Mfuleni backyarders march for housing
No houses, no vote in August elections, they say
About 400 backyarders from Mfuleni marched to the Civic Centre today to hand over a memorandum demanding housing.
The marchers were demanding that the 350 names they have submitted to the City of Cape Town be incorporated into the City housing waiting list to benefit from houses.
“Stop playing games with us. We have several times submitted our list of the housing beneficiaries, but we do not get answers from the City of Cape Town,” shouted Bulelani Bota, Secretary of the Mfuleni Backyarders Ward 108.
The backyarders wanted to hand a memorandum to Councillor Benedicta Van Minnen, Mayoral Committee Member for Human Settlements, but she was off sick. In her absence the memorandum was accepted by Wilfred Solomons-Johannes from the Mayor’s office.
The backyarders demanded feedback within 48 hours. They said if the houses are not allocated before the end of July they will not vote in the August elections. All beneficiaries of the phase 5A housing development should be from Ward 108 in Mfuleni, they said.
Some were waving placards with the words: “No Allocation No Elections”, “No houses no vote”, “We demand houses” and “Allocate us, we are tired of renting”.
Mangaliso Simons, who has been a backyarder for 14 years, said if the City did not respond to the backyarders’ demands they would allocate the housing themselves.
Simons, 46, said he lived in one room with his wife and four children.
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