8 February 2023
Civil society groups march to the City of Cape Town’s offices at the Civic Centre to launch a campaign to “expose law enforcement brutality”. Bulelani Qolani is suing the City for R1.4m in damages claim. Photo: Marecia Damons
About 60 people from several civil society groups marched to the Civic Centre in Cape Town on Wednesday. The groups want to “expose law enforcement brutality” and to mark Bulelani Qolani’s litigation bid against the City of Cape Town. Qolani was dragged naked from his home in Khayelitsha by Anti-Land Invasion officers during lockdown in 2020.
Qolani is suing the City for R1.4-million for hospital and medical expenses, psychotherapy, trauma counselling, other expenses he incurred during and after the incident, and loss of earnings.
The marchers want the City to include staff from the provincial Department of Social Development alongside its officers when people face eviction. They also want basic services in informal settlements and well-located land for affordable housing.
“For many years, landless people in informal settlements in Cape Town have sustained both physical and psychological abuse at the hands of Law Enforcement,” they said in their statement.
Qolani is represented by housing movement Ndifuna Ukwazi. His attorney Danielle Louw said the City had been served the legal papers and had 15 days to respond.
Louw said during negotiations between March 2021 and August 2022 the City had made a settlement offer but this was rejected. Qolani then decided to take legal action. “He has a right to claim compensation for the injuries done to him. The physical injuries, but more so the emotional injuries and harm to his dignity,” said Louw.
Luthando Mcuntula, Covid informal settlement leader and member of The People’s Movement, said the marchers also wanted to stop law enforcement officers demolishing homes without proper eviction notices or court orders. “They come at any time, even in the middle of the night, without an eviction order or warning. They knock and just take away your shack. When you try to talk and ask them questions, they just take you straight to the cells.”
“We are dealing once again with oppression and brutality by law enforcement,” said Buhle Booi of Ndifuna Ukwazi. What the City did to Bulelani will never be done to another person again. As communities, we feel the pain.”
Riaan Koeberg of civil society organisation Group For Developers said, “Why must we fight for our basic rights? The only thing we have left is our dignity, but now we must fight for that also. We are tired.”
Kenneth Matlawe of the Housing Assembly said the campaign was also about dignity for people living in informal settlements. “We are living in shacks that are falling apart and in places that are dysfunctional. These informal settlements have no trees and there are no recreational spaces,” he said.
The memorandum was accepted by Vincent Botto, the City’s executive director of safety and security. Botto said the City would respond to the demands. The City had not responded to GroundUp’s questions by the time of publication.
The City of Cape Town confirmed that it received Qolani’s legal papers.
Mayoral Committee Member for Human Settlements Malusi Booi said the City follows the processes under the Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act (PIE Act) relating to evictions.
He said the City is the only metro dedicating a social development budget to helping people off the streets. This includes expanded Safe Spaces and social programmes, with a total programme budget of R77-million for 2022/23.
Booi said that the Mayoral Priority Programme for Affordable Housing land release continues to fast-track the release of well-located properties for affordable housing. He said there are 800 units in the construction phase in central Cape Town, around 2,500 along the Voortrekker road corridor and near economic nodes, and 6,500 social housing units in the pipeline.