The Minister of Human Settlements, Lindiwe Sisulu has been informed by the Housing Development Agency (HDA) that the construction of Emergency Houses to accommodate evicted Lwandle residents has started and families will start moving out of the Nomzamo Community Hall which serves as the temporary accommodation for the affected families from tonight or tomorrow morning.
The Minister welcomed this important step following difficult negotiations between the leadership of the community, the City of Cape Town, HDA representing the Ministers of Human Settlements and Transport and South African National Road Agency Limited (SANRAL).
"When we intervened we said our immediate task is to move the people to temporary accommodation for their lives to return to normal, your life cannot be normal when you are accommodated in a cold hall in winter, l am happy that we are now here," she said.
Minister added that the construction of the emergency houses must be fast tracked and all those currently accommodated in the hall must be out by Sunday. "I have instructed the HDA to make sure we complete the relocation of the people as a matter of urgency from there the Mayor of the City of Cape Town has promised us that the families, those who qualify will be allocated permanent homes in different projects of the City of Cape Town," she said.
The Minister indicated that the relocation of the people from the hall to the temporary houses marks an end of the emergency that started after the eviction of the people following a court order by SANRAL.
"There are lessons to be learnt from what happened to the community of Lwandle, we hope the Lwandle Ministerial Enquiry will help us to understand the circumstances under which the evictions took place resulting to residents being homeless," she concluded.
Enquiries:
Ndivhuwo Mabaya, Ministry Spokesperson
Cell: 083 645 7838
