Victory for Homeless on the Cape Flats

Ashraf Cassiem and 139 families who have set up home under the stars along Symphony Way in wind-swept Delft on the Cape Flats have celebrated a small victory last week after being given a reprieve in their fight against eviction.

Cassiem, who is chairperson of the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign, points out that, “We'll gladly move to houses that are safe, clean and adequate to our families' needs."

Cassiem says that the battles of the Symphony Way community bore a striking similarity to moves to evict 20 000 shack-dwellers of the Joe Slovo informal settlement in Langa in Cape Town.

The families illegally occupied newly completed homes intended for beneficiaries of the government's N2 Gateway project in Delft. When police evicted them in February last year, they erected makeshift shelters in Symphony Way, resisting removal to Blikkiesdorp, a crime-ridden "temporary relocation area".

To read the article titled, “Small victory for homeless,” click here.