that inhabited the Cape. This makes one wonder why suddenly an attempt to embarrass the DA Administration was made. And this leads one to ponder a Third Force support by instigators inside the Western Cape Province's political arena, vis-a-vis: ANC's unfinished business in Cape Town Metropole.
The problem is that the residents of Hangberg have been neglected (and arguably forgotten) by both the current DA government and by the ANC Administration under Ebrahim Rasool (WC Premier) and India Nomafaketu (Mayor: CT). Hangberg, itself, is a relic of the Apartheid Era's Group Areas Act and along with the small African township (Mandela Park) keep Hout Bay a divided community sixteen (16) years after the Election of Nelson Mandela and nineteen (19) years after his release from Victor Vorster Prison, which should be a crying shame for all South Africans. Many of the so called "Colored" people of Hangberg feel forgotten, as they were "too black under Apartheid and too white under the ANC".
The other viable issue raised by this incident is that the Hangberg residents feel cheated, "because Africans are allowed to just move in wherever they like, but we have to get permission". This is a thorny issue, as the informal settlements are not safe for people to live in (unzoned location) or the site is a liability to the health of all those living there (unsuitable for human habitation - Khayelitsha was a garbage dump at one time). In addition to this, the informal settlements lack the vital infrastucture necessary for basic inhabitation (fire/crime prevention; water supply; sanitation, road access; and electricity), which creates serious life threatening conditions of anyone, who would want to live there and, as such, the continued state of these areas is arguably a violation of the inhabitants human rights.
However, Hangberg can be redeveloped to improve conditions to acceptable levels, but Khayelitsha and the other informal settlements can't be completely redeveloped. Therefore, neither the ANC national government or the DA provincial government can be excused from correcting the problem any longer, as it is a black mark on South Africa's record for either of these groups to not take steps to change it.
There is also a logical argument by a lot of people that informal settlements need to be regulated and transformed in a orderly planned way, as the long overdue RDP housing backlog will never be remedied when new shack-dwellers just move in and replace the last resident that just received an RDP house. The authorities must prevent reinhabitation of unsuitable areas and redevelop each section to provide the basic necessities for the remaining residents (like water, electricity, sanitation, road access, and fire/crime prevention.).
As until these ongoing inherent problems are dealt with nothing will change for South Africa's "impoverished millions" of all colors.
No comments:
Post a Comment