DELFT EVICTIONS - CITY TO ARRANGE ALTERNATIVE ACCOMODATION

Today the City of Cape Town has started implementing measures to assist those people evicted from N2 Gateway Houses in Delft .

We have placed 40 chemical toilets on the road reserve, with another 50 to follow this evening.

Water standpipes are also being installed today, and skips are being arranged for solid waste removal.

A plan is also being devised for area cleaning.

These services will help to relieve the immediate plight of those living in the open while the City prepares an alternative site with basic services to accommodate them.

The City has identified a suitable, undeveloped City owned piece of land in the Delft area for this purpose.

We are fast tracking planning, servicing and designing the layout for the site, and procuring construction services and earthworks.

We estimate that we will be able to begin moving people onto the new site within 3 to 4 weeks, and we will be supplying them with emergency building kits.

The City will be using the list of those people living in the open matched against the court eviction list to identify those people who are to be accommodated.

This is to ensure that the site will not become over-crowded.

We will also be erecting fencing around the site to ensure that it does not expand beyond the serviced area.

We expect this temporary arrangement to remain in place for approximately 2 years.

While this process is being rolled out the Metro Police and Law Enforcement will ensure that no illegal invasions of City land occur, and that the move to the new site will be conducted in an orderly fashion, as will be communicated to the affected individuals.

Statement issued by Dan Plato, Cape Town Mayoral Committee Member for Housing, February 22 2008