Residents say they cleaned up an illegal dump to build their shacks
By Vincent Lali
The City of Cape Town has moved against Zwelitsha residents who erected shacks on municipal land last week.
The homeless residents, mostly backyarders, had cleared bushes and built their homes on the empty land. But on Monday members of the Anti Land Invasion Unit moved in and destroyed the shacks.
“They should have told us to remove our shacks ourselves instead of destroying them,” said Nomfundo Bhadeli, 26.
“If they had told us in advance that they would destroy our shacks, I would have dismantled my shack properly and set it up in a backyard elsewhere.”
Interviewed on Monday, Bhadeli, who moved into her new shack a week ago with her five-year-old daughter and her one-year-old son, said she had no place to stay after the demolition of her shack.
“I don’t know where I will sleep today,” she said.
Bhadeli said members of the unit had thrown away her paraffin and destroyed her teacups and her stove.
Nosihle Somdaka, 34, said members of the unit had not told her to remove her shack before they demolished it.