Reminder: Backyarders to host Anti-Vote Election Summit on 14th May

[Mandela Park Backyarders]

To Abahlali baseMjondolo,
To Anti-Eviction Campaign,
To the SNI and Blackwash,
To Andries Tatane and all victims of police violence,
To all progressive movements,
To supporters and friends of the poor,
To politicians and government officials,
To enemies of our movements,
To everyone who is not quite sure yet where they stand,

The Mandela Park Backyarders intent to remind you that we will be holding an Anti-Vote Election Summit at 09h00 on Saturday the 14^th of May. In attendance will be people from as close as across the street and supporters from as far as Johannesburg.

Click here to see Abahlali baseMjondolo's statement in support of our event.

See also the attached letter from ANC alligned Khayelitsha Human Settlement's Forum and the well-written reply by fellow Backyarder Mabhuti Matyida.

The purpose of the event, as explained in our previous statement, will be as follows:

The summit objective is to expose the housing crisis in Mandela Park that is leading to a serious attack and violation of people’s dignity. We challenge all political parties (all of whom have ignored us or attacked us) to explain why they think we should vote on the 18^th of May.

- In Mandela Park, the City is still cutting our water and installing anti-poor pre-paid water meters. The City seems to have no intention to meet with the community to resolve this issue

- In Mandela Park, even though people qualify for housing subsidies from the state to settle their bills, there are still banks that ignore this and prevent us from using our subisidies. In the name of profit, they evict us instead of trying to negotiate a solution with residents.

- In Mandela Park, there still houses built in 2006 with no electricity. Phambili Nombane which is a subsidiary of Eskom refuses to electrify our houses. They are claiming that the developers did not pay for installation of electricity and therefore people should pay for themselves in order to get installation. This contradicts the housing code and is an illegal refusal of service delivery by Eskom.

We will have testimonies of victims of the above circumstances telling their painful suffering at the hands of our government and how this has affected their lives. We will then discuss why these circumstances have led the people of Mandela Park not to vote in upcoming local government elections.

We invite all government officials, bank officials, and media to come and attend. We challenge all politicians and political parties to explain why they have been ignoring our communities for 15 years and only coming to us during election-time.

Our votes are conditional. We want quality public schools, hospitals, RDP houses, not broken schools, probek hospitals, broken houses, and broken promises.

For comment or directions, contact:

Loyiso: 0737662078
Slu:0736200781
Nomonde:0781862142

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