Blikkiesdorp is a 'concentration camp', say Tafelsig squaters (WestCape News)
BACKYARDERS who have spent winter in tents on city-owned land in Mitchell’s Plain say they would rather live on an exposed field than go to Blikkiesdorp where the city intends to move them.
The sentiment was expressed by backyarders standing outside the Cape High Court on Tuesday last week as Judge Nathan Erasmus heard their appeal brought by Lawyers for Human Rights – against an eviction order granted to the city in May this year after over 4000 backyarders invaded open fields in Tafelsig.
The incident resulted in almost a week of violent clashes between the backyarders and law enforcement who controversially employed rubber bullets and water cannons to disperse what many claimed to be a peaceful protest.
Last week Judge Erasmus ordered that the 21 families remaining on the Tafelsig land vacate the property by September 26. The alternative housing the city has offered, as required by the PIE Act, is in Blikkiesdorp, which was established as a Temporary Relocation Area (TRA) in 2008 for 650 households that were illegally occupying land earmarked for the N2 Gateway Housing Project in Delft.
Blikkiesdorp has since mushroomed to 1 667 unpainted corrugated iron houses and is viewed as a dumping ground by the city’s marginalized inhabitants, who also refer to it as a “concentration camp”.
“We hear things about Blikkiesdorp. It’s overcrowded. There is violence and gangsterism, not like the gangsterism in Mitchells Plain. There, our children will get killed. In Mitchells Plain, if we struggle, we have our neighbours and the community. In Blikkiesdorp we will live under harsh conditions,” said a backyarder who would only provide her first name, Emily.
A visit to Blikkiesdorp reveals row upon row of unpainted corrugated iron shacks. Although here and there people have tried to plant whatever garden they can, there is no shade, no trees, no grass, just sand and dust.
The summer the uninsulated shacks become ovens while inhabitants freeze in winter.
”In winter it’s a freezer box, in summer it’s a microwave,” said resident Bernadine de Kock.
Mothers complain of their children being constantly sick, TB is rife and so is HIV/AIDS. Residents dare not go out after dark for fear of being robbed. House break-ins are rampant. The violence is so bad that the community has demanded a 24/7 police patrol, which has not been effected.
The poverty and desperation offer rich pickings for established gangs that have for decades flexed their muscles in nearby Belhar, Bishop Lavis and Bonteheuwel.
”Every second house is a drug merchant’s one,” said one desperate mother who admitted she was close to murdering her 28 year old tik addicted son who terrorized her continually.
Emily’s fears for the safety of her two children should they be forced to move to Blikkiesdorp are justified.
A month ago 10-year-old Binti Ibrahim Sidaw, whose family was one of hundreds of Somalis who were relocated there following the 2008 xenophobic violence, was found hanging on the washline outside her house.
She was dangling from the sleeve of her jersey and police are investigating a case of murder as marks on her neck indicate she may have been strangled with a rope before being strung up.
Just a few days after Binti Sidaw’s death, 19-year-old Megan Jones was brutally murdered. Her body was found dumped on the outskirts of the fence enclosing Blikkiesdorp. She was shot and stabbed to death and both hips broken, said her cousin Jasmine Jacobs
De Kock says poverty is so rife in Blikkiesdorp that some people have been known to die of starvation.
She said school children can regularly be looking for food in rubbish bins on their way to school
Although Blikkiesdorp was designed as a TRA to provide accommodation for a period of seven years, Mayoral Committee Member of Human Settlements for the city, Ernest Sonnenberg, said the city was considering upgrading and formalising the Delft area including Blikkiesdorp and that there were also plans to relocate Blikkiesdorp.
Many residents are hoping the government will provide them with housing but that is unlikely to materialise any time soon, if at all, as many do not even qualify for formal subsidised housing assistance. According to the city of Cape Town, there are about 342 000 applicants on its housing database.
Delft SAPS say they have regular interaction with community leaders and that they have formed partnerships with them on issues concerning crime. The Blikkiesdorp Concerned Residents Group is one such association. Delft CPF also has representation from Blikkiesdorp. Police say they are “constantly monitoring” the illegal selling of drugs, and selling of liquor at illegal shebeens in Blikkesdorp through “pro-active policing”, search, seizure and arrests. In one stop and search operation in August, 18 people were arrested for offences ranging from rape, assaults, possession of drugs and outstanding warrants. — Fadela Slamdien