City makes written submission to Lwandle Inquiry

The City of Cape Town has written on three occasions to Minister Sisulu requesting clarity on the powers she has used to establish the Ministerial Inquiry into Lwandle. We have further stated that in terms of Section 41 of the Constitution and Intergovernmental Relations Framework Act, we would have expected to have been consulted on the terms of reference and composition of the Inquiry. We have yet to receive a satisfactory response to these issues and we will therefore not be providing oral testimony to the Inquiry.

However, while reserving our rights, the City has submitted a written submission to Minister Sisulu and the Inquiry in order to ensure that the Minister is properly informed about the City's perspective on the events that have unfolded in Lwandle.

The key elements of the City's submission are as follows:

Only 73 of the people evicted from the Sanral land are legally on the City's housing database. Of these 73, most are relatively new entrants to the list.

There are currently over 15 000 individuals on the housing database in the Helderberg region who have been waiting patiently for a housing opportunity. 2 300 of these people have been on the database (1979 to 1998) before the first applicants from Lwandle and Nomzamo.

Accounts from the area indicate that many of the people evicted from the Sanral land were originally backyarders in the neighbouring formal areas.

Since the beginning of the year, it is alleged that Ses'Khona actively encouraged people to invade the Sanral land, ‘selling' plots to the evictees for as much as R2 500.

The City's law enforcement agencies played no direct role in the Sanral eviction process, but assisted at the request of the South African Police Service (SAPS).

The City provided extensive humanitarian relief in the aftermath of the evictions, and will be providing basic services such as water and sanitation once the temporary structures on the Sanral site are completed.

The City will vigorously uphold a fair, just and equitable housing delivery system.

Historical perspective

After Sanral first approached the City of Cape Town seven years ago with a request to assist with the relocation of the approximately 1 200 households living on the road reserve, a number of steps were taken by the City.

In 2009 the City relocated between 400 - 450 families to Bardale. At the same time, the City requested Sanral, as a responsible landowner, to proactively manage their land to avoid further invasions and the resultant humanitarian concerns that arise.

It needs to be noted that since 1998, 12 062 State-subsidised housing opportunities have been delivered in the Helderberg basin. This is evidence that the City of Cape Town has worked hard to ensure the maximum possible housing delivery in the Helderberg area, within the prevailing financial and other constraints. This housing provision includes over approximately 7 500 serviced sites and top structures in Nomzamo, Lwandle and surrounding areas.

Engagement with SANRAL

Subsequent to this assistance, Sanral again approached the City to assist with the relocation of the people living on the road reserve, so that they could start construction on their Toll Road project. The City identified a number of City projects that could potentially accommodate people living in the road reserve.

Sanral agreed to provide funding and to acquire land, to help move the process forward. A site immediately alongside a portion of Sanral land was identified as being on the market at the time. It was then determined that this property was more suitable for the purpose of GAP housing, given its access and topography.

Sanral agreed to buy this property and transfer it to the City for the purpose of GAP housing, in exchange for accommodating qualifying individuals occupying the Sanral land in an alternative City project. To date Sanral has not delivered on this commitment. Only once this process has been completed can the City consider how to accommodate those people living on the Sanral land in City projects.

Subsequent to these discussions, the City challenged Sanral on tolling in the metropolitan area. This legal challenge meant that these discussions were suspended. However, it must be explicitly stated that this did not in any way preclude Sanral from acquiring land for the purpose of relocating the families occupying the road reserve.

The City also continued to encourage Sanral to manage their land effectively, in the interests of ensuring a fair and just housing delivery system and to protect the Constitutional rights of those people settled on the Sanral land to basic services.

The City also formally requested Sanral's permission to install basic services on the settlements on their property. A formal response from Sanral on this matter was never received. The City made this offer in an attempt to protect the basic human rights of those people living on the affected land.

In light of the ongoing growth in structures on the Sanral land, the City contacted Sanral in an effort to ensure that they better manage the situation. The City highlighted its concerns with regard to the safety risks posed by the nature of the informal structures and about the lack of access to basic sanitation on the site.

From early January 2014, the City requested Sanral to act to protect their rights and the rights of those people on their land to access basic services:

On 28 January, Sanral's attorney's advised City officials that they had obtained an interdict to prevent further land invasions.

On 3 February the Sheriff, with the assistance of the SAPS, carried out an operation and 415 illegal structures were taken down.

