Residents of Nkanini Informal Settlement in Khayelitsha intend to rebuild shacks demolished by the City of Cape Town. Photo: Vincent Lali

Protesting residents barricaded Baden Powell Drive with burning bushes and firewood after Law Enforcement officials demolished four shacks in Nkanini Informal Settlement, Khayelitsha, on Monday afternoon.

“We are tired of officials who destroy our shacks here,” said community leader Busisiwe Daimoni. “If I fix the roof of my shack, the officials will ask where I got permission to do so,” she said.

She said the municipality started to demolish shacks last week on Tuesday, but their ward councillor, Andile Lili asked them to rebuild them. Lili became well-known as the leader of Ses’Khona the organisation that threw human faeces in its protests.

Daimoni said: “Lili gave us permission and encouraged us to rebuild the shacks which the officials have destroyed.”

Ziyanda Ngxuma expressed anger that Law Enforcement officials destroyed “things that were inside” the shacks in her mother’s yard, as well as the shacks. “My mother has an agreement with the owners of the shacks that says they can stay here, and I don’t know where the officials fit in,” she said.

Khonzuyise Ndongeni (58), who stayed in a shack in his nephew’s yard said: “They demolished my shack, which cost me R6,000, and I haven’t even finished paying for it. They destroyed everything and left only my bed.” Ndongeni said he now has no place to stay.

Lili told GroundUp: “It is rude and wrong of city officials to remove those residents and destroy their shacks. The residents must stand up for themselves and I will join them.”

Xanthea Limberg, Mayco Member for Informal Settlements, Water and Waste Services, told GroundUp that “the structures were dismantled because they were built illegally on City-administered land. The City cannot permit unregulated occupation of land as it could hinder future service provision, prevent access to existing underground services for the purposes of maintenance, or compromise firebreaks.”

Limberg said she was unaware of Lili’s call for people to rebuild their shacks. “However,” she said they would investigate and warned councillors should not incite illegal land invasions.