Thread by @rehomingcarlos

Let me tell you about how our City's law enforcement yesterday gave us an example of the freedom we enjoy in 2025. I understand our hard for fought freedom is enshrined in and protected by our constitution.And the laws that our law enforcement agencies enforce are supposed to be

in line with the rights that are protected by that same constitution. And despite numerous rulings that have found the City of Cape Town and it's Law Enforcement Agency to be incontravention of of those rights when it comes to their actions aimed at individualks who have created

homes on the street for lack of any other options. And NO, THE CITY SAFE SPACES WHEN OFFERED ARE NOT A VIABLE ALTERNATIVE- especially in this case where all those trargetted are couples with children, which the City still cannot accommodate without breaking up the family unit,

despite the fact that one of their most important goals should be re-uniting families and not breaking them up. Those of you that know the Parow area, will know that for a long time now, a number of families have been living in shacks opposite the Parow Municipal Court house

just adjacent to the railway station and the new affordable housing Housing Unit which was mostly funded by the National Government. These shacks were no differnt to those we see in townships all over Cape Town and the shacks outside Pick 'n Pay in Observatory (although,

much smaller in terms of the number of shacks. The inhabitants of these shacks are well known to residents and most are car gaurds during the day for people coming to court and other businesses in the area. And the permanent residents of these shacks have been the reason that

crime has not been out of control in the area because they have been active in ensuring young gangsters who like to use this dark empty area with some bushes that provide a good hideaway from becoming a permanet feature there every night topick pocket and rob people as they

cross over from the station to Voortrekker Road. I have no doubt that in order to be able to survive this very difficult way of life, some of these individuals smoke a mandrax pipe or some dagga occassionally (but so do many people residing in homes- and most importantly this

wasn't the reason for their eviction inthe early morning hours of yesterday. In fact, no contraband was forund. And although they also recycled on the spot,it was kept orderly and removed daily to buyers of waste material daily. I am NOT SAYING THAT THIS IS AN IDEAL WAY TO LIVE!

But with no alternative to offer, the City acted in bad faith when on a Sunday, on a long weekend, at the break of dawn (after court rulings stipulating that evictions have to be preceded by a court application a court order being issued and the residents notified of the pending

eviction and the eviction itself can only be carried out during business hours giving evictees the right to access any legal representation. The City ignored all of this. NO COURT APPLICAION, NO COURT ORDER AND CHOSE A LONG WEEKEND AT THE BREAK OF DAWN.

The Law Enforcement officers were told that they had received complaints from the City and the municipal offices and they were to come out of their shacks becaused they were going to be demolished. And that is what they did. They broke down every home and by the time I arrived

all that was left was the debris of a mixture of building materials and all these individuals' belongings in three huge mounds with the residents, panick stricken looking for important documentation, clothes, blankets, food, that they could salvage -because not even that

opportunity was granted them before shacks and everything within them was demolished into heaps of "waste" to be collected by the City's waste department today. I spoke with all the residents, who said they have nowhere else to go to and would see what they could salvage and

spend the night and see what they can do in the morning. I am in the process of trying to get rooms for these families in the Parow lodge that we usually use to accommodate individuals so that they are not forced to leave the area and it will be funded by the

Homeless Emergency Fund. But fact of the matter is that the City acted in bad faith and against what SOUTH AFRICAN COURTS HAVE RULED. THIS EVICTION WAS ILLEGAL AND THE CITY SHOULD BE HELD TO ACCOUNT. I mentioned the occupation in Observatory for a reason.

Although that occupation is adjacent to the suburbs main shopping hub and is huge in comparison to the one in Parow and has been standing for over five years, the City dares not send in law enforcement-why, because that group of individuals has legal representation and has had

exposure. These inndividuals in Parow are all Cape Town born residents who regisrtered for affordable housing years ago and have subsequently landed on the streets. The usual rant that they are "illegal foreigners" by those with xenophobic tendencies also holds no water here as

these are all as Cape Coloured Malay as "koesisters". These are families and if you spaek to them they have been struggling since they can remember, most have been to prison for minor offences, but enough to keep them from finding good jobs. And despite having created employment

for themselves, they can still not afford any accommodation on offer in Cape Town that will keep their family unit together and keeps them in their area of choice. They will all be able to afford the family rooms we are arranging for them but again, that is NOT THE ISSUE HERE,

because in actual fact it is the City's resonsibility to accommodate them if they want to evict them from an empty field because it doesn't suit them.
The CITY DOESN'T FUND OR SUPPORT THE ALTERNATIVES WE OFFER THOSE LIVING ON THE STREETS, yet we feel an obligation to assist them

because to the City, it's pretty obvious, these lives DO NOT MATTER! We might have gotten rid of Racial Apartheid but Economic Apartheid, that just so happens to impact mostly along the colour lines in anycase, is alive and well in the City of Cape Town.And please don't lecture

me on how well this City is run in comparrison to other City's. I don't argue the point that the City has some good councillors and some great director generals and a lot of hard working municipal workers that keep this City looking good in some areas for the benefit of the

tourist market and the all important voting public in nthe suburbs but that does not detract from the fact that this City also acts without compassion or empathy for the poor. Their solutions for the poor communities are all about cosmetic and temporary solutions.

It doesn't matter whether their policies are having a positive and lasting impact on the lives they disrupt, as long as the press release sounds good, is articulated well by the Mayor and a promotional video giving us examples of what we want to see is conjured up. And because

it sounds OK, it should be OK! WE BLIEVE IT!

PLEASE SUPPORT OUR HOMELESS EMERGENCY FUND. We are R1500 short to qualify for an extra R20 000 AND WE ONLY HAVE TODAY AND TOMORROW TO GET IN THAT AMOUNT.
CM HOMELESS SOLUTIONS
TYMEBANK 678910
ACC: 5300 1069 559
REF: GOAL ACC: HOMELESS EMERGENCY FUND

This fund helps us to help people in crisis like the guys in Parow.

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