Threat to camp outside Zille’s office

INFORMAL settlement activists have vowed to turn Cape Town into Cairo if Western Cape premier Helen Zille continues to “ignore” them.

The threat follows last week’s protest in Cape Town, which descended into violence and looting after their demand that Zille accept their memorandum was ignored.

Zille blamed the protest on the ANC, while its leader in the area, Marius Fransman, blamed it on the Economic Freedom Fighters.

But yesterday the group, calling themselves Ogibithyolo baseKapa (Cape Town Informal Settlement Leaders) said they were apolitical – and disassociated themselves from the violence that followed the march to the provincial legislature last Wednesday.

Spokesman Sithembele Majova instead blamed the violence on “Zille’s agent provocateurs” and said she should take responsibility for the looting because protesters “acted out of anger and frustration”.

Apart from demanding improved sanitation to Cape Town’s informal settlements, where residents have been protesting the use of portable flush toilets, the group were also demanding that the city’s expansion of its bus rapid transit (BRT) system to Khayelitsha and Mitchell’s Plain be scrapped.

The group’s Xolani Dywili said instead of money being used to construct special bus lanes it could be used to build houses. The BRT can’t be a solution, it’s not a solution to our communities. It will create crime because taxi drivers will be unemp said Dywili.

Last week the Cape Town municipality announced that the BRT system would expand to Khayelitsha and Mitchell’s Plain by July next year.

Majova said the DA provincial and city administrations had violated no less than 10 provisions of the Constitution including the rights to human dignity, privacy, freedom and security.

And while residents have complained to the SA Human Rights Commission, which often ruled against the DA-run city council, there had been no tangible improvement to the conditions of shack dwellers.