N2 Gateway

Joe Slovo Phase 1

To make way for Joe Slovo Phase 1 (a.k.a. N2 Gateway Phase 1), about 1,000 Joe Slovo residents were moved to Temporary Relocation Areas (TRAs) in Delft. After the January 2005 fire, which destroyed 3000 shacks and made 12,000 people homeless, Joe Slovo residents were promised priority in the allocation of N2 Gateway housing.{{cite web|url= http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/43380 |title=N2 Gateway and the Joe Slovo Informal Settlement: The New Crossroads? |publisher=M&G |date=19 September 2007}} The original plan was for 12,000 rental units to be built during Joe Slovo Phase 1 on the land taken during a massive fire in Joe Slovo in January 2005. Eventually, only 705 houses in that phase were built.{{cite web|url= http://www.mg.co.za/article/2006-06-30-hiccups-in-grand-housing-design |title=Hiccups in grand housing design |publisher=M&G |date=30 June 2006}} It is reported that only one Joe Slovo resident was able to afford the flats whose rents skyrocketed and forced new tenants into a year-long rent boycott. The boycott has been supported by residents of Joe Slovo Informal Settlement, social movements, such as the Anti-Eviction Campaign, and civil society.{{cite web |url=http://www.internafrica.org/2007/07/n2-gateway-residents-to-march-on.html https://web.archive.org/web/20110726181749/http://www.internafrica.org/2007/07/n2-gateway-residents-to-march-on.html |archive-date=26 July 2011 |url-status=usurped The Western Cape Housing MEC has recently admitted major structural defects to the Phase 1 flats saying that they may have to be demolished.

Joe Slovo Informal Settlement – Phase 2 & 3

With Phase 1 of the N2 Gateway completed, the National Government ordered the eviction of the remaining 20,000 shackdwellers to Temporary Relocation Areas in Delft (see section below). Joe Slovo residents have opposed government's order that they be forcibly removed. Residents refused to be moved claiming that the government was not getting rid of the slums but just moving them far away to Deflt where there are no jobs, few schools and a higher rate of crime. It is reported that residents who had willingly moved to Delft after the fire in 2005 have lost their jobs because they cannot afford transport into Cape Town and since there is no railway line in Delft.

After a Cape High Court ruling by controversial judge John Hlophe in favour of the Government, many experts in constitutional law have claimed the ruling to be unjust and against the South African Constitution.

Since then, residents have appealed the decision and taken it to the South African Constitutional Court. In August 2008, about 200 Joe Slovo residents travelled by train, spent the night at the Methodist Church in Braamfontein, and arrived at the Constitutional Court to protest proposed evictions. They were accompanied in solidarity by the Anti-Eviction Campaign as well as residents from Symphony Way, an informal settlement that is also in conflict with the government over the N2 Gateway Housing Project.

The community law centre of the University of the Western Cape and the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions were admitted as friends of the court in support of Joe Slovo residents. Judgment in the case was reserved in August 2008.

On 10 June 2009, the Constitutional Court ruled in favour of the eviction of Joe Slovo residents but only based on certain conditions including that 70% of homes built on Joe Slovo land be allocated to Joe Slovo residents, that government must enter into consultation with residents, and that temporary relocation areas where residents were to be moved be of higher quality.

In August 2009, new Minister for Human Settlements, Tokyo Sexwale, placed the eviction of residents on hold while Joe Slovo. In September 2009, reports surfaced that the Constitutional Court had quietly issued a new order suspending the eviction of Joe Slovo residents until further notice.

BNG Houses in Delft

Temporary Relocation Areas in Delft

There are two Temporary Relocation Areas (TRAs) or transit camps that are connected to the N2 Gateway project in Delft. The Delft TRA (nicknamed Tsunami and Thubelisha), which was originally built by the ANC-led City of Cape Town for Joe Slovo fire victims and is now managed by Thubelisha Homes on behalf of the National Government, has become a centerpiece of the N2 Gateway strategy. It houses shack-dwellers who have been forcibly or voluntarily moved from shack settlements such as those in Joe Slovo, Khayelitsha, Crossroads, Nyanga and Gugulethu. According to a study of Tsunami by the Development Action Group, the establishment of the Delft TRA:

• Has increased vulnerability of the households affected by the Joe Slovo fire,
• Has heightened community conflict
• Has and has had a huge financial cost to the municipality and possibly also to other government departments. According to DAG, in light of these costs and conditions, the policy intention is not achieved and the expense of establishing the TRA cannot be justified.

