RESIDENTS from the Social Distance squatter camp are angry after the City of Cape Town demolished their community hall.
The residents said they built their hall three months ago, which they use for community events such as meetings and feeding scheme programmes.
Instead, city officials arrived in the area on Friday, 13 October and demolished it and took away the building materials.
According to the residents, they spent R18 000 to build the hall, and they want the city to pay for what they did.
“They must pay us the money we used or return our material. We don’t want damaged material because it will not help us to rebuild our community hall. They must return undamaged material,” said community leader Mawande Mfamela.
ALSO READ: PICS: Villagers feast on crunchy insects
The City’s Law Enforcement Department spokesman, Wayne Dyason, said they responded to the area after receiving information about the structure.
“The city was informed of an unlawful structure erected at Social Distance Informal Settlement, one of the sites unlawfully occupied during the pandemic. Upon investigation, the team found a newly built structure that was still unoccupied, and action was taken as per the court order, and the structure was removed,” said Dyason.
Residents said their understanding is that law enforcement only demolishes unoccupied shacks, and it was unreasonable for them to expect the hall to be occupied.
“This hall is used only for certain events on specific days, and we can't put in beds and furniture, hence it was empty. Nobody lives inside it except during floods,” another community leader Hlubi Mayekiso, said.
Community leaders said law enforcement should have approached them and understood where they were coming from before demolishing the hall.
Mawande said they have unoccupied shacks in their kasi, which they would have shown the officers if they had approached them.
