DA councillor Dave Dewes has fired another salvo in his war against Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Housing Dan Bovu.
At a public meeting held on 7 April regarding Bovu’s alleged illegal authorization of moving evicted squatters to the informal settlement next to the Roodepoort Rugby Club, Dewes, had his hands full trying to appease irate residents from the surrounding community. One after the other, visibly upset residents voiced their anger regarding Bovu’s actions. They mainly sighted increased crime in the area that they believe emanates largely from the informal settlement and the obvious losses they will suffer to property values if Bovu continues moving homeless and unemployed people into the area.
Dewes lashed out at what he called “draconian crisis management”.
“Bovu’s reckless behaviour is not only in contravention of the South African Constitution and Provision of Administrative Justice Act (PAJA), but also exposes the ANC’s complete lack of forward planning regarding the extremely complex and costly housing problem of accommodating homeless people humanely. Bovu’s thoughtless actions have seriously aggravated racial and class tension in the area, something you would think any responsible politician would try and avoid at all costs,” said Dewes.
Dewes handed out a petition calling on Bovu to immediately suspend any further occupation and call a meeting within 21 days to account for the reasons why a previous petition dating back to 2012, over the very same issue, has not been addressed and to communicate the proposed plans for the Informal Settlement going forward. Dewes believes, the city’s Housing plan of rezoning the already zoned industrial land for housing is ludicrous because newly built factories would not only create desperately needed jobs but if the land is sold, these funds could be utilised immediately for proper housing to accommodate all the informal settlers in the area.
The Councillor is also proposing approaching other communities in the city facing similar problems in an effort to promote mass
action and bring a court application against the Housing department “to force the entity to stop using Council owned land as human dumping grounds without proper forward planning and consultation.”
“If Government has the audacity to transgress citizens’ fundamental constitutional rights, they need to be stopped at all costs. More, affluent South Africans, need to wake up to the reality that mass action is the cheapest and a very effective tool of exposing draconian type behaviour by Government. A Constitutional Court application is extremely costly and takes time. I would prefer that hundreds of Joburg residents join me outside Bovu’s offices in Braamfontein, showing mass support that nobody must stuff around with our Constitutional rights. We also desperately need to address the apathy of rate paying citizens. Rate payers are being abused on a daily basis in this City but the majority of us are arm chair objectors.”
A follow up meeting is planned for the 28 April at the community church on the corner of Ibis Street and Eider Street Florida at 7pm.
At the time of going to press Bovu could not be reached for comment.