In 2007, Chris Harris, a professor in the department of geological sciences at UCT, found chrysotile and crocidolite (a.k.a. asbestos) in material found in the Tsunami TRA.{{cite web|url= http://www.mg.co.za/article/2007-11-30-a-lethal-find| title=A lethal find| publisher=M&G}}

The other TRA is the Symphony Way TRA which has nicknamed 'Blikkiesdorp' (or 'Tin Can Town') by residents as well as pavement dwellers from a nearby informal settlement. This TRA is built and managed by the DA-led City of Cape Town. Symphony Way TRA is criticised for its barbed-wire fencing, police-controlled access to the camp, and its erosion of social networks. http://abahlali.org/node/4768| title=Forced Removals| publisher=Mercury}}

Criticism

The N2 Gateway Housing Project has been mired in controversy. The Auditor General Report on the project found mismanagement and widespread deficiencies in the planning, accounting, design, construction, and execution of the housing development project. The Western Cape Housing MEC, Bonginkosi Madikizela, has admitted to serious defects in the N2 Gateway Phase 1 Flats saying that "Some of the units, it will not actually help to fix them. I think a possible solution which is something very difficult to do would be just to demolish the building you know and start afresh.

In September 2009, the UN affiliated Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) published a significant report criticising the N2 Gateway Project for its housing rights violations and for its lack of consultation with poor residents affected by the project.

Photographs of the Projects and Affected Communities

• Blikkiesdorp Photos

Reports on the N2 Gateway

• 2009 Report on the N2 Gateway by the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE)
• Western Cape Housing Crisis: Writings on Joe Slovo and Delft by Martin Legassick, February 2008
• Housing and Evictions at the N2 Gateway Project in Delft by Kerry Chance, May 2008
• The global governance response to informal settlements – relieving or deepening marginalisation? by Marie Huchzermeyer
• Auditor-General: Report on the Special Audit of the N2 Gateway Project at the National Department of Housing by Auditor-General
• The Reverse Side of the Medal: About the 2010 FIFA World Cup and the Beautification of the N2 in Cape Town by Caroline Newton in Urban Forum

References

References

1. (14 May 2006). "Media Briefing Remarks by Housing Minister, Lindiwe Sisulu on the Occasion of the 2006/2007 Budget Vote Statement". SA Government Website.
2. (8 May 2008). "Report: Housing and Evictions at the N2 Gateway Project in Delft". Abahlali baseMjondolo.
3. "The Real Story Behind South Africa and the World Cup". F4B Magazine.
4. (2009). "The Reverse Side of the Medal: About the 2010 FIFA World Cup and the Beautification of the N2 in Cape Town". Urban Forum.
5. "UN affiliated COHRE letter to Mayor Dan Plato requesting a stop to Symphony Way evictions". COHRE.
6. (24 June 2009). "Listen to the shack-dwellers". M&G.
7. "N2 Gateway project provides new homes". Vuk'uzenzele.
8. (16 July 2007). "Cape Town Residents Protest against Gateway to Hell=M&G".
9. (25 August 2009). "Report: MEC admits to shoddy N2 Gateway construction". Eyewitness News.
10. (5 October 2007). "'We don't want to live in Delft'". Mail&Guardian.
11. "No compassion for people who do not drive a Porsche?". Constitutionally Speaking.
12. "South Africans protest mass eviction order in court". Boston Banner.
13. "Facing Mass Eviction, residents of Cape Town's Joe Slovo settlement gather at SA Constitutional Court 21 August". [[Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign]].
14. (25 August 2008). "Joe Slovo residents vow to fight removal". Cape Argus.
15. (10 June 2009). "Concourt: State must help Joe Slovo evictees". IOL.
16. (10 June 2009). "A Partial Victory for Joe Slovo Residents". Constitutionally Speaking.
17. (7 August 2009). "Sexwale puts eviction to Delft on hold". Cape Argus.
18. (24 August 2009). "Joe Slovo Task Team to hold press conference at 16h30 today". Anti-Eviction Campaign.
19. (4 September 2009). "Evictions suspended – shack dwellers reprieved". The Sowetan}}{{dead link.
20. (8 September 2009). "Sanity and humanity prevails – for now". Constitutionally Speaking.
21. "Living on the Edge: A study of the Delft temporary Relocation Area, by the Development Action Group, 2007".
22. "Police Illegally Destroy Homes on Symphony Way". Anti-Eviction Campaign.
23. "Report: N2 Gateway Project Special Audit Report: Department's responses". PMG.
24. (1 May 2009). "Report: Report slams running of N2 Gateway project". Cape Argus.
25. "Report: N2 Gateway Project: Housing Rights Violations as 'Development' in South Africa". COHRE.