Between February and April, the land was re-invaded.

On 2 and 3 June, a second round of evictions took place at Nomzamo; approximately 230 structures were demolished by the Sheriff, supported by the SAPS.

In all of the above interactions, it must be stressed that City officials actively encouraged Sanral to act as a responsible land owner. This was done primarily in the interests of limiting the health and other risks posed by the unsafe structures and the lack of access to basic sanitation.

The City engages in such processes on a daily basis with landowners throughout Cape Town, for the same reasons. Due to the number of such interactions, the political leadership cannot be aware when said notifications are made.

Further, the City played no direct role in the eviction process itself. The eviction was carried out by the Sheriff, with the support of the SAPS. The City's presence on site was requested via the SAPS, as City has land in the immediate vicinity needed to be protected, as it had been subject to previous attempts at invasion.

There have been media photographs of City staff members, of whom two are female, arresting an adult female who had been setting fire to some of the structures that were still standing. The person in question was arrested for arson and detained at the local SAPS station.

As a caring city, we have sought to address the humanitarian concerns that arose from Sanral's eviction process. The City took the proactive decision in the aftermath of the Sanral evictions to open the Nomzamo Hall to provide immediate relief to those people affected by the evictions. This was deemed as particularly necessary given the cold winter conditions that prevailed at the time.

The City's Disaster Risk Management Centre, in conjunction with SASSA and the South African Red Cross society, has provided the following relief:

meals for 1 000 people

1 000 mattresses

1 050 blankets

1 000 adult toiletry packs for men and women

 50 baby packs

The City also proactively sought to help mitigate the situation by offering to provide emergency housing kits on a number of occasions. Cape Town is the only metro in South Africa that has such enhanced housing kits immediately available.

The distinction needs to be drawn between emergency housing structures, provided under the emergency housing code, and emergency housing kits. In the case of the former, structures of between 26 - 30 m² are provided in terms of the emergency housing code. These structures are normally used in the case of large-scale disasters and their provision normally triggers funding, Environmental Impact Assessments, land use and other application processes as an area is formalised or developed anew.

However, the City of Cape Town also provides emergency kits - normally 9 m² structures which are provided to alleviate immediate distress in informal settlements, such as in the case of fire and flooding. These structures are normally provided on the original site of the fire or flood.

These emergency kits, which include a window and a door, were rejected by the Ses'Khona leadership as being ‘too small'.

However, the National Department of Human Settlements subsequently agreed to cover the costs of larger structures, effectively two such kits joined together. The national department appointed the Housing Development Agency to erect these structures on the Sanral site and the City understands that these structures are now close to completion.

The City of Cape Town will further assist with basic service provision. The City will provide 40 toilets and eight taps. Once people have moved into their temporary structures, the City will also seek to provide full flush toilets on the periphery of the land.

Way forward

The City of Cape Town is firmly of the view that in dealing with this matter going forward, we need to pay due consideration to the rights of those people who are legally on the housing database and patiently waiting their turn.

As stated previously, there are 2 300 individuals who need to be considered before the people who settled illegally on the Sanral land and were subsequently evicted. The need for this consideration is further underscored by the fact that of the 400 people surveyed after the Sanral eviction process, only 76 appear on the City housing database - of whom three have already received State-subsidised housing.

Any deviation from this principle will destroy any attempt at orderly allocation if land occupiers are allowed to jump the queue.

Finally, it needs to be noted that there has been a significant and concerted effort by groups mobilising people to invade land in the Helderberg area since the Sanral evictions. This is in part due to the perception that those people removed from the Sanral land have received undue benefits. This situation is placing a great strain on City resources, and threatens to undermine a just, fair, and equitable housing system in the area, and the broader city.

This is a very serious consideration and a principle which the City of Cape will strenuously uphold, in order to protect the legal basis for orderly housing provision.

The City of Cape Town trusts that all the above information, which has been provided to the Inquiry and the Minister, will be given due consideration and that the conduct of all roleplayers, the City, Sanral and Ses'Khona will be subjected to a fair and proper assessment.

Given the manner in which the Inquiry was established and its composition, this seems highly unlikely. We therefore reserve our right to challenge any of the ‘findings' and/or ‘recommendations' of the Inquiry.

Statement issued by Executive Mayor of Cape Town, Patricia de Lille, July 15 2014

Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter