SACP Gauteng Province strongly condemns eviction of people of Newtown Urban Village in Fordsburg, Johannesburg

22 June 2013

SACP Gauteng Province visited the residents of Newtown Urban Village in Fordsburg, Johannesburg on Friday afternoon, the 21st/06/2013. A group of residents estimated to be 170 were evicted from their flats following a court ruling obtained by the Johannesburg Housing Company of the City of Johannesburg.

According to residents there is another appeal case that will be heard in August of this year affecting another group of residents brought by the Housing Company. Residents reported that in total there are 351 estimated family units that may face the same fate.

SACP understands that the complexity of this matter is related to the controversial sale and acquisition of the property through an auction that leaves many questions unanswered The property was initially owned by a Cooperative of residents which was liquidated, and its current ownership is a subject of serious controversy.

Residents were not able to confirm whether the Housing Company owns the whole property or parts of it. It is also not clear whether part of the property has been sold or is about to be sold to private owners with their eviction as a condition for the planned sale.

SACP believes that the activities of the Johannesburg Housing Company which is notorious for housing evictions should be investigated. The investigation should focus on its entire housing portfolio, the sale and acquisitions of housing properties and the current transaction and ownership of the Newtown Urban Village. It is critical that the modus operandi of this product of Egoli 2000 programme that saw the creation of many companies in the City of Johannesburg is thoroughly investigated.

SACP is deeply worried that women and children are currently without accommodation and have been rendered homeless in the middle of a cold winter season. We therefore call on the City of Johannesburg to put the evictions on hold and take appropriate steps to put lives of the affected families first. At the time of the departure of the SACP delegation, families were still outside the building, with nowhere to go.

We are deeply concerned that our state security system still allow for the " Apartheid style" of uprooting people through the use of the notorious Red Ants that has become law unto itself. It is unacceptable that the Red Ants continues to humiliate our people and violate their right to dignity thus making a mockery of our hard won human rights as enshrined in our country`s constitution.

This inhuman incident is in many ways an equivalent and replica of the horrific demolition of houses of the people of Lenasia at the end of 2012, a problem that is far from resolution with no light nor hope at the end of the tunnel for the Lenasia working class and poor.

We have also noted the current shocking and inhuman living conditions of the people of Kwamasiza in Sebokeng, who were visited by the SACP in the last two weeks. In the same vein, the ownership and acquisition of the flats in Kwamasiza also leaves many questions unanswered as the Newtown building.

We are also concerned about the recent violent protests by the working class in Dube hostel in Soweto and Alexander about housing service delivery and related issues. We have also noted a series of fires currently ravaging working class communities in informal settlements with severe threats to human life.

We are also worried that come the rainy season, sections of the working class and poor living in informal settlements will as result of severe floods face serious problems as was recently the experience of the working class and poor of Kliptown.

We are now even more convinced than ever before and as we said recently, that our province is experiencing a serious and fast growing housing crisis that requires urgent intervention and decisive action by authorities in the province, and the Department of Human Settlement.

We are deeply disappointed that it is now almost a full month since our housing protest march to the Department of Human Settlement seeking to highlight the seriousness of this housing crisis, and that the Department has not as yet responded to our memorandum of demands.

We will soon review the current situation and announce the next form of action to highlight the plight of the working class and poor in our province. We shall continue to engage the working class on the housing crisis in the province to defend our revolution against Imperialist vultures such as the DA and the so called Agang that seeks to turn our country into a puppet state and semi-colony serving the interest of monopoly capital.

We shall interact with the working class to take the housing and anti-corruption struggle forward and to consolidate the NDR through the ANC electoral victory in 2014 national elections.

We will also continue to engage our Alliance partners on the need for an urgent Housing and Land Summit to address this crisis.

Issued on behalf of the SACP Gauteng Province

Contact:

Mamabolo Jacob: Provincial Secretary: 082 884 1868
Lucian Segami: Provincial Spokesperson: 079 522 0098