Social Justice Coalition
Despite there being around 146,000 households in over 437 informal settlements
across the city of Cape Town, many of these informal settlements do not receive
adequate service delivery. The majority of informal settlements are still treated as
temporary, and this results in residents lacking occupation rights and security of
tenure.
People living informal settlements are amongst the most marginalised people in our
society. Many informal settlements across the country do not get adequate access to basic
services such as water and sanitation, adequate public lighting and electricity. As a
result, the harsh living conditions in informal settlements further exposes residents to
numerous threats. These include flooding and diseases from still water and
uncollected waste, devastating fires, violent crimes from insufficient public lighting and
the lack of police resources and visibility in informal settlements.
In an effort to have effective dialogues on issues that affect people living in informal
settlements, the Social Justice Coalition (SJC) will be on Radio Zibonele which is a
community radio station based in Khayelitsha, from the 25th – 29th of October 2021 to facilitate public debates on party manifestos focusing on informal settlements and access to adequate and
dignified basic services. Municipalities are the closest sphere of government to the
people and as such their actions and implementation of policies have a
great impact on citizens daily lives.
The SJC has invited party representatives, independent candidates to unpack their
political manifestos to people living in informal settlements. The presentations from
the candidates will focus on how their manifestos will address the following:
The state of informal Settlements
Violence and crime in informal settlements
Basic services and service delivery
Effective and adequate public lighting in Informal Settlements
Security of Tenure in Informal Settlements
We look forward to engaging with you on this important public debate.
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