GOOD Speech by Peter de Villiers,
GOOD Member of the Western Cape Provincial Parliament
20 July 2023
Note to editor: This speech was delivered by GOOD’s Member of the Western Cape Provincial Parliament, Mr Peter De Villiers, today on the Western Cape’s housing crisis
Honourable Speaker…
One look at the Department of Human Settlement’s 4th quarter presentation on 31 May 2023 and we find confirmation that the more things change the more they stay the same. Whilst close to 600,000 people still await housing opportunities in the Western Cape, only 5,815 units were delivered.
I have, since taking my oath of office, been inundated with requests to visit people who have one thing in common- they all live in fear of losing the roof over their heads.
Every day, people across Cape Town struggle to access land and a decent home.
These struggles – from landlessness, homelessness and insecure tenure, to evictions, rising rents, gentrification and unfair rental practices – are a stark reminder not only that Cape Town inherited broken housing systems from the colonial and apartheid eras, but that urban inequality is getting worse.
In Ruyterwacht, I visited elderly citizens that are consistently threatened with eviction. They say they will be rendered homeless if evicted. They also wanted to know why the City and Provincial Government support these evictions by sending in Law Enforcement to intimidate and harass them?
Law Enforcement being used as a form of intimidation and harassment was echoed in my discussions with every single individual that is vulnerably housed. Even the honourable Premier, last week in launching armed vehicles in Mossel Bay said that these vehicles “will be used for land occupations and protests.”
The use of force by poorly trained Law Enforcement officers in evicting those that are vulnerably housed is also more of what was experienced under apartheid.
It seems to me that despite the colours having changed, the system of Apartheid is alive and well in the Western Cape.
When Charol Jacobs was 13 years old, her family home in Godfrey Street, District Six, was demolished. She was forcefully removed with her grandmother from the city centre to Lavender Hill under the Group Areas Act. Six years later, as a young woman, she returned to live in Woodstock. Aunty Charol has lived her whole life in Woodstock but she’s never found a secure home. “When you are evicted, it destroys a family,” she says, “It tears you apart, not knowing where you’re going to go, or where you are going to end up.” This time round, Aunty Charol had nowhere to go and having been evicted moved to a backyard in Manenberg. The impact has been devastating. Her family has been torn apart. Her granddaughter now lives with a friend of the family in Salt River, and she is no longer going to school. Her son is now serving a five-year sentence in Pollsmoor. “There is so much land in the city, even land that the government owns, that could be used to house people. But, again we have to move where we were put during apartheid… the ghettos.”
In 2017, the City of Cape Town announced the proposed development of social housing on 11 parcels of public land in Woodstock, Salt River and the inner city. The lack of implementation is appalling and unacceptable.
It is here where we notice that clean audits look at systems and not the human experience.
There is a clear lack of urgency.
I also fear that the by-law being proposed in this regard will encourage widespread illegal evictions, and drive more poor and working class families into homelessness.
All of this breaks from what the law has said for years, which is that Occupation may be unlawful, but it is not criminal.
Our law used to criminalize occupation during apartheid, That changed in 1996 or did it? To me, it again seems that the more things change, the more they stay the same!
Is the honorable Premier aware of Aunty Charol?
Is the honorable Premier aware of elderly citizens in Ruyterwacht with no idea of where to go to on being evicted?
Is the honorable Premier aware of the family currently being evicted from their home of 25 years with an offer by the City of building materials but without a parcel of land on which to use the building material?
Is the honorable Premier aware of the horrible situation playing itself out in Lansdowne at the settlement the City of Cape Town established 15 years ago and then left those individuals to their own devices without services?
Is he aware of those individuals living outside the Castle. Dropped there after Strandfontein without services and now facing eviction?
Because if you are, Sir, then the GOOD Party categorically states that you, Sir, are the custodian of the Apartheid principles that are being kept alive and well in the Western Cape.
If the honorable Premier is not aware of these situations that have all occurred in the Province which you have been entrusted with, then the GOOD Party categorically states that you, Premier are out of YOUR depth!
I thank you all.
Media Enquiries:
Peter De Villiers, GOOD Member of Western Cape Provincial Parliament
Cell: 079 116 8957
Email: devilliers.pt@gmail.com
Samantha Jackson, GOOD Acting Media Manager
Cell: 083 550 9875
Email: media@forgood.org.za