Illegal evictions in Blikkiesdorp by City of Cape Town

southern africa | community struggles | non-anarchist press Thursday January 21, 2010 14:14 by Blikkiesdorp AEC - Anti-Eviction Campaign

Media urged to rush to Blikkiesdorp to witness 60 people sleeping outside having been evicted by the very same city officials who put them in

At 4pm today, 48 law enforcement officers from the City of Cape Town invaded the city's Temporary Relocation Area, Blikkiesdorp, and removed about 60 people from the one roomed dwellings.

This was done completely unlawfully without any high court eviction order, without any explanation, and even more inexplicably by the same city officials who installed the people in the first place.

Blikkiesdorp, Delft, Cape Town
20 January 2010 at 8pm

At 4pm today, 48 law enforcement officers from the City of Cape Town invaded the city's Temporary Relocation Area, Blikkiesdorp, and removed about 60 people from the one roomed dwellings.

This was done completely unlawfully without any high court eviction order, without any explanation, and even more inexplicably by the same city officials who installed the people in the first place.

Among the 60 evicted people are a pregnant woman, a few tiny babies and several primary school children. There is also one unaccompanied 17 year old minor girl who was put into Blikkiesdorp by the city officials - installed alone into a single dwelling - and then evicted again.

We are demanding an investigation into city officials Jimmy Jacobs and Lodewyk Petersen. They are the ones who bring people against their will to Blikkiesdorp and install them willy-nilly into the dwellings and they were also the ones who came today and led the eviction.

The families who get scooped up from under bridges and from derelict buildings and installed in the Tin Can Town are told by Jacobs and Petersen that they will be given "structure papers" later but clearly this is a pack of lies.

We are particularly concerned about the primary school children who were removed from their homes in the past by the city, forcibly moved to Delft where they had to begin at new and hostile schools, and now evicted to sleep outside for a night. The children's belongings have been confiscated and put into a separate building by police which poses extra difficulties for them.

"This is a city-sponsored concentration camp so they feel they can do what they want here because there is no law" said Blikkiesdorp resident Willy Heyn.

For more information contact Willy Heyn, Blikkiesdorp AEC on
0731443619 or Johan Jordaan, Blikkiesdorp J Block Committee member on
073 2772095