THE Mbekweni Backyard Dwellers Association was formed recently and is run by people who were born and raised within Paarl.
After seeing problems around housing allocation we decided to form this people’s structure to assist the local government by promoting registration of residents on the housing waiting list.
We are especially concerned by the fact that the Drommedaris housing development next to the traffic centre is being allocated exclusively to people in the informal settlement next to the railway line, and not according to the waiting list. This means that these people are effectively jumping the waiting list.
We strongly feel that this decision should be reversed and that the waiting list should be applied for the allocation of new houses.
This country is governed by laws and we cannot allow people to just put up shacks at random, knowing that they will get a house without being on the waiting list.
This is also creating some divisions amongst people born in Mbekweni (borners) and outsiders because some councillors are scoring politically with this project, at the expense of service delivery to the needy people.
We may be forced to take this matter to the Human Rights Commission.
L Sibelekwana
