War in Blikkiesdorp

31 July 2011


We warned the City.

We warned the courts.

We warned the public.

Fearing for our lives and with a heavy heart, we write this to tell
Zille, Plato and de Lille and say: We told you so!

Yesterday, the morning of 28 July, Blikkiesdorp exploded into
a full-scale drug war.
 This is what we warned the government against when we resisted our
 eviction to Blikkiesdorp from the pavement of Symphony Way. The shacks
 we built ourselves were better than the shacks that our City has built 
and dumped us in.
 We, as residents of this camp, have no control here because the City
 has disempowered us and stood by while drug-dealers have invaded the
 'temporary' relocation area.


Yesterday morning, two adults were shot in broad daylight by three 
gunmen. Yesterday evening, a revenge shooting took place and three
 more people were shot and are now in hospital. One of those shot was a 
teenage boy, a member of the Symphony Way Pavement Dwellers. Some
 people have been arrested but all the residents of Blikkiesdorp know 
that this is only the beginning as revenge killings are likely to 
continue in the weeks to come.

We as the Symphony Way and wider Blikkiesdorp community have 
complained to the City of Cape Town and the police about the invasion
 of our community by drug dealers but it seems that they do not care.
 They always present us with plans about what they will do - yet they
 end up doing nothing! Two years ago, when we came to Blikkiesdorp, the
 High Court ordered the government to build a satellite police station
 in Phase 2 of Blikkiesdorp - yet that building today 
remains a white elephant. Blikkiesdorp is now in it’s fourth year of
 tension, crime and poverty.
 Our complaints are falling on deaf ears. We need to know what the City 
of Cape Town and the police are going to do about the crime and
 poverty here - or must we all die before they actually do something?

We were safe on Symphony Way and various other places because we, the 
people, controlled our own communities. The City of Cape Town created 
this monster by putting us in government shacks that they control from 
their offices in town. You can't bureaucratically manage a community
 of 15,000 from fancy offices 40 kilometres away. They must now all
 come to Blikkiesdorp. We challenge them to live here until they solve
 this problem. Perhaps then, they might understand how their inaction 
kills us.


Sunday morning at 03h30 in the morning, gunshots break out in Phase 1
 while the community wait for militant force protection. But the worst
 nightmare of it all is when there is an eviction you notice more law 
enforcement members/police in the concentration camp. On the 21 July
 2011 in a meeting with the City, they announced a roll-out plan
 for the community of Blikkiesdorp, but it is secret information. How
 can information be secret when the community just want to know when 
will the City of Cape Town build them the houses, but instead throw 
them into a war zone with drug dealers? Since the 28 July 2011 
twelve structures were left with bullet holes + forty residents were
 in the meanwhile traumatised and six hospitilised. When will the
 government act on these unlawful cowboys and crooks?

For more information, contact:

Chairperson (SWAEC): Jerome 073 143 8886

Secretary (SWAEC): Sarita 076 469 9843

Spokesperson (BLIKKIESDORP): Willy 073 144 3619

(Chairperson P-Block): Marietta 078 834 5339