R2K Champions 2016: Blikkiesdorp Joint Committee
“We want decent, adequate housing as is our right in the Constitution. Everyone has a right to information and everyone has a right to take part in these decisions.”
Blikkiesdorp – Tin Can Town – is a “temporary” relocation camp in Cape Town made up of corrugated iron shacks. (As it was established in 2007, it is not really temporary.)
The Blikkiesdorp community is made up of people that were previously moved to the area by the City of Cape Town as a temporary housing solution, often after being evicted from other places: however they have now discovered that the City of Cape Town had further plans to move them – in part because of a plan to expand the runways of the nearby airport. Yet none of the members of the community had been consulted or informed of these plans.
The Blikkiesdorp Joint Committee was formed to try to unite the residents and
The Joint Committee have repeatedly challenged the City of Cape Town on access to information with respect to the airport runway restructuring plans and the right to housing.
“We want decent, adequate housing as is our right in the Constitution. Everyone has a right to information and everyone has a right to take part in these decisions”, said Jerome Daniels – Blikkiesdorp
”We want a commission of
After months of relentless fighting, the residents of Blikkiesdorp were finally given access to an agreement between the City of Cape Town and Airports Company South Africa (ACSA). The agreement outlines ACSA’s plans to purchase Blikkiesdorp communal land and relocating the residents somewhere else.
According to media reports, the City said it’s still in the early stages of the rehousing project and that they will be engaging with the communities where necessary. Read more here.
Blikkiesdorp
