JOE SLOVO SHACKDWELLERS TASK TEAM PRESS STATEMENT

[Lindile Ndlovu]

JOE SLOVO SHACKDWELLERS TASK TEAM PRESS STATEMENT
8:30am
Monday 10th September 2007
 
Joe Slovo Shackdwellers Statement on N2 Highway Blockade
 
LANGA, CAPE TOWN - More than one thousand residents from Joe Slovo
informal settlement on the N2 highway near the Cape Town airport, have
blockaded the highway since 4:30am this morning.
 
The residents are protesting their imminent forced removal to the
wasteland of Delft, over 30kms away. They have held the highway for
almost 5 hours and are refusing to move.
 
"We are angry. We want RDP house in Joe Slovo. We want the Department
of Housing to stop moving our people to Delft. We refuse to be moved
there. It is far from our workplaces and also from places where we look
for work. Those of us who are not getting paid undecent salaries are
spending every day looking for work. We can't and won't move. The
government took this decision without consulting us and now they must
change it," said Mzwanele from the Joe Slovo Task Team.
 
More than 30 Joe Slovo residents have been seriously injured by police
who shot them with rubber bullets at very close range. These residents
have been taken to the Bonteheuwel Day Hospital.
 
Currently, police helicopters are flying overhead. The residents have
refuse to move off the highway and traffic into Cape Town is totally
blocked.
 
The residents are facing off against about 150 police who are standing
just opposite on the other side of the highway. They say they are
waiting for the Minister of Housing Lindiwe Sisulu to come down and
respond to their memorandum. The residents have also been told that Dan
Plato, City Director of Housing is coming to meet them.
 
For comment call Mzwanele from the Joe Slovo Task Team on 076 3852369

Lindile Ndlovu
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