The EFF has once again called on the City of Johannesburg’s Human Settlements Department to allocate the unoccupied container homes in Alexandra, north of Johannesburg, to shack dwellers.
This call comes a month after EFF councillor, Moshe Mphahlele, was shot and killed allegedly by police during a protest relating to the containers.
EFF Johannesburg councillor, Gift Mkansi, told the SABC that the party would soon table a motion in the city council demanding the immediate allocation of the container homes. He said people could not continue living in shacks when there were homes to live in.
“The fact that houses remain empty while millions wait for decent accommodation is an indictment of the government’s indifference. Lenin stressed the importance of addressing the material conditions of the masses, and housing is a fundamental need that cannot be ignored,” he said.
In April this year, scores of families spent the night on the streets after the City of Johannesburg evicted them.
The container units were set up by the government in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. When the City of Johannesburg set up the containers, it announced plans to move 1 600 people from the densely populated parts of the township, such as Setswetla.
Mkansi said that the failure to provide decent housing impacted negatively on the dignity of the people: “The government’s failure to act on this housing crisis is a direct assault on the dignity of the people. The EFF will not rest until the people of Alexandra receive the homes they deserve. This is not just a matter of addressing a housing backlog, it is about restoring the dignity of the working class. The struggle for housing is a struggle for economic justice and the EFF stands firmly on the side of the people.”
Last month, the party demanded that the evicted residents be reinstated into these houses, in honour of the legacy of its member Mphahlele.
Nkululeko Dunga, the party’s provincial chairperson, said for years the people of Alexandra had been promised land and housing by the government.
“The President of the coalition, Cyril Ramaphosa, promised to build 1 million houses for the people of Alexandra and over R1.2 billion of the Alexandra Renewal is still not accounted for, yet the people of Alexandra continue to endure the humiliation of living on top of each in congested and spaceless conditions just opposite the affluent area of Sandton,” Dunga said.
The Star