South Africa: Resisting Home Demolitions

South Africa: By the Time You Read This, Our Homes May Have Already Been Demolished

For the past two weeks we have been sleeping out in the open, sometimes in the rain on the land we cal Marikana in Philippi East. On Wednesday we rebuilt some of our homes on this, our land. We had rebuild about 4 homes on Wednesday and slept in them that evening. Yesterday, we rebuilt another 4 homes and last night we had 8 homes to sleep in.

These are not structures, they are our homes. They are our homes because we sleep in them every night, because our belongings are inside the homes, and because we have nowhere else to go.

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As you know, we are the Marikana residents who move onto this empty and unused land in April and we haven't left sinse. The Anti-Land Invasion Unit and the Law Enforcement has evicted us many times and destroyed our homes in which we were living. They have even illegally stolen our building material, sails and some furniture. This has left us with no choice but to sleep outside with no roof over our heads for the past two weeks. Can you imagine what its like to be homeless? Can you imagine what its like to be homeless because of the cruelty of the government you voted for?

But we did not give up. We have made other means to get some more material to rebuild our simple homes. But the Anti-Land Invasion Unit and Law Enforcement did not give up either. They kept on coming to our community and destroying our homes and stealing our material. They tried to chase us away but we stayed in Marikana.

For the past few days, some community members have taken to the streets and burned tyres to show the government that we will not give up. We even blocked the R300 and the N2. We have raised our voices to show the government that they can not come to us during the elections but must listen to us even when there are no elections. We are saying No Houses, No Vote for all Marikana residents – qha!

While all this is happening to us, you should remember that some of us are sick, some of us are old, some of us are children. All of us have nowhere else to go. We are willing to die here – just like the workers from Marikana.

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We have now rebuilt 8 homes. And we are expecting the City of Cape Town to come today and evict us and destroy these homes. We have slept on this land for three weeks and we have slept in these homes for two days, but the government will still lie and claim that these are unfinished structures, not homes. If they come today, we will resist. We will fight them. Our families lives are at stake.

We are sick and tired of being homeless. Not having a small piece of land to call our own. Kwanele! Enough is enough!

Viva Marikana viva!
Phambili with the struggle for land and housing, phambili!

ENDS

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