Cape informal shack dwellers’ movement plead with premier to improve service delivery

Cape Town – The Intlungu yaseMatyotyombeni Movement (Pain of the Slums), a group of shack dwellers, boarded taxis in Khayelitsha and neighbouring townships, and made their way to the office of the Premier Alan Winde, in an effort to get him provide services in their newly-established settlements.

Movement chairperson Xoliswa Tsholoba said all that they needed was service delivery, like any other human being in the province.

Tsholoba said the movement was based in areas occupied during the Covid-19 pandemic, since in June last year. She said they were without access to water, toilets, electricity, and housing.

“We see ourselves treated as outsiders, not people who belong to South Africa, we are treated as animals, under a difficult period of corona, and we are still expected to be healthy citizens during the pandemic,” said Tsholoba.

She said the threats and eviction orders from authorities needed to stop.

“We are not from any other country. We are South African citizens,” she said.

The Intlungu yaseMatyotyombeni Movement, a group of shack dwellers, from Khayelitsha and neighbouring townships, making their way to premier @alanwinde in an effort to get him provide services in their newly established settlements. @TheCapeArgus @IOL pic.twitter.com/kf8PWcp7BO

— Sisonke Mlamla (@SISONKE_MD) May 10, 2021

Advocate Thulasive Twalo, representing the Intlungu yaseMatyotyombeni has arrived. @TheCapeArgus @IOL pic.twitter.com/OUR0BQDUYr

— Sisonke Mlamla (@SISONKE_MD) May 10, 2021

“Senzeni na” one of the songs sang by the group of shack dwellers from Khayelitsha and neighbouring townships ‘Intlungu YaseMatyotyombeni movement’. The group says they want to give their memorandum of demands to @alanwinde himself, not his directors. @TheCapeArgus @IOL https://t.co/JaVSMCPtt6 pic.twitter.com/0LjHGeRnGT

— Sisonke Mlamla (@SISONKE_MD) May 10, 2021

Land Party leader Gcobani Ndzongana, who was among the group, said he went to support the shack dwellers, who were allegedly neglected by the Western cape government.

The group was told that Winde was not in his office, and that their memorandum of demands would be accepted by director-general in the department of the premier, Harry Malila, on behalf of the Western Cape government.

Malila said they refused to hand the memorandum over to him because they insisted on seeing the premier.

“The premier is not in his office, he is not around, otherwise he would have been here,” said Malila.

Malila said the premier requested him, as the head of the administration, to take the memorandum from the group and hand it into the administration, and to deal with it, but they (the movement) were not prepared to do that.

“I have offered them, to say I would go back to my office and, if they change their minds, then they are most welcome to call me, I will come down to them. I will push it into the administration, then we can deal with it – but they are not prepared to do it,” said Malila.

City traffic spokesperson Maxine Bezuidenhout said all role players were on scene, when the Wale Street was closed due to the march, between Burg and Queen Victoria Street, and was later opened after the crowd dispersed.

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