A group of born-and-bred Bonteheuwel aunties took WAARHEID! on a tour of their filthy and neglected township that local councillor Angus Mackenzie (DA) wants reclassified “a suburb”.
Sights pointed out along the way included the booming backyard shack economy, crumbling road and stormwater networks, thriving drug houses, and a disgusting informal dumpsite right next to a primary school.
The aunties work as volunteers for the Bonteheuwel Development Forum, which provided critical food support (daily meals and vegetable gardens) to thousands of struggling members of the community under lockdown.
Over the next few months WAARHEID! will visit various communities to monitor municipalities’ progress (or lack of progress) in the development of better township living environments.
Bonteheuwel was established 60 years ago as Cape Town’s first “Coloured township”, to accommodate families forcibly removed from better areas of the city that were reserved for whites.
Since the advent of democracy 27 years ago, the City of Cape Town has not developed a single social housing opportunity in these better located areas to which anyone from Bonteheuwel could potentially return.
Without anywhere else to go, unless they can afford the expense of buying or renting in the suburbs, Bonteheuwel is forced to absorb its own population growth, becoming increasingly overcrowded.
It was initially built for 35 000 people. The roads were built for 35 000 people, few of whom drove their own cars. The drains and sewers were built for 35 000. But more than 85 000 people live there today.
Marlene Bousserhane is a grandmother who lives in a backyard Wendy House in Jasmine Street. Her name has been on the city’s housing waiting list for 23 years.
She is among the residents who have formally opposed the proposed development of the Jasmine Street sportsfield, which is among the last pieces of public open space in the area.
Developing this land won’t solve Bontas’ backyarders problem. It will only further densify the already overcrowded community and over-stretched infrastructure.
Those fortunate enough to be able to move out of the backyards will be quickly replaced, while the community will forfeit a sports facility – a refuge dearly needed to promote health and safety for local youth, as opposed to the attractions of gangsterism.
“Although I live in a Wendy House and have been waiting for a house for so many years, I don’t want a house on the sportsfield. Where must my grandchildren play? Why can’t they build houses in other areas? Why don’t they build houses on sportsfields in Rondebosch or Newlands?”
Bousserhane showed WAARHEID! the condition of the streets. They are rutted and potholed, and had never been resurfaced since first being laid, she said. In winter, the roads become rivers and water gushed over the pavements and into peoples’ homes.
Then she showed us Arcadia Primary School, her old school. It borders a rubbish dump. The Council won’t clean the filth because the land belongs to a provincial government department.
“We recently cleared the site, on which we’d like to plant vegetables, and an apple farmer brought in his tractor to plough the ground. But a few weeks later, it’s back to square one.
“Show me which residents in which suburb live on streets that become rivers and regularly flood their homes. Show me which school in which suburb borders an open garbage dump.
“This is the dumpsite Angus wants to call a suburb,” Bousserhane said.
"Ou Koek Vannie Councillor"
The only support residents living in a Bonteheuwel senior citizen’s complex got from their local councillor during last year’s lockdown was “ou koek” received a few days after his birthday.
“My ma bly in daai kompleks,” sê Michelle Breda. “Die kompleks val onder Angus Mackenzie. Daai mense het baie swaargekry onder lockdown. Hulle betaal hulle eie rent, ligte en water, en koop hulle eie kos. Kan julle glo vir die hele ses maande van Covid het hy niks vir hulle gesê nie?
“Toe verjaar Angus. Agter drie dae bring hy vir hulle koek. My ma het vir my die koek gebring. Ou koek!”
Breda, in her 50s, has lived in Bonteheuwel all her life. She is passionate about uplifting the area, and has tried working with local politicians representing various parties – from the Labour Party to the DA. She turned her back on the DA last year.
